Alhamdulillahi rabbil aalameen. Was

Alhamdulillahi rabbil aalameen. Was salaatu
was salaamu ala ashraful mursaleen sayyidina
Muhammadi wa ala aali sayyidina
Muhammadi wa ashaabihi ajma’een.
All praise is due to Allah, the Cherisher and
Sustainer of the entire universe. And the
peace and blessings of Allah be upon
Muhammad (saw) his family and his
companions.
In Islam there is a concept known as Hifzul
Lisaan. This means protection of the tongue,
i.e. to protect it from saying evil things. And
this is what I wish to speak about today.
Allah (swt) says in the Holy Quran: “Wa qul li
ibaadee yaqool ulllatee hiya ahsan… – Say to
My servants that they should (only) say those
things that are best: Shaitaan seeks to sow
dissension among them: For Satan is to man
an avowed enemy.” This ayah is conveying a
command from Allah (swt) to us that we
should only say that which is “ahsan”. Ahsan
here, encompassing everything which is
regarded as good speech. This is because
Shaitaan seeks to sow discord and enmity
amongst people, and he does so by means of
what people say. People say things without
thinking which might hurt another person
and this then causes bad blood between
these two. And Allah (swt) has warned us
about the plans of Shaitaan, and has told us
clearly that he is an open enemy towards us.
So Allah (swt) is telling us here that we
should be careful of what we say and speak
only of good things.
In another ayah of the Holy Quran Allah (swt)
also says: “Yaa ayyuha alladheena aamanoo
ittaqullah wa qooloo qawlan sadeedaa - O
you who believe! Fear Allah, and say a qawlan
sadeedaa”. Some mufassirun say that this
means to say “Laa ilaaha illa Allah” and
others say that it means to make
reconciliation between two people. But it is a
general statement and includes all good
speech. So it is another command, similar to
the first one. And what will be the result of
doing this? Allah (swt) continues and tells us:
“Yuslih lakum a’maalakum wa yaghfir lakum
dhanoobakum.” Allah (swt) will correct our
deeds and forgive us our sins. “Wa man
yuti’illaha wa rasoolahu faqad faaza fawzan
azeemaa – Whoever obeys Allah and His
Messenger has attained the highest
achievement.”
The Prophet (saw) said: “Man kaana yu’minu
billahi wal yawmil aakhiri fal yaqul khairan aw
liyasmut – Whoever believes in Allah (swt)
and the Last Day should speak good or
remain silent.” This hadith here is the most
important one concerning this topic of hifzul
lisaan – protecting the tongue – as it provides
comprehensive guidance for us as to what
should be said and what should not. Speech
is divided into three kinds: al-khair, which is
good, al-sharr which is bad or evil and al-
laghw which is vain speech.
Good speech is things such as making dhikr,
reciting Quran, teaching other people,
enjoining what is good and forbidding what is
evil and many others. Evil speech is things
like lying, backbiting, swearing, slander and
so on. And then there is laghw. This is termed
as vain speech and it is anything which does
not belong to one of the above two
categories. It is neither good nor bad; you
don’t get rewarded for it and you also don’t
get punished for it.
Now the important thing here is that the
Prophet (saw) did not only order us not to
say evil things, he also prohibited us from
vain speech. He said: “Whoever believes in
Allah (swt) and the Last Day should speak
good or remain silent.” So if there is no
benefit in saying something, then it is better
to remain silent. As Muslims, we should only
be speaking good. And if you look at what
people say, the conversations that they have,
then most of their speech is really laghw, it is
vain speech. It is things which do not benefit,
and very often because of indulging in
speaking a lot, they would easily fall into
speaking of evil things. Which is why in
another hadith the Prophet (saw) has said:
“Man samata najaa – Whoever remains silent
has saved himself” meaning, from the Fire of
Jahannam. This is because by keeping quiet,
one protects himself from speaking about
irrelevant things and things which are sinful.
Another hadith states: “’Alaika bi tooli samt,
fa innahu matradtun li Shaytaan – Upon you
is long silence, (meaning that you should be
silent a lot) for it is a defense against the
Shaitaan.” A lot of people speak without
actually thinking about they are saying, and
Shaitaan uses this to direct them towards sin.
And this is contrary to the way of the Prophet
(saw). Being silent was one his
characteristics. Jabir bin Samurah (ra)
described the Prophet (saw) and said: “Kaana
taweela samt, qaleela dahik – He used to be
silent for long and used to laugh little.” And
we should try to follow him in all matters,
including this as well.
Of all those things which can be regarded as
good speech, the best of all is dhikr – the
remembrance of Allah (swt). This is because
the one who remembers Allah (swt); Allah
(swt) remembers him. “Fadhkurooni
adhkurkum – Remember me and I will
remember you.” And dhikr is of three kinds:
dhikr of the tongue, dhikr of the heart and
dhikr of both the tongue and heart. The goal
of dhikr is to remember Allah (swt), and this
can be done without speech, but to involve
the tongue in this as well is a good thing. It is
mentioned in a hadith Qudsi: “Ana ma’a
abdee maa dhakaranee wa taharrakt bee
shafataahu – I am with My slave when he
remembers Me and his lips move with My
mention.” Another of the categories of good
speech which is regarded very highly is to
make da’wah – i.e. to call people to Islam.
This is because Allah (swt) has said: “Wa man
ahsanu qawlan mimman da’aa ilaa Allahi wa
‘amila saaliha wa qaala innanee minal
muslimeen - Who is better in speech than
one who calls (men) to Allah, works
righteousness, and says, “I am of those who
bow in Islam?”
Of evil speech, one of the worst things is
backbiting and it is a very grave sin. One who
speaks a lot and engages in idle chat can
easily fall into this sin because very often
such people would be talking about other
people. If you speak about someone else,
then you should be careful of not falling into
this sin. From an Islamic perspective,
backbiting has a very simple definition. It is
regarded as saying something about
somebody else which he would not like to be
said about him. Even if the thing being said is
the truth, that does not matter. If you say
something about somebody else, and this
would cause him to be sad or grieved if he
would come to know about it, then this is
backbiting. And backbiting has been describe
by Allah (swt) as eating the flesh of your dead
brother. This is how serious it is. He (swt)
says: “Ayuhibbu ahadukum an ya’kula lahma
akheehi maitan – Would any one of you like
to eat the flesh of his dead brother?”
Another of the evils of speech is swearing.
This is an ugly habit and is something we
should try to abstain from. The sad thing is
that this has become very commonplace and
people seem to think very little of it. Some
people even swear for no reason at all – it
just a part of their speech and they use it all
the time without even thinking about it. And
the prohibition against this has already been
mentioned before in the ayah where Allah
(swt) says: “Wa qul li ibaadee yaqool allatee
hiya ahsan”.
What we should realise is that our speech is
going to count either for or against us on the
Day of Judgment. It is not only physical deeds
which will be weighed on the Scales, but also
our words as well. Every single word we utter
is recorded and we will be taken to account
for it. We will be questioned about it and be
held responsible for it. Allah (swt) says: “Maa
yalfizu min qawlin illaa ladayhi raqeebun
ateed – He does not say anything except that
there is a watcher by him (ready to note it).”
And Mu’adh ibn Jabal (ra) asked the Prophet
(saw): “Will we be held responsible for what
we say?” The Prophet (saw) then said: “… And
is there anything that topples people on to
their faces into the Hellfire other than the
harvests of their tongue?” So the intelligent
one who reflects about this will become
inclined towards silence and would speak
less. It is said that silence is a beauty for the
scholar and a concealment for the ignorant
one. And this is also why there is safety in
silence. Whoever speaks little, will have less
things to account for on the Day of Judgment.
Based on all of this, it is better for us to be
silent and speak as little as possible. So I’m
going to take my own advice and keep it short
and end this talk here. It was not the way of
the Prophet (saw) to give long speeches. He
said that one of the signs of a persons
understanding of his Din was his keeping his
khutbah short and his extending his Salah.
Nowadays people speak and speak but those
listening to them take very little away from it.
But when the Prophet (saw) spoke he would
keep things short and repeat himself so that
people could understand and remember. So
if you do not take away anything from this
then at least remember this one thing, as it
covers everything else that has been
mentioned: “Man kanaa yu’minu billahi wal
yawmil aakhiri fal yaqul khairan aw liyasmut –
Whoever believes in Allah and the Last day
should speak good or remain silent.”
And I would like to end with these words of
Amirul Mu’mineen ‘Umar bin al-Khattab (ra),
and this is something to think about: “A
person who talks too much is a person who
often makes mistakes, and someone who
often makes mistakes, often has wrong
actions. The Fire has a priority over such a
frequent sinner.” And in a similar narration,
or perhaps it is the same saying with a
different translation, he said: “The more one
speaks, the more sins he commits. The more
sins one commits the further in the Fire of
Hell he will be.”
Wa aakhiru d