Holding One's Tongue ( part 1)

بِسْــــــــــــــــــمِ اﷲِالرَّحْمَنِ اارَّحِيم   

The Importance of Holding One's Tongue

1.  Every legally responsible person should refrain from saying
     anything except when there is a clear advantage to speaking.
     whenever speaking and not speaking are of equal benefit, it
     is sunnah to remain silent, for permissible speech easily leads
     to that which is haraam (unlawful) or makrooh (offensive), as
     actually happens much or even most of the time --and there
     is no substitute for safety.

    Abu Hurairah (R.A) related that the Prophet (S.A.W) said:
   "Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, let him say 
    what is good or remain silent."

   Bukhari and Muslim

    This hadith , is an explicit legal text indicating that a person should
   not  speak unless what he intends to say is good, meaning that the
   benefit of it is apparent to him. Whenever one doubts that there is
   a clear advantage, one should not speak.

   Imam Shafi'i (R.A.A) said, "when one wishes to speak, one must
   first reflect, and if there is a clear interest to be served by speaking,
   one speaks, while if one doubts it, one remains silent until the
   advantage becomes apparent."

    The Prophet  صلى الله علىه وسلم : 
    (a)"O Messenger of Allah, which of the muslim is
    best ?" and he said, " He who the muslims are safe
    from his tongue and his hand." 

    (b)  "A servant unthinkingly says something pleasing 
    to Allah Most High for which Allah raise him whole 
    degrees. And a servant unthinkingly says something
    detested by Allah Most High for which he plunges 
    into hell."  

    (c)  " The excellence of a person's Islam includes
    leaving what does not concern him."

    (d)  " Do not speak much without mentioning Allah
    ( dhikr), for too much speech without mentioning
    Allah hardens the heart, and hard-hearted are the 
    farthest of all people from Allah Most High."

    (e)  " All of a human being's words count against
    him and not for him, except commanding the right,
    forbidding the wrong, and the mention of Allah 
    Most High (dhikr)."


   Abul Qasim Qushayri (R.A.A) said, " Safety lies in
   remaining silent, which should be one's basis. Silence
   at the appropriate time is the mark of men, just as
   speech at the appropriate time is one of the finest
   qualities. I have heard Abu ' Ali Daqqaq (R.A.A)
   say, 'He who is silent when something should be
   said is a tongueless villain' " 

*****

This is something I learned about 8 years ago in my madarasa from the book ' RELIANCE OF THE TRAVELLER' and it has benefitted me a lot and I though I'll  share it with You all. It is quite long so I though I'll break it down to few part.

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