Two honourable choices for the tongue.
Narrated by Abū Hurayrah (أبو هريرة)
مَنْ كَانَ يُؤْمِنُ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الآخِرِ فَلْيَقُلْ خَيْرًا أَوْ لِيَصْمُتْ
"Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, let him speak good or remain silent."
Imam al-Nawawi said the hadith gives only two options for speech: beneficial or silent. Anything in between — gossip, idle complaint, sarcasm disguised as wit — is placed outside the scope of a believing heart. In the age of limitless speech, this is one of the more radical things any scholar ever said.
Passages that draw on this hadith
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"of his speech, for there was an impediment on his tongue that prevented him from much speech. He asked his Lord to support him with his brother Aaron, to be an aid for him, to speak on his behalf concerning much that his tongue could not articulate. God Almighty"
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"so that the two go together. The first transfers the remembrance from his tongue to his heart; the second transfers it from his heart to his tongue without his heart ever being empty of it. Rather he first grows still until he senses the speaker stirring within him, and when he senses that, his heart speaks; then the speech of the heart passes over into remembrance upon the tongue; then he is so absorbed in it that he finds every part of him remembering."
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"اللّٰه Almighty said, "It is not for a human being that اللّٰه should speak to him except by revelation or from behind a veil or by sending a messenger to reveal, by His permission, what He wills." He differentiated between the speech of revelation, the speech by sending the messenger, and the speech from behind a veil."
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"Jesus, peace be upon him, said, "Worship consists of ten parts, nine of them are in silence." The hadith of Ibn Mas'ud that he was on al-Safa pronouncing the talbiyah and saying "O tongue, speak good and you will profit," and it's raised: "The majority of the sins of the children of Adam are in his tongue."
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"It was said to Jesus, peace be upon him, "Guide us to an act by which we may enter Paradise. He said, "Do not speak ever. They said, "We cannot do that. He said, "Then do not speak except good. And Solomon, son of David, peace be upon them, said, "If speech is silver, then silence is gold."
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"He replied, "Yes, whoever's speech is remembrance, silence is contemplation, and gaze is a lesson, he is like me." Al-Hasan said, "Whoever's speech is not wisdom is merely idle talk, whoever's silence is not contemplation is a mere absence, and whoever's gaze is not consideration is simply distraction.""
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""We did not consider it unlikely that tranquility would speak upon the tongue of عُمَر." This is a speech that is not the natural psychological speech, and for this reason, this breath is called... The truth of the light is due to the intensity of its connection and adherence to the"
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"And so-and-so is a speaker, and so-and-so talks more, and so-and-so works more. Abu Sulayman said, "Knowledge is closer to silence than it is to speech. It was said, "When knowledge is abundant, speech is less; and when speech is abundant, knowledge is less."
More on character
- The Prophet's ﷺ three-word answer for a lifetime."A man said to the Prophet ﷺ: Counsel me. He said: "Do not be angry." The man asked several times, and each time the Prophet said: "Do not be angry.""
- Even slaughter has its ethics — because iḥsān is owed everywhere."Allah has written iḥsān — excellence — upon everything. So when you kill, kill well; and when you slaughter, slaughter well. Sharpen your blade and bring ease to the animal."
- Worth is measured in akhlāq — manners, not titles."Truly, the best of you are the finest among you in character."