Guarding the tongue

For Ibn Rajab, guarding the tongue is the foundation of all the works of religion. He bases this on the hadith of Mu'adh, the twenty-ninth hadith of the Forty. ¹

The Prophet told Mu'adh about the gates of good, then about the head of the matter, its pillar, and the peak of its hump. Then he said: "Shall I not tell you the foundation of all that?" He took hold of his tongue and said: "Restrain this upon yourself." ¹

Mu'adh asked: "Will we be held to account for what we say?" The answer was that people are cast into the Fire on their faces, or on their noses, because of "the harvest of their tongues." ¹

Ibn Rajab compares this hadith with the hadith of Abu Hurayra: "Whoever believes in God and the Last Day, let him say what is good or keep silent," which is the fifteenth hadith; and with the Prophet's gesture to his tongue when Sufyan al-Thaqafi asked him what he should fear most, which is the twenty-first hadith. ²

The subject is connected to the chapter on good manners.

The speaker cites a hadith in which a single word may weigh heavily for or against a person. ³ He lists the sins of the tongue: backbiting, gossip, lying, false witness, obscene speech and false oaths, and says the believer must keep his tongue in check. ⁴ He says that scholars warned against four things: speech, looks, steps and thoughts. He cites a hadith of the night journey in an image of something that cannot return, and says a spoken word cannot be recalled. ⁵

He says that a wound from the tongue lasts longer than a wound from the sword, and that a Muslim guards his speech accordingly. ⁶ He says that a spear wound may heal but a tongue wound may not, and urges repentance and a renewed covenant when one has spoken wrongly. ⁷ He says that righteousness is a cheerful face and gentle, truthful speech, and that a word may raise its speaker in Paradise or lower him in God's wrath. ⁸

The speaker's view is that the state of a person speaks louder than his words. He gives the example of a son who promised his father to study, while his conduct over the years contradicted what he said. ⁹ He says that humility must be practised and not merely spoken of, and cites a saying attributed to al-Shafi'i that he wished God would show the truth through another person's tongue (needs_source: the saying is not sourced in the recording). ¹⁰ He cites a verse against pursuing what one has no knowledge of, and does not name its sura in the recording. ¹¹ He says people talk too much and fall into what they should avoid, and cites a report from Aisha about how little Abu Bakr used to speak (needs_source: the report is not sourced in the recording). ¹²

He says that changing wrong with words is gentle advice, as when a person advises a spoiled child, and that one who cannot act has a level of faith in disliking the wrong in the heart; he cites a hadith on this. ¹³ He asks whether people are safe from the tale-bearing of listeners, and cites a hadith that a Muslim is one from whose tongue and hands people are safe. ¹⁴