Speech in fiqh (kalam)

Kalam is, in its lexical sense, a series of sounds that carry a meaning; for grammarians it is what is built of a predicate and its subject, and the legal sense does not depart from the lexical one ¹.

Lafz (utterance) is wider than kalam; a meaningful sign conveys meaning like speech; silence is its opposite; khitab is speech addressed to one able to understand it, and so narrower than kalam ^{2 3}.

Speech by a sane adult is permitted in principle. It may become obligatory, as the two testimonies for one entering Islam and the opening takbir of prayer; recommended, as glorification and remembrance within prayer and the talbiya; disliked, as talk during the Friday sermon according to some jurists; or forbidden, as slander, unbelief and insult. The speech of a child who cannot discern or of a madman is void ³.

Speech may be a pillar of an act: recitation in prayer, the opening takbir, and offer and acceptance in marriage and other contracts. When speech is impossible, as for the mute, writing or a sign stands in its place under stated conditions ³.

Grammarians divide speech into noun, verb and particle; jurists into report and command, and by their indication into literal, figurative, allusive, explicit, implied, general and specific, and stated and implied; these are treated in the appendix on principles ⁴.

Silence is not speech in principle, since no word is attributed to the silent; but in cases of need silence stands for speech. Thus a sane adult virgin's silence when her father asks her consent to a named husband counts as consent, unless signs of refusal such as weeping or turning away accompany it ^{4 5}.

Clear signs and writing stand in for speech according to most jurists: the Hanafis treat signs as valid in everything, the Malikis hold a sale is concluded by any sign of consent, and the Hanbalis hold a sign equal to speech ⁵.

Speech during relief is disliked except out of need, such as warning a blind man falling into a well; speech during ablution is against the better course unless needed; minor speech in the call to prayer is not invalidating for the majority, while much of it breaks the call; in the iqama speech for no need is disliked and the iqama is repeated according to the Malikis and Hanbalis ^{5 6}.

The Shafi'is void a prayer by speech between the intention and the takbir; the Hanbalis allow it; the Malikis dislike it. Speech within prayer voids it according to most jurists, citing the hadiths of Zayd ibn Arqam (may God be pleased with him) and Mu'awiya ibn al-Hakam ^{6 7}.

Most jurists forbid speech during the Friday sermon, in obedience to the command to listen, and Ibn Mas'ud said that a man who speaks while the imam preaches should be struck on the head with a staff; al-Shafi'i in a later view and a narration of Ahmad allow it, with the hadiths of those who spoke during the sermon ^{7 8}. Most jurists dislike worldly talk in mosques; the Shafi'is allow permitted talk there ⁹. Speech during the recitation of the Qur'an is forbidden by the Hanafi view and disliked by others, since listening is recommended ¹⁰.

Speech during tawaf is disliked except for need or good, citing the hadith that tawaf is prayer except that God permits speech in it, so that whoever speaks should speak only good; speech during remembrance, supplication and recitation is disliked; much speech during intercourse is disliked, while the Malikis see no harm in speaking to one's wife then ^{10 11 12}.

The Shafi'is and Hanbalis allow a husband to shun his wife by not speaking to her for up to three days, on the hadith that no Muslim may shun his brother beyond three days; a Hanbali holds that the husband may not stop his wife from speaking to her parents ¹².

Speaking to a young unrelated woman without need is not allowed, lest it lead to temptation; backbiting is forbidden by consensus whether spoken or shown by gesture; interrupting another's speech without need is disliked ¹³.

Most jurists hold that no alien speech may come between offer and acceptance. No retaliation is due for loss of speech when the tongue remains, and the full blood-money is owed. A judge must not speak privately to one party without the other, and must be even between the litigants in speech, glance and greeting ^{13 14}.