SILENCE - A MEANS OF ATTAINING SALVATION

Praise be to Allah, Almighty of the worlds, cherisher and sustainer of the entire mankind, who has sent such great and numerous bountys and favours upon us and may peace be upon our beloved Prophet Mohammed(Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam)! Allah Taala, in his unlimited knowledge, has bestowed us with a tongue which is a great bounty and blessing from Him. If this tongue is used to make the Zikr of Allah Taala, to glorify Allah Taala, to praise Allah Taala, to make Tilaawat of the Quran, to make Ibadaat, to invite people towards good, forbid and stop them from doing wrong, for the upliftment of the name of Allah Taala, for the upliftment of the Deen of Allah Taala, in giving naseehat, then this is proof of appreciation of this bounty of Allah Taala. This shows that one is grateful to Allah Taala for this bounty which Allah Taala has bestowed us with. And by being grateful Allah Taala will shower us with his Blessings and Rahmaah and will grant us success both in this world and the hereafter, Insha-Allah. On the other hand, if this very tongue is used for slandering, backbiting, telling lies, for cursing, taunting, mocking, ridiculing, passing sarcastic remarks, swearing, uttering words of kufr, then this is totally opposed to showing one's gratitude to Allah Taala for this bounty.

Allah Taala mentions in the Quran:
Behold two (guardian angels) appointed to learn (his doings) learn (and not them) one sitting on the right and one on the left. Not a word does he utter but there is a sentinel by him ready (to note it).(Sura 50 V17,18)

That two angels are constantly with us, day and night, no matter where we are, and they are recording every word we utter and we will be questioned in regard as to how we use this tongue of ours. There are two parts to it; viz. that a person will be questioned for misusing this tongue of his and, the other being when he breaks the heart of another person by backbiting, by speaking ill of him, by mocking him; the heart of the other person that you have broken, is also a great and grevious sin.

In order to show our appreciation to Allah Taala we must be able to have control over our tongues; use it in the proper places; in places where Allah Taala will be pleased with, where we will attain our salvation and avoid using it in such places it would bring about harm and destruction to us. Many a time we sit down, we talk good things and eventually it leads up towards haraam things, towards backbiting, towards mocking or ridiculing somebody, towards commiting makrooh acts, towards commiting haraam acts. That is why, it is said, "If a person is silent, he is safe-guarded, he has attainted salvation" because silence saves a person from many evils and wrongs.

Allah Taala has mentioned, in numerous places in the Quran, the evils of the tongue and what sins this tongue can cause. In Sura Hujraat Allah Taala mentions:
O ye who believe! let not some men among you laugh at others: it may be that the (latter) are better than the (former): Nor let some women laugh at others: it may be that the (latter) are better than the (former): nor defame nor be sarcastic to each other nor call each other by (offensive) nicknames: Ill-seeming is a name connoting wickedness (to be used of one) after he has believed: And those who do not desist are (Indeed) doing wrong.(Sura 49 V11)

Allah Taala warns us that we must not mock and disgrace other people because it could be possible that the people we mock could be better than us. To taunt, backbite, pass sarcastic and biting remarks is not ethical of a Muslim. Don't call people by nicknames if they dislike it, they have beautiful Islamic names, then call them by such names. These are all sins commited by the tongue. Allah Taala further goes on to say:
O ye who believe! avoid suspicion as much (as possible): for suspicion in some cases is a sin: and spy not on each other nor speak ill of each other behind their backs. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? Nay ye would abhor it...but fear Allah: for Allah is Oft-Returning Most Merciful.(Sura 49 V12)

Will we ever be able to consider eating the flesh of our dead brother, "No" Allah Taala answers for us, but to backbite is tantamount to eating the flesh of one's dead brother. We must have Taqwa in Allah in order to save ourselves. How many of our majlis, our gatherings is full of backbiting and speaking evil of others. These gatherings will be a burden upon us in the hereafter. That is why Nabi-e-Kareem (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) says that backbiting is worse than commiting zinnah. The Sahaaba asked the Prophet (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) "Why is backbiting worse than commiting zinnah?" Nabi-e-Kareem (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) answered "When a person commits zinnah and he sincerely repents, Allah Taala will accept his Toubah. When a person backbites and he repents, Allah Taala will not forgive him because what about the heart of the person he had broken, until that person does not forgive him, Allah Taala will not forgive him and that is why backbiting is worse than zinnah". A person has to have control over his tongue for it commits numerous sins.

When Hazrat Isa (Alayhis salaam) was asked, by a person, that what amal will put a person in Jannat, he replied"Silence". The person said, "But that is not possible because a person cannot remain silent all the time". Hazrat Isa (Alayhis salaam) replied, "That if you have to talk then speak good things and that will lead you to Jannat otherwise if you have no control over you tongue, then this will lead you to Jahannam ". Hazrat Suileman(Alayhis salaam) said that if speech is silver then silence is golden; meaning that to remain silent is better than speech. Nabi-e-Kareem (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) said, "Whoever has brought Iman in Allah and on the Day of Judgement, either he speaks good or rather remain silent because this is better for you." When we start speaking and we loose control over our tongues and start uttering such statements, this will lead to our destruction. Those things that are of no benefit to a person, Islam has advised us to stay away from. The beauty of the Islam of a person is that he abstains from those things that are of no benefit to him. The remembrance and Ibadat of Allah Taala is of benefit to us and that is what we should go towards. Hazrat Abu Huraira (Radhiyallaahu Anhu) narrates that the Prophet(Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) said, "There are two expressions which are very easy for the tongue to say, but they are very heavy in the balance and are very dear to the Beneficient (Allah), and they are 'Subhan Allah Al-'Azim and Subhan Allah wa Bihamdhi'. We should at all times be engaged in the remembrance of Allah.

This was the condition of the Sahaaba(Radhiyallaahu Anhu) and that is why Allah Taala mentions in the Quran that he is pleased with them and they are pleased with him. They were such people that they highly disliked talking worldly affairs. If it was absolutely necessary they would talk otherwise they would be engaged in the Zikr of Allah Taala. Our condition is opposite; we highly like talking of this world, any place we are in, whether it is in the Musjid we talk of worldly affairs, whether we are in the Kabristan, where one should remember his death, that we are buring this person today, tommorrow it will be my turn, we talk of worldly affairs. Business affairs we talk of in the Kabristan and that is our plight and condition today. To what ebb and level have we reached that we have no fikr, no concern of death. Nabi-e-Kareem(Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) says, "Visit the kabristan because this will remind you of death but here we are buring a person but that does not remind us of death; we are only worried about this Dunya. May Allah Taala save us and put the realization in our hearts.

Hazrat Abu Huraira (Radhiyallaahu Anhu) relates in another hadith that Allah's Messenger (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) said, "Do you know the thing which most commonly brings people into Paradise? It is fear of Allah and good character. Do you know what most commonly brings people into Hell? It is two hollow things: the mouth and the private parts." Hazrat Sahl bin Sa'd(Radhiyallaahu Anhu) says that Allah's Apostle(Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) said, "Whoever can guarantee (the chastity of) what is between his two jaws and what is between his two legs (i.e. his tongue and his private parts), I guarantee Paradise for him." One has to be very careful as far as safe-guarding his tongue.

Once, during the Kilaafat of Hazrat Abu-Bakr(Radhiyallaahu Anhu), Hazrat Umar (Radhiyallaahu Anhu) came to Hazrat Abu-Bakr (Radhiyallaahu Anhu) and he saw Hazrat Abu-Bakr (Radhiyallaahu Anhu) pulling his tongue. Hazrat Umar (Radhiyallaahu Anhu) said to him, "Stop, may Allah forgive you! Why are you doing this?" Hazrat Abu-Bakr (Radhiyallaahu Anhu) replied, "This tongue of mine has caused so much of gunnahs and put me into such difficulties and caused so much of harm to me." What is our condition today; we don't realize what we utter and what statements we make. Many a time we make such statements which leads us to kufr and we don't realize it.

Nabi-e-Kareem (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam), in a hadith narrated by Hazrat AbuSa'id (Radhiyallaahu Anhu), said that when a man gets up in the morning, all the limbs humble themselves before the tongue and say, "Fear Allah for our sake, for we are dependent on you; if you are straight we are straight, but you are crooked we are crooked."

Hazrat Abdulah ibn Umar (Radhiyallaahu Anhu) narrates that once Nabi-e-Kareem(Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) came into the Musjid, mounted the pulpit, and called in a loud voice, "You who have accepted Islam with your tongues but whose hearts have not been reached by faith, do not annoy the Muslims, or revile them, or seek out their faults; for he who seeks out the faults of his Muslim brother will have his faults sought out by Allah will be exposed by Him, even though he should be in the interior of his house."

Allah Taala mentions in the Quran, in Sura Mu'minuun, of those people who have attained success:
Successful indeed are the believers

Who are humble in their prayers, And who shun vain conversation,(Sura 23 V1,2,3)

If we want success in the hereafter then it is imperative upon us that we avoid, not only uttering but also listening to unnecessary and nonsensical talk. These are the qualities of a believer. Hazrat Jabir ibn Abdullah says that Allah's Messenger(Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) said, "Those of you who will be dearest to me on the Day of Resurrection will be those with the best characters. Those of you who will be most hateful to me and farthest from me will be those with evil characters, who speak much, are loud-mouthed and talkative." If we want the closeness of Nabi-e-Kareem (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) in the hereafter then it is better to remain silent than speak. Who amongst us won't want to be in the company of Nabi-e-Kareem(Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) on this terrible day. We will all want to be in His presence and, Insha-Allah, we will. Let us be very careful when it comes to the tongue, if it is absolutely necessary, speak, if not then rather remain silent. If we speak, speak good things, give naseehat, invite towards good, forbid from evil which is very beneficial and rewarding. If we have nothing good to say then rather remain silent because we might make certain statements which will lead to our destruction and can cause much harm.

To end, Hazrat Abdullah ibn Busr(Radhiyallaahu Anhu) says that a man asked the Prophet(Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam), "Messenger of Allah(Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam), the ordinances of Islam appear to me a multitude of affairs, so kindly tell me something to which I should hold fast." He answered him, "Let thy tongue be constantly occupied with the remembrance of Allah."

May Allah Taala grant us all the Taufeeq to aviod misusing this tongue He has bestowed us with and use it only for His remembrance and may Allah Taala shower us with his mercy! Ameen!

Br. RH Paruk

Islamic Info

Source:  Jamiatul Ulama (Kwazulu-Natal)