GUARDING THE TONGUE

Excerpt: Words are not just mere words, they hold a lot of meaning in the court of Allah Ta’ala. It is so important, that an individual may spend his entire life in the state of disbelief, but if he recites the Shahada only once, and becomes Muslim, entire decades of his disbelief are forgiven. Every word that leaves the human tongue heads straight for a Divine method of recording. In these times of advancement, commercial jetliners are equipped with a Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), commonly known as a “black box.”

Glory be to Allah & Salutations Upon His Final Messenger

Man is a composition of different parts. If he is able to use all of his body parts in conformity with the Shariah, his life is commendable. One of these organs is the tongue. A famous Arabic notion states, “The size of the tongue is small, but the size of its sins is magnanimous.” Allah Ta’ala states in the Glorious Quran, “Man does not utter any word except that with him is an observer prepared [to record].” (50:18)

Every word that leaves the human tongue heads straight for a Divine method of recording. In these times of advancement, commercial jetliners are equipped with a Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), commonly known as a “black box.” These black boxes record every single conversation inside the plane, by the airplane staff. In the event of a crash, or after a flight ends, the black box can be used to pull out entire recordings. Similarly, when the human’s flight ends in this world, man is presented with his CVR by angels, that has word-to-word “recording” of what was said by this individual in his life.

Words are not just mere words, they hold a lot of meaning in the court of Allah Ta’ala. It is so important, that an individual may spend his entire life in the state of disbelief, but if he recites the Shahada only once, and becomes Muslim, entire decades of his disbelief are forgiven. Different Ahadith point to the fact that when someone reads the Kalima, an angel takes his words towards the heavens. On the way, he meets another angel descending from the heavens towards earth. The one who is going up, is asked by the one coming to earth, “Where are you going?” The angel replies, “So-and-so has recited the Kalima Shahada, I am taking his deed to present before Allah.” Then the one descending to earth is asked the same question, to which he replies, “I am taking the glad tidings of forgiveness to this person.” Subhan’Allah! A human-being, with sincerity, uttered the basic words of “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is His Messenger,”, and all this activity has suddenly taken place in the heavens high-above.

As important as the tongue is, unfortunately today we are extremely heedless about its usage. It has become common practice to use the tongue for poking fun at others, for the sake of cheap laughs. Allah Ta’ala states, “O you who believe! let not a people ridicule [another] people; perhaps they may be better than them; nor let women ridicule [other] women; perhaps they may be better than them. And do not insult one another and do not call each other by [offensive] names.” (49:11) How common has the ill-practice of name-calling become? People are attributed painful phrases because of their skin color, their physical appearance, the nation they might belong to etc. The above-mentioned verse clearly denounces this sin of the tongue.

Another common misuse of the tongue is lying. No Prophet of Allah has come into this world, since the advent of this planet, and he has not warned against this sin. Allah’s Apostle (s) stated, “Four traits, whoever possesses them is a hypocrite, and whoever possesses some of them has an element of hypocrisy until he leaves it: the one, who when he speaks, he lies… when he promises, he breaks his promise… when he disputes, he transgresses…and when he makes an agreement, he violates it.” (Bukhari) It is worthy to analyze that when the Holy Prophet (s) mentioned the traits of a “Munafiq”, he mentioned lying as number one. If a human-being is not able to quit this habit in early stages, the sin and its harmful effects multiply overtime. For example, someone in the habit of lying during teen years, and causing habitual trouble, might go onto create large-scale problems in the business world. A good example of this is global financial scandals over the past few years, including some of the largest corporations in the world.

Why the tongue is so important is because it is one of the most widely used organs in our body. Whatever we do, we have to speak. Hence, one should be mindful of its usage. One of the most favorite things to do these days is to sit in gatherings of three or four, and then pick out a person to discuss; backbiting. Nabi (Alayhi Salam) stated, “Backbiting is more grave (of a sin) than adultery.” Millions of disputes all over the world are caused by mentioning one’s faults to others, and a lot of times this becomes the basic element of divorce. Whoever covers up another person’s faults in this world, Allah Ta’ala will cover his faults on the Day of Judgement.

Apart from these common sins of the tongue is something even more dangerous. Criticizing Islam has become a favorite past-time. Dear friend, we should be extremely mindful of such. People go on to say things about Islamic commandments, even worse, those that suffer from the notion of “nothing is perfect”, start finding faults in Allah Ta’ala. The words might be small, but they render one out of the fold of Islam, and the person has to recite the Kalima again. Just as the 7 words of the Shahada turn a non-Muslim into a Muslim, a few words with a “kufr-oriented” tone can turn a Muslim into a non-Muslim. In Urdu-speaking communities, people might commonly state, “Allah Mian ke pichwaray…”(God-Forbid). Such ill-phrases have unfortunately become common verbiage. May God protect us.

 Our spiritual ancestors were extremely righteous when it came to using the tongue. A very famous incident from the Indian sub-continent is about a Muslim-Hindu dispute on a piece of land. The Hindus wanted to build a temple, whilst Muslims wanted to build a Masjid. Tensions increased to communal levels and an emergency situation came into forefront. The ruling British officer of the region intervened and setup a council. When he asked the Hindu elders what should be done, they gave a surprising answer. “We wish to appoint a intermediary, who also happens to be a Muslim scholar.” Soon the news spread and Muslims start rejoicing, that a scholar would always build Allah’s house, and hence the Muslims had won the land dispute. Conversely, the Hindu community greatly reprimanded their elders on the “mistake” they had made.

The day of the hearing came, and Mufti Ilahi Buksh (ra) was called to court. When the English judge inquired, “Mufti Sahib, we have appointed you as an arbitrator in good faith, hearing that, you know about the true ownership of this plot of land. Apprise the court about the true owners of this property.”
 Mufti Ilahi Buksh (ra) stated, “the ownership of this land belongs to Hindus.” The judge then asked, “If this plot is owned by Hindus, can they build a temple on it?” He replied, “if they own the land, they have the right to build anything they want.” Everyone became shocked. The judge then wrote the verdict, “Today, in this case, the Muslims have lost, but Islam has won.”  But something even more surprising happened.

The disputing Hindus stated, “Judge Sahib, you seem to have announced your verdict, let us announce ours. The truth-hood of this Muslim inspires us to become Muslims as well. Now we ourselves will build a Masjid on this land.” Subhan’Allah!

Hence, using the tongue rightfully becomes a cause of success in this life, as well as the next one. May Allah help us to use our tongues wisely & righteously.