The Prophet's Concise Wisdom For Practical Salvation

The Gift of Comprehensive Speech

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Allah granted the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ with many gifts and miracles. And these gifts and miracles served as affirmations and strengthened the Prophethood of Nabi ﷺ and his acceptance by Allah.

Among these gifts is the concept — the quality of jawami' al-kalim, which means comprehensive speech. Allah gave the Prophet ﷺ the ability to say little but have profound meaning, plentiful meaning. If you just look throughout the hadith books, we find that many hadith don't extend beyond one or two lines, but the meanings that can be extracted, the lessons that can be derived from them, span volumes.

Allah gave him the ability to, as we say, put an ocean into a cup — that such unique and complex perspectives can be derived from such simple sentences uttered by the Prophet ﷺ. And this shows that it's not about how long a talk is or how detailed a book is.

What matters is how much we practice. Nowadays we find that the issue isn't about how much we don't know — it's about how much we practice on what we do know. If we just look at the mistakes that we make in our lives, how many mistakes do we make that we generally don't know are mistakes, versus the ones that we do know but we do them anyway? And if we were to increase our practice upon what we know, whether that be performing a good deed or staying away from a bad deed, our lives would change. Even if a person increases their practice by 10%, they will see just how much their lives would change for the better.

The Question of Salvation: The Hadith of 'Uqbah ibn 'Amir

The Prophet ﷺ would give simple answers to complex and significant questions. Among them is an instance in which a Sahabi by the name of 'Uqbah ibn 'Amir رضي الله عنه came to Nabi ﷺ and asked him:

Which is a very important question that I'm sure we all would like to know the answer to. And yet again, Nabi ﷺ gave a short answer to a significant question. In his answer, he said three things:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2406)

For today, we'll mainly focus on the first part — controlling your tongue. But let me explain the second and third parts so we all walk away with the proper understanding of the hadith.

Let Your House Be Sufficient for You

The second thing Nabi ﷺ said was وَلْيَسَعْكَ بَيْتُكَ — let your house be sufficient for you. The scholars have mentioned many meanings of what this could mean. One meaning is: let your house do good for you. Let your house be a safe haven, a sanctuary for you. When you're outside your house, you're in an environment where the potential to commit sin is greater, where you are more prone to facing things that go against what Allah teaches, against what Islam teaches. At home you're with your family members, with your loved ones, so you inculcate good habits, you use the opportunity to instill within yourself the habits which take you closer to Allah. So when you come home, it's a sort of refreshment, a rejuvenation that protects you from the sins of the outside world.

Cry Over Your Sins

The third thing Nabi ﷺ said was وَابْكِ عَلَى خَطِيئَتِكَ — cry over your sins. As you know, committing sins and falling short is human. It's normal. But the way you turn that into a good thing is by showing remorse, by doing tawbah. The reason why crying over your sins leads to najah — salvation — is because it is the first step to getting rid of that sin. When a person shows remorse and regret, that leads them to making a commitment and resolve to stop that sin for good — putting avenues in their lives, whether that be meeting with an imam or placing obstacles from committing that sin again. That regret leads them, insha'Allah, to leaving that sin for good, and leads to Allah forgiving them and removing that sin from their lives.

Controlling the Tongue

Going back to the first part of the hadith, Nabi ﷺ said أَمْلِكْ عَلَيْكَ لِسَانَكَ — control your tongue. We have many instances in the hadith corpus in which Nabi ﷺ put emphasis on the impact the tongue has on others.

The Truly Bankrupt Person

For example, we know the famous hadith in which Nabi ﷺ asked the Sahaba, as reported in Sahih Muslim:

The Sahaba replied:

That's what we recognize in our society as well — someone who had wealth, who had assets to their name, but one factor or another led them to losing all of that. And Nabi ﷺ replied:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2581)

Notice how the majority of these sins happen with the tongue. He insulted the honor of such-and-such person. He falsely accused another person of committing a sin. So he comes with all these good deeds — deeds that pertain to the rights of Allah (huquq Allah). But when it came to the rights of the ibad of Allah — the creation, his fellow slaves — he had all these bad deeds to his name.

On that Day of Justice, when no person will walk away without their rights being given to them, every person that he wronged will form a line in front of him. Each person will take some of his good deeds. One after the other, the line will continue — until a time will come when all his good deeds have been given away. He has nothing left. And so the bad deeds of those people will be thrown onto his record. At the beginning of the day, he came with mountains of good deeds. By the end, all he is left with is no good deeds and piles upon piles of bad deeds — and due to that, he will be cast into the Hellfire. May Allah protect us.

This shows that it starts with the tongue. You can do as many good deeds as you like — your daily ibadah, your daily Qur'an, and that's important, you should do that. But what you say after that, what you say before that, matters as well. The way you interact with others matters as well.

Delving into What Does Not Concern Us

And it's no secret that something the general Muslim community faces at large is the improper use of delving into what's known as مَا لَا يَعْنِينَا — things that don't concern us, things that have no benefit for us. Even if there's no direct harm, what does someone else going through in their personal life have to do with your life? How does that improve society in any way? So whenever an incident happens, the best thing to do is to keep it within the circle of those whom it directly involves. But we find that it unnecessarily extends beyond its mandatory circle, and many people come to know who shouldn't even know in the first place.

And transmitting it counts as spreading it. Even if you're not the one who initiates it, if it's something bad — it may be backbiting, and it may even be slander, something that isn't even true — if a person transmits it, they are part of the scene, regardless of whether they started it or not.

That is why one of the elders of the subcontinent, Ma'in 'Abra al-Haqq, his practice was that anyone who wasn't present in the conversation, he would not even mention their name. Their mention would never even come up. Because what happens is, even if a conversation starts for good — two people talking about how wonderful another person is, how good they are at this, how she excels at that — that's a good thing. But then what Shaytan does is distract the person. He puts in that word "but," "however," لَكِنْ. And the conversation takes a 180 and shifts from praise to insults and backbiting: "They're good at this, but they did this one time, they sometimes do this, they're like this with their family, they're like this with their spouse." So you've delved into something that doesn't concern you, you're harming that person by insulting their honor, and you're adding more bad deeds onto your own record.

The Mouth and the Private Part

The Prophet ﷺ and the companions were deeply cognizant of this. A hadith in Sunan al-Tirmidhi states that the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2004)

The mouth, because of the sheer amount of sins that can be committed from it. There is a saying:

Just from this short organ in our mouths — so many bad deeds can be committed: backbiting, slandering, insulting, lying, deceiving — all in such a short time from the same source. And the private part, because if a person follows their lustful desires and whims. And Nabi ﷺ once held his tongue with his own two fingers, saying that this is the thing that leads a person astray and into the Hellfire.

The Advice to Mu'adh ibn Jabal

There is another instance in which the Sahabi Mu'adh ibn Jabal رضي الله عنه asked Nabi ﷺ for advice. Nabi ﷺ replied: "Control your tongue." And Mu'adh رضي الله عنه replied:

Remember, this was when the Shari'ah was being instituted, being laid down. The Sahaba were learning as Nabi ﷺ was teaching and advising them. So things that may be common sense to us, they were just learning. He asked: will we really be held accountable for what our tongues say? And Nabi ﷺ replied with something profound:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2616)

That a person's downfall on the Day of Judgment will be solely due to how they used their tongue — the improper use of their tongue. And so this shows that whatever we utter, we shouldn't take lightly. We should always be cognizant and retrospective about what we say — reviewing at the end of every day how we used our tongue. And if we used it for good, then فَهَذِهِ نِعْمَةٌ — then it's good, and we should do more. Use it for enjoining good, prohibiting evil, reading Qur'an, doing dhikr of Allah. But if we find that we used it for things that don't concern us, for things that insult the honor of others, then as soon as we realize that, we should do tawbah and find ways to stop ourselves from doing that again.

The Wisdom of Luqman al-Hakim

Tafsir al-Qurtubi mentions an instance in which Luqman al-Hakim — whom some say was a prophet, while others say he was a person whom Allah had given a great deal of wisdom — was once asked by his people to point out the best parts of an animal, the parts a person would most enjoy and want to eat from. He gave the tongue and the heart. Then he was asked to slaughter another animal and give the two worst parts — the most distasteful parts. And he again gave the same two things: the tongue and the heart.

Naturally, his people were confused. "We asked you for the best parts and you gave these two. Then we asked for the worst parts and you gave the very same two." And Luqman al-Hakim replied:

The tongue — because of the enormous number of sins that can be committed from it, as well as the enormous amount of good deeds that can come from it. Just saying a kind word to someone can light up their entire day. You may not know the problems they are facing, but smiling at them, saying salam to them, greeting them, thanking them for something they did — it brightens their day. And it's a continuous reward. Just one word you say, one piece of advice you give, and if a person acts on that advice for the rest of their life — whenever they implement that advice, you share in that reward. That only increases your account of good deeds.

And the heart — instead of using it for jealousy, hatred, enmity, and evil, you can use it for compassion, rahmah, the good of others, and the love of others. So these two limbs, if a person uses them for good, are the most pure parts of a person's body.

The Khulafa' al-Rashidun and Guarding the Tongue

The Prophet ﷺ instilled this awareness of guarding the tongue in the Sahaba as well. We find that the Khulafa' al-Rashidun were especially cognizant of this fact. Despite being the leaders of the Islamic empire — and most, if not all, of what they used their tongues for was for good, for the betterment of the Islamic empire and the Muslim civilization — they would still hold their tongues and be worried and concerned about being held accountable for any improper use of their speech.

Silence as Salvation

And to conclude, there is a hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2501)

Notice the same word that comes in the hadith we mentioned at the beginning — najah, salvation. If a person recognizes that whatever they say — even if it's not bad, even if it simply has no benefit — then the best thing to do is to stay silent. And so if we instill this habit of respecting our lives, being cognizant of what we say, and instilling this habit within our family members and those we are responsible for, then it can lead us to take the next step of stopping these things from happening in our community — stopping us from falling into مَا لَا يَعْنِينَا, delving into things that don't concern us, from backbiting, from insulting.

And so I ask that Allah give us the tawfiq to use our tongues wisely — use them for the betterment of the Muslim civilization, for enjoining good, for prohibiting evil — and not use them for bad. And may He allow us and our family members to attain salvation in this life and the next.

Announcements

إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ — Brother Samir Qadri has returned to Allah on Wednesday night. May Allah shower him with mercy, forgive his shortcomings, and grant him the highest ranks of Jannah. May Allah give his family and loved ones sabr and strength during this difficult time. The janazah salah will be performed after Jumu'ah at MCC Elston, and the burial will take place at Rose Hill Cemetery.

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Upcoming Programs: We have the Tafheem Weekend Program. The Saturday track includes: The History and Development of Fiqh, Introduction to Hadith Sciences, and Aqidah Part 1. The Sunday track includes: Fiqh of Salah Part 1, Surahs of Salah, and Purification of the Heart. You can register online. There are separate tracks and teachers for both brothers and sisters. You can take both Saturday and Sunday, or just one day — whatever works for you.

This Week's Programs: We have Tuesday Tafsir — currently covering Surah al-Nazi'at. We also have the Thursday Salawat and Urdu Seerah Dars by Maulana Abdul Basit, where we first recite salawat and then a lecture on the Seerah of Nabi ﷺ. Both are after Maghrib.

And lastly, join us for our Weekly Saturday Team Fajr — tomorrow after Fajr Salah. The current series is the Lives of the Companions. Tomorrow will be the life of 'Ali رضي الله عنه.

Today after Maghrib, there will be a student program. All students and young professionals are requested to join. Jazakum Allah khayran.