Words That Lift Or Destroy: Guarding Your Speech

The Power of Words: Guarding the Tongue

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. We praise Him and send salutations upon His Noble Messenger. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls and from the evils of our deeds. As for the beloved brothers and sisters, esteemed and honorable guests of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon you.

The time is very short. There are only about 5 to 7 minutes before we have to start performing our sunnah and continue with the rest of the Jumu'ah. But nonetheless, I would like to share a small brief lesson revolving around a story first, and then we will discuss a hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ.

The Story of the Two Frogs

Once upon a time, there were a bunch of frogs and they decided to go journeying somewhere through a forest. And now as they were going through the forest, mashallah, they understood the etiquettes of travelling. They appointed an amir, appointed a leader for the rest of the group, and they tried their best to all go together. They tried to ensure that no one strays from the path, from the group.

And as they were proceeding, jumping through the forest, two youngsters amongst the frogs decided to challenge one another. One frog told the other, "I bet you I can beat you to this particular point. I bet you I can beat you in a race." So the other said, "No you can't." And then they decided to compete with one another, decided to race.

So they started going ahead of the group. They started jumping faster and faster and faster. And all the while, the leader caught sight of what was happening and called out to them. Other individuals in the group also called out to them: "Hey, why are you going so fast? You're going so far ahead. Stay with the group. Don't leave the group. Stay with the group."

But these two children, they couldn't understand. It was as if they were blindfolded, as if they were deaf. They couldn't hear anything. All they worried about was who was going to beat the other. And as such, they continued and continued until without even realizing — because they're small frogs — there was a huge ditch, a huge hole, and they fell into the hole. And now when they fell into the hole, they couldn't jump out. It was a big hole.

So then all of the others began surrounding this ditch, this pit. They looked at them and they noticed that the two young frogs were jumping as high as they could to try and get out of the hole, but it was to no avail. And then they started criticizing them: "We told you, this is what happens when you don't listen to us. This is what happens when you don't follow with the group. This is what happens when you don't follow the amir, you don't stay with the group. You are deserving of this. You've learned your lesson."

So both frogs tried and tried jumping as high as they could, but after one little frog started hearing the criticism, he realized, "You know what, there is no way out of this." And he crawled to one corner of the hole and he took his life.

The other one, however, started jumping higher and higher and higher. And then finally he jumped so high that he jumped out of the pit. The rest of the group were surprised, and they viewed him like a hero. They saw that this is such an amazing frog — such a young frog, he was able to jump so high. Impossible!

And as they came closer and congratulated the frog, a few of them wondered, "How did you do it? How did you jump so high? How did you get the energy? How did you get the strength? What were you doing?" This frog couldn't understand what was being said until they drew nearer and nearer and got closer and closer — because this young frog, he had a hearing problem. He was pretty deaf.

And once he realized what they were saying, and he realized that these people were wondering what had gifted him that strength and what had enabled him to jump so high, he said: "It was because of the fact that I thought you guys were encouraging me the whole entire time. I found strength to jump so high because of your words of encouragement." Because when he saw them moving their hands and yelling and screaming, he thought it was actually words of encouragement — whereas the other frog understood it was actually words of severe criticism, and that resulted in him taking his life.

The Lesson: Words Can Be Daggers

So from here we understand that words can be like daggers piercing at people's hearts. And this is the time that we're living in. People are only getting softer. People are taking their lives because of statements that are made without others realizing the impact of those statements. But at the same time, our words can be so powerful that they can lift people from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs.

The Hadith on the Weight of Words

In a hadith, Rasulullah ﷺ mentioned with regards to the importance of safeguarding our tongues and understanding what comes out of them:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6478)

Certain individuals say things that are so pleasing to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala without even realizing what they are saying, without even paying any importance to it. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is so pleased with those words that He elevates that person through them to the highest stages of Jannah — He raises him in ranks.

And on the other hand, there are certain individuals who, when they speak, they don't really pay much attention to what they are saying. But they say such things which are so detested in the court of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, so hated in the court of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, without themselves even realizing it. But through those very same statements uttered from their mouths, as a result, they descend lower and lower into the pits of Jahannam.

The Tongue and Its Influence Over the Body

Rasulullah ﷺ also mentioned in a hadith:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhī, Hadith 2407)

Every day when a person wakes up, all of the limbs begin pleading to the tongue. They begin pleading to the tongue and they say: "Fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala regarding us. If you are straight, and you keep yourself in check, then we will also be fine. And if you go astray and you become crooked, and you don't realize what is coming out and what you are saying, then we will also become crooked."

The ulema mention there are two interpretations for this. Number one is: the tongue says a lot of things, and the body receives the impact. You may instigate someone — punch to the face, punch to the body — the body gets the blame, gets the hurt. But the tongue is safe. And on the other hand, the ulema also mentioned another way to understand this: the tongue says a lot, and the entire body has to burn in the fire of Jahannam.

May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us the ability to safeguard our tongues and to realize what we are saying. We need to realize that every single statement that comes out of our mouths — there are two different ways to understand this. One is the actual words that come out. May Allah protect us — some of us unfortunately are cursing, we are swearing, and so on and so forth.

But then there is another thing which people don't realize, and it has to do with the manner in which things are said. Sometimes we say things without meaning any harm, but we don't realize how hurtful we are to another individual. We should be very particular in the manner that we speak, and also with regards to what exactly comes out of our mouths.

May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us all the tawfiq.

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Weekly Programs: Our Saturday team Fajr will be held tomorrow. Fajr Iqamah is at 6:15 a.m. Bukhari Dars will resume February 13th. The Tuesday Tafsir programs will also be continued with Surah Al-Mu'min, insha'Allah. And besides that, we also have our weekly salawat gathering on Thursdays after Isha Salah.

IAE is holding a Quran night with Qari Ahmad Nu'man, invited from Egypt, on February 5th after Maghrib — this Sunday after Maghrib Salah. Students from IAE are outside distributing flyers.

Du'a Requests

A request for du'as: an 87-year-old sister who will start her cancer treatment, which has reached her brain. And also du'a for maghfirah for Sharif Ziauddin who passed away on Monday due to cancer.

May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant shifa to all of those who are still sick and all of those who are going through any difficulty. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive all of those who have passed away and grant them Jannatul Firdaus bighayri hisab.