Protect Your Tongue - Shaykh Wasim Kempson

Khuṭbat al-Ḥājah (Opening Sermon)

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَسْتَهْدِيهِ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ الطَّيِّبِينَ الطَّاهِرِينَ وَمَنْ سَارَ عَلَى نَهْجِهِمْ إِلَى يَوْمِ الدِّينِ

أَمَّا بَعْدُ، فَإِنَّ أَصْدَقَ الْحَدِيثِ كِتَابُ اللَّهِ وَخَيْرَ الْهَدْيِ هَدْيُ مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَشَرَّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا وَكُلَّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ وَكُلَّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّارِ

Indeed, all praise and thanks is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah alone, and I bear witness that Muhammad صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِهِ وَسَلَّمَ is his final messenger.

The Question of Mu'ādh ibn Jabal

The Prophet عَلَيْهِ الصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ on many occasions was asked — or was given questions — which represent for us very important questions. Some of those questions: what are the best deeds? Or what action will take me to Paradise?

On one occasion the Prophet عَلَيْهِ الصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ is with Mu'ādh ibn Jabal رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ. And you find that many of the narrations narrated by Mu'ādh رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ are very comprehensive answers that you receive from the Prophet عَلَيْهِ الصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ. And so on this occasion, Mu'ādh رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ asks the Messenger of Allah صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِهِ وَسَلَّمَ about an action — something that will enter him into Paradise, that will take him away from the Hellfire. This was asked to the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ on a number of other occasions, and the answer was short — but this answer represents one of the most comprehensive answers on this particular question. You'll be pushed hard to find an answer from the Prophet عَلَيْهِ الصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ answering this question: what enters me into Jannah and takes me away from the Hellfire?

The Four-Part Answer

And so the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ says:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhī, Hadith 2616; also recorded in Musnad Aḥmad and others, on the authority of Mu'ādh ibn Jabal)

"You have asked about an amazing and great matter, but this is a matter which, if Allah wills to make it easy for a person, it will be so."

And so the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ lays out the beginning of the answer. The answer is not just one answer — there are four parts.

The first part is that you worship Allah alone, you do not associate any partners with Allah, that you establish the Ṣalāh, that you pay the Zakāh, and you perform the Ḥajj. If you were to give an answer like this, it would be sufficient.

But the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ continues. He says:

"Should I not inform you about the doors of goodness and righteousness?" No doubt Mu'ādh رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ is now receiving an answer beyond his expectations. So the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ goes on to say that fasting is a shield, that charity extinguishes sin just as water extinguishes fire, and that the prayer in the middle of the night is from the most excellent of deeds. And he صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ recites the verses from Sūrah al-Sajdah.

Then the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ continues — the third part:

"Should I not tell you then about the head of the matter, its pillar, its pinnacle?" — al-Jihād: to sacrifice and to strive in the path of Allah.

But the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ does not finish there. He says:

"Should I not inform you about what is the basis of all that has preceded — Ṣalāh, fasting, charity, Ḥajj, striving in the path of Allah?" Mu'ādh says: "Please, inform me of what underlies all of what you have mentioned." Then the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ:

He took hold of his tongue and said: "Hold and control your tongue."

The Heart and the Tongue

Now we are all aware that in the well-known hadith, the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ told us that the king of the parts of our body — the most important — is the heart:

(Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Hadith 52; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Hadith 1599)

"If the heart is sound, the whole body is sound. And if it becomes corrupt, then the whole body will become corrupt. Indeed, it is the heart."

And we are concentrating on our hearts. The Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ said:

(Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Hadith 2564)

"Allah does not look at your appearances and your bodies; rather, Allah is looking at your hearts and your actions."

So we may be — as we should be — concentrating on our hearts, concentrating on our niyyāt. And then when somebody approaches us, because we are speaking in a particular manner — maybe foul language, backbiting, slander, speaking without knowledge, or we are missing out some obligations — the person's response is: "You don't know what is in my heart. You don't know what is inside here, what is going on between me and my Lord." And the person will then bring the evidence that Allah is looking at our hearts, not necessarily at your bodies and your outer shapes.

But the person did also forget that Allah is looking at قُلُوبِكُمْ وَأَعْمَالِكُمْ — your hearts and your actions as well. And from those actions — because there is a connection between what goes on in our hearts and how we behave and how we act — there is a connection. You can't separate them. A person can't just say within themselves, "I'm a good Muslim, I have this, I'm good with Allah," and then their actions are the complete opposite of that. Your actions should be a manifestation, should be a result, of what is in your heart.

And just as we are concentrating on the internal — and it starts there, no doubt — but what are the consequences of the state of your heart? What happens then? You will find that it will impact our actions. And our actions are of different types. But the thing that we must guard the most, what we need to be most careful of, is our tongues.

The Power of the Tongue

Our tongues — with which, if a person is engaged in the recitation of the Quran, they will receive 10 ḥasanāt, 10 rewards, for every letter they are reciting. With your tongue you make the shahādah, the testimony of faith:

By that, a person enters into al-Islām. But similarly, with their tongue, they can utter words of kufr. A person may mention words of lies and deceit. A person will say something to his family — 20 years of marriage — he says a word, and they are no longer together. By what? By what they said.

Now Mu'ādh رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ — when he heard that the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِهِ وَسَلَّمَ said "hold your tongue" — he was surprised. And you think about why he was so surprised. He says: وَإِنَّا لَمُؤَاخَذُونَ بِمَا نَقُولُ — "Are we really taken to account for what we say?" And here the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ says to him — out of being startled and emphasising the gravity of what he is saying:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhī, Hadith 2616; Ibn Mājah, Hadith 3973)

"May your mother be bereft of you, O Mu'ādh!" — this is an expression of astonishment and emphasis. "Will those people be dragged into the Hellfire on their faces for anything other than what their tongues have harvested?"

That every morning, every day, your body warns the tongue — تُكَفِّرُ اللِّسَانَ — it does not mean it calls the tongue a disbeliever; no, it warns the tongue every day about what it says. That your entire existence will be taken to account on Yawm al-Qiyāmah.

So I give us these short minutes that we have together here on Yawm al-Jumu'ah to think about the impact of how and what we speak. By it, a person enters into Islām. By it, a person earns the reward, the blessings, and the Paradise of Allah. And by it also, a person may exit Islām. By it, a person will earn dhunūb and sayyi'āt, even if the person carries themselves in a way which, on the apparent, is ṣalāḥ — is uprightness.

The True Bankrupt One

So the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ reminds us — the Ṣaḥābah — of course, a hadith you all know well. So the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ says:

(Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Hadith 2581)

"Do you know who the bankrupt one is? The bankrupt one among us is the one who has no gold and no silver." And so then the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ says: the true bankrupt one is the one who comes on Yawm al-Qiyāmah with Ṣalāh, with Zakāh, with Ṣadaqah, with all of these — as it appears, upholding the pillars of Islām — however:

That person cursed, swore, and oppressed the other person — by what? By their tongue. They come with all of these deeds, but yet they are bankrupt. And what is this bankruptcy? This bankruptcy is that they come with mountains of ḥasanāt — the one who appears rich on Yawm al-Qiyāmah — but then their account becomes bankrupt. Why? Because their good deeds are transferred to the other people. They are taken away from you. You give your good deeds to those whom you swore at, cursed, oppressed, or wronged. So you may have come with all of that, but it served nothing for you — no goodness for you.

The Woman Who Harms Her Neighbours

And then likewise, the companions were speaking about a woman:

(Al-Adab al-Mufrad, al-Bukhārī, Hadith 119; Musnad Aḥmad)

"Such-and-such a woman fasts the days and stands the nights in prayer, but she harms her neighbour with her tongue." The Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِهِ وَسَلَّمَ said: she is in the Fire.

And there is another woman — she is not as much in her 'ibādah. She establishes the wājibāt. She does not spend many nights in prayer at night. She does not fast every day. But — لَكِنْ لَا تُؤْذِي جَارَهَا بِلِسَانِهَا — she does not harm her neighbour with her tongue. The Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِهِ وَسَلَّمَ says: she is in Paradise.

The tongue is the cause, the reason, for that person being entered into the Fire or into Paradise.

Even an Unintended Word

Even things that we may not even think about. The incident that comes to mind is that when 'Ā'ishah رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهَا — without any intention, مِنْ غَيْرِ قَصْدٍ — she was describing Ṣafiyyah رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهَا and with her hand indicated that she was قَصِيرَة — that she was short. And here the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِهِ وَسَلَّمَ said:

(Sunan Abī Dāwūd, Hadith 4875; Sunan al-Tirmidhī, Hadith 2502)

"You have said a word — if it were to be mixed with the water of the sea, it would change its entire existence." Not in a good way, of course. This is a rebuke, reminding her that saying such a thing — "I didn't mean it" — but you said it.

Counting Your Words

Now, how many of us — because we have watches, we have phones — you have the ability to count the steps you make every day. You may make 5,000 steps, 10,000 steps; that's your target. And every day you get the natījah — you get the result of how many steps you have made that day.

Can you imagine if you had a device, or the ability, to count how many words you say every single day? And those words were then put in two columns — even three if you like: those words which are for you, and those words that are against you, and those that are just in the middle — nothing. If you were able to place all those words, the amount of things that you say every day — where or what would your scale look like?

And we find that the Quran is very daqīq — very precise — in how it explains about the angels, those honoured scribes, that they write down everything that you say. Everything that is done is recorded. And on Yawm al-Qiyāmah, your whole body is speaking and warning the tongue — we don't fully understand that, but it is the case — warning the tongue. Why? Because it is الْجَنَّةُ أَوِ النَّارُ — the Paradise or the Hellfire — for any one of us.

But for many of us, we don't pay attention. We're busy. We're doing everything that we can to fulfil what we think is important for us, and we forget about what we've said. And maybe your excuse is: "I didn't mean it."

A Guarantee of Paradise

Most khuṭab — most sermons — that you hear every Friday, you hear the verse in the khuṭbat al-ḥājah: "O you who have believed, fear Allah and say a good word." Say a good word.

The Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ said:

(Sunan Abī Dāwūd, Hadith 4800; also reported by al-Ṭabarānī)

"I will guarantee — I guarantee Paradise — for the one who guards his tongue and that what is between his thighs, his private parts." You guard these two, you don't fall into ḥarām with these two, then there is a promise for you, a guarantee from the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ, that you will be from the people of Paradise.

When we hear things like that, the stakes are very high. You should be very careful about what you say. Make it something ʿamalī — something practical — until Ṣalāt al-'Aṣr: before you speak, think about what you are going to say. Before you speak, don't just say it. Think: is this pleasing to Allah, or is this displeasing to Allah?

Maybe that takes too much time. "I ain't got time to think about what I've got to say — I just have to say it." And then the regret comes after. But if you know the consequences, then for sure those few seconds — it's worth you taking a pause before you say something: is this something that is pleasing to Allah or not?

And the subject itself is wide — it is vast. There are many āyāt in the Quran which remind us about the consequences and for us to guard our tongues. And similarly, the Sunnah is full of narrations concerning the issue of the tongue and our speech.

Closing Du'ā

So we ask Allah to guide us to that which is best. We ask Allah to allow us to protect our tongues, and that this guarding is a reason for us — with Allah's mercy — to be from the people of Paradise. Āmīn.