Control your tongue.

Allah swt says in the Quran(17:36)

"And do not pursue (say not or witness not) that of which you have no knowledge. Indeed, the hearing, the sight and the heart - about all those [one] will be questioned"

At another place(50:18)

"Man does not utter any word except that with him is an observer prepared [to record]"

The tongue is the part of body that can create the most disturbance and chaos without even involving any physical activity. Our Prophet(pbuh) has given us special instructions with regards to controlling our tongue. The mischievous use of tongue is so dangerous such that only avoiding and controlling it will lead to Paradise.

Prophet (pbuh) said

"Whosever gives me a guarantee to safeguard what is between his jaws and what is between his legs, I shall guarantee him Jannah"        [Al-Bukhari]

Apart from this, we are enjoined to be careful in our speech and at least think over what we are speaking. Prophet (pbuh) said

"A person utters a word thoughtlessly (i.e without thinking about its being good or not) and as a result of this, he will fall down into the fire of Hell deeper than the distance between east and west"                     [Al-Muslim]

This Hadith shows the disadvantage of Improper use of tongue that one may be unaware that he is falling in the deepest pits of the Hell. To further signify the importance of guarding the tongue, Prophet (pbuh) said

"When the son of Adam gets up in the morning,  all the limbs humble themselves before the tongue and say: ‘ Fear Allah for our sake because we are with you (we will be rewarded and punished as a result of what you do) if you are straight, we will be straight and if you are crooked, we will become crooked’"                                                                                          [At-Trimdhi]

The above Hadith signifies that carelessness of the tongue can land whole of the body in trouble.

So what to do in order to avoid such carelessness of tongue?

The Prophet(pbuh) said , " He who believes in Allah and the Last Day must either speak good or remain silent."                                                  [Muslim]

And also he (pbuh) said , "Do not indulge in excessive talk except when remembering Allah…"                                                                         [At-Trimdhi]

So the best solution is to remain silent if one cannot think of any good to speak and should remember Allah swt more often such that the heart and the tongue become busy in Allah’s remembrance rather than being indulged in something foul.

By: Jahanzaib Jamshed.