In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The life of the salaf was defined by the harmony between their speech and their actions.
This includes guarding the tongue against excessive talk.
And avoiding speech that holds no benefit.
Umar Ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) said:
"May Allah have mercy on a person who restrains the excess of his speech,
And prioritizes the excess of his deeds."
Abdullah Ibn Mas‘ud (may Allah be pleased with him) said:
"By Allah, besides Whom there is no god,
There is nothing on the face of the earth more deserving of long-term imprisonment than the tongue."
Abu al-Darda’ (may Allah be pleased with him) said:
"Be fair to your ears against your mouth;
For you were given two ears and only one mouth,
So that you may listen more than you speak."
Ali Ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) said:
"The tongue is the foundation of the body;
If the tongue is upright, the limbs will be upright,
But if the tongue falters, no limb will remain steady."
Mutarrif Ibn al-Shikhkhir (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"Whoever purifies his deeds will purify his speech,
And whoever mixes them [with corruption], it will be mixed for him."
Wuhayb Ibn al-Ward (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"Whoever counts his speech as part of his deeds will speak less."
He also said (may Allah have mercy on him):
"The physicians have agreed that the essence of medicine is dietary restraint,
And the wise have agreed that the essence of wisdom is silence."
He further said: "A man may remain silent,
And thereby his intellect becomes gathered and focused."
A man once praised another man,
And one of the salaf said to him:
"What do you know of him?"
He replied: "I saw him guarding his speech."
Ibrahim al-Taymi (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"When a believer intends to speak, he reflects;
If his speech is for his benefit, he speaks,
But if it is against him, he refrains."
It is said in the aphorisms:
"When the intellect is perfected, speech diminishes."
Yahya Ibn Abi Kathir (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"There are two traits; if you see them in a man,
Know that what lies beyond them is even better:
If he restrains his tongue,
And guards his prayer."
Yunus Ibn ‘Ubayd (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"There are two traits; if they are sound in a servant,
The rest of his affairs will be sound:
His prayer and his tongue."
Some of the salaf said:
"My tongue is a beast of prey;
If I let it loose, I fear it will devour me."
It used to be said:
"Excessive speech strips away dignity."
Al-Fudayl Ibn ‘Iyad and Ibn al-Mubarak (may Allah have mercy on them) said:
"The most intense form of piety is in the tongue."
‘Umar Ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"I refrain from much speech,
For fear of showing off."
He also said (may Allah have mercy on him):
"If you see a man who maintains long silence,
And flees from people,
Then draw near to him,
For he is being taught wisdom."
Sufyan al-Thawri (may Allah have mercy on him) was asked:
"When you engage in hadith, you are energetic, but when I speak to you, you ignore me,
And when you are not in a hadith session,
You are as if you were dead."
He replied: "Do you not know that speech is a trial?"
He also said (may Allah have mercy on him):
It used to be said:
"Silence is the ornament of the scholar and the veil of the ignorant."
Some said:
"If there are inherent flaws in being inarticulate,
Then there are equal flaws in eloquence."
Hatim al-Asamm (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"If a spy were sitting with you to record your words,
You would be cautious of him;
Yet your words are presented to Allah the Almighty,
So why are you not cautious?"
It was said to Ibrahim Ibn Adham (may Allah have mercy on him):
"So-and-so is learning grammar."
He replied: "He is in greater need of learning silence."
Abu Bakr Ibn ‘Ayyash (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"The lowest benefit of silence is safety,
And safety is sufficient as a blessing;
The lowest harm of speech is fame,
And fame is sufficient as a calamity."
Some eloquent scholars said:
"[Silence] earns you friendship and love,
Protects you from a bad outcome,
Clothes you in the garment of dignity,
And spares you the trouble of apologizing."
Our Imam,
Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him),
Used to marvel at Badr al-Maghazili (may Allah have mercy on him),
And would say: "Who is like Badr?
He has mastered his tongue."
Hamdan Ibn Dhunun said:
"My eyes have never seen anyone like Ahmad Ibn Hanbal (may Allah have mercy on him)
In his piety and his guarding of his tongue."
‘Ata’ Ibn Abi Rabah (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"Those who came before you
Used to dislike superfluous speech.
Do you not fear that there are guardians over you?
Is one of you not ashamed
That if his scroll, which he filled at the beginning of his day, were spread out before him,
Most of what is in it would be neither of his religion nor his worldly life?"
Some wise men said:
"A person’s intellect is hidden beneath his tongue."
Ibn Daqiq al-‘Id (may Allah have mercy on him) used to say:
"I have never spoken a word nor performed an action
Without preparing an answer for it before Allah the Almighty."
Guarding the tongue against backbiting,
And tracking the slips, errors, and faults of others.
‘Umar Ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) used to say:
"Do not occupy yourselves with mentioning people, for that is a trial;
Instead, occupy yourselves with the remembrance of Allah, for that is a mercy."
‘Amr Ibn al-‘As (may Allah be pleased with him) passed by a dead mule,
And said: "For one of you to eat from the meat of this mule
Until his stomach is full
Is better for him than to eat the flesh of a Muslim man."
Ibn ‘Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) said:
"If you wish to mention the faults of your companion, remember your own faults."
‘Awn Ibn ‘Abd Allah (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"I do not think anyone becomes preoccupied with the faults of others
Except out of heedlessness regarding his own self."
It was said to al-Rabi‘ Ibn Khuthaym (may Allah have mercy on him):
"Will you not mention people [their faults]?"
He replied: "I am not pleased with my own self,
So how could I be free from criticizing myself to criticize others?
People fear Allah regarding the sins of others,
Yet they feel secure regarding their own sins."
Al-Awza‘i (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"I heard Yahya Ibn Abi Kathir (may Allah have mercy on him) say:
'It will be said to the servant on the Day of Resurrection:
Rise and go to so-and-so to take your right from him.'
He will say: 'My Lord, I do not know of any right I have against him.'
It will be said: 'Yes, he mentioned you on such-and-such day for such-and-such.'
And on such-and-such day for such-and-such.'"
Al-Awza‘i said:
"Is he a sincere advisor to himself who will have his good deeds taken away tomorrow,
While he looks on in humiliation and fear,
Wishing there were a great distance between him and his brother in Allah?"
Mujahid (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"The expiation for eating the flesh of your brother [backbiting him]
Is to praise him and pray for his good."
Sufyan Ibn Husayn said:
"I mentioned a man negatively in the presence of Iyas Ibn Mu‘awiyah (may Allah have mercy on him),
He looked at my face and said:
'Have you fought the Romans?'
I said: 'No.'
He said: 'The people of Sindh, India, and the Turks?'
I said: 'No.'
He said: 'So the Romans, the people of Sindh, India, and the Turks are safe from you,
Yet your Muslim brother is not safe from you?'
He said: 'I never did it again after that.'"
When a man was mentioned negatively in the presence of Muhammad Ibn Sirin (may Allah have mercy on him),
Muhammad would mention him with the best qualities he knew of him.
Ibn Sirin (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"It is an injustice to your brother to mention the worst you know of him,
While concealing his good."
Bakr al-Muzani (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"If you see a man preoccupied with the faults of others while forgetting his own,
Know that he has been deceived."
Al-Fudayl Ibn ‘Iyad (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"A man might say:
'La ilaha illa Allah' [There is no god but Allah],
Or 'Subhan Allah' [Glory be to Allah], and I fear for him the Fire."
It was asked: "How so?"
He said: "He backbites in his presence and finds it pleasing,
So he says 'La ilaha illa Allah,'
But this is not the place for it.
The place for this is to advise him regarding his own self and say to him:
'Fear Allah.'"
It was said to Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him)
Regarding a man to whom Ishaq Ibn Ibrahim gave a thousand dirhams:
"Do not name anyone for us."
He said (may Allah have mercy on him):
"No one has ever spoken against people
Except that he fell and his hadith was discarded."
There was a man in Basra called al-Aftas,
Who used to narrate from al-A‘mash and others,
And he had gatherings,
And his hadith was authentic,
Except that no one was safe from his tongue,
So his hadith and his reputation vanished.
Al-Muwaffaq Ibn Qudamah (may Allah have mercy on him) said about one of the scholars of his time,
Who was afflicted with tracking the faults of people,
Especially the people of knowledge and righteousness:
"I thought he would be more prominent in issuing fatwas than his father and others,
Until I saw fatwas of others that were more sound in answer and more correct.
I thought he was afflicted with that
Because of his love for proving people wrong,
And his pursuit of their faults.
It is not unlikely that Allah punishes a servant with the same type of his sin.
He occupied much of his time refuting people in their writings,
Exposing their hidden mistakes,
And loving to point out their slips.
A servant does not reach the reality of faith
until he loves for people what he loves for himself.
Do you think he would love for himself, after his death,
for someone to stand up to expose his slips,
criticize his writings, and highlight his mistakes?
Just as he would not love that for himself,
he should not love it for others,
especially for the early Imams
and the preeminent scholars.
Allah the Almighty has shown us a sign in his deviation from what is correct,
in matters that are apparent even to those beneath him in rank.
The life of peace between word and deed.