Imprison My Tongue

The Messenger of Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “One of the merits of a person’s Islam is his abandoning what does not concern him.” [Tirmidhi]

The least harmful of a tongue’s faults is talking about what does not concern it. It has worse faults too, like backbiting, gossiping, obscene and misleading talk, two-faced and hypocritical talk, showing off, quarrelling, bickering, singing, lying, mockery, derision, falsehood...

So there are many faults which can affect a servant of Allah’s tongue, ruining his heart and causing him to lose both his happiness and pleasure in this life, and his success and profit in the next life.

Perhaps this is why Abdullah ibn Masood (radi Allahu anhu) said: “By Allah, besides Whom no God exists, nothing deserves a long prison sentence more than my tongue.”