One of the courses you get out of fasting is not only depriving yourself from the stomach and private part desires that we all know about, but you also have to work on other prohibitions, especially matters that pertain to the tongue. One of the biggest courses in the university of Ramadhaan is training yourself to refrain from lying, oppression, backbiting, and all those tongue ailments in particular. There are many ailments, but those tongue ailments in particular, and we are going to go over this issue.
The Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said:
لَيْسَ الصِّيَامُ مِنَ الطَّعَامِ وَالشَّرَابِ إِنَّمَا الصِّيَامُ مِنَ اللَّغْوِ وَالرَّفَثِ
In Mustadarak al-Haakim. Abu Hurayrah said the Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said fasting is not just abstaining from food and drink, rather fasting is abstaining from idle and foul, vain and obscene speech.
That is all included in fasting. You all know the Hadith – if someone curses you or treats you in an improper, ignorant or foolish manner, you say:
إِنِّي صَائِمٌ
Let me say a side issue on this. The Hadith in Bukhari mentions it twice in one Hadith:
إِنِّي صَائِمٌ إِنِّي صَائِمٌ
I am fasting, I am fasting. Most people when they say it, you hear:
اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي صَائِمٌ
They change the statement into a Du’aa, which is not part of a Hadith. It is better to stick to the appropriate wording of the Hadith, which is:
إِنِّي صَائِمٌ
There are other Ahaadith pertaining to this matter.
مَنْ لَمْ يَدَعْ قَوْلَ الزُّورِ وَالْعَمَلَ بِهِ فَلَيْسَ لِلَّهِ حَاجَةٌ فِي أَنْ يَدَعَ طَعَامَهُ وَشَرَابَهُ
In Sahih al-Bukhari. Whoever does not abandon falsehood in word and in action, then Allah has no need for him to leave his food and his drink.
In another Hadith in Sunan an-Nasaa’ee, Ibn Maajah and al-Haakim, the Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said perhaps a fasting person gets nothing out of his fast but hunger. In another narration which is only in Ibn Maajah, it says a fasting person attains nothing out of his fast but hunger and thirst. There are some people who get only hunger and thirst out of their fast.
All these Ahaadith and there are many more. Someone will say alright, you mentioned all these Ahaadith so if I curse someone, backbite someone or lie, I have negated my fast so I might as well go eat and drink. Some believe that and some really do that. What we say and we always reiterate is that you do not understand these Ahaadith like you and I understand them, or like I want to understand them – we understand them like they were meant to be understood. The ‘Ulamaa mentioned and talked about this and actually, the Hanaabilah, the Shaafi’iyyah and everyone from the old generation who I read from said the same thing except the Dhaahiriyyah. The Dhaahiriyyah are those who take the texts and understand them in such an extreme apparent way, and they are too literal in their understanding. Everyone else said what one breaks and voids is not the fast, it is the reward – meaning he will lose the reward if he does any of these things. Depending on what he does, he gets sins, and to top that off not only does he get sins, but he loses the reward for his worship (according to whatever he did). Imaam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal said if gossip and backbiting were to break the fast, none of us would have a fast.

Evil speech, lying, backbiting and gossip are all prohibited throughout the year, so why is it emphasised more so in Ramadhaan when one is fasting? Because you are doing something contrary to the wisdom and purpose of the worship you are engaged in. You are in a pure worship and you are trying to purify yourself, so you are doing something that defeats the purpose. It is because like we always say, in Ramadhaan the deeds are multiple folds, but that comes at a cost because sins are multiple folds as well. On an ordinary day, you get sins for gossip and backbiting. In Ramadhaan, it is deeper – you get more sins for that because of the holy days. Not only that, but you get stripped of the reward for that hard work you are doing – the Qiyaam, Salah and Ibaadah. Now do you understand why?

Someone says I lied and I ruined my fast, I am not getting reward out of it so I might as well eat and drink. What happened is you got the sins for whatever you did, you lost the reward of the Ibaadah and now you want to top that off by a super major sin of voiding your actual fast? The point of these Ahaadith is to recruit you – to tell you that you have a lot of deeds and a lot of hard work that you are going to lose if you continue to do this type of sin. You have a lot at stake and this is a boot camp to straighten me and you up for the rest of the year, and then for the rest of our lives.
Some of the Salaf said the easiest part of fasting is leaving your food and your water. Wallahi that is true. The beauty of fasting is that it is a worship that continues on throughout the day (from pre-dawn until sunset) – it is a continuous and ongoing Ibaadah, meaning you get reward even while you are sleeping. That is until you backbite someone – then the Ibaadah stops (meaning the reward stops). Jaabir said if you fast – let your hearing fast, let your tongue fast from lying, let your limbs fast, do not harm neighbours. Everything has to fast.

In these Ahaadith that we mentioned, false speech includes all kinds of speech. It includes lying, backbiting, slandering, insulting, cursing, false testimony, accusing believers, and even yelling is something that should not be done in Ramadhaan. Each one of these is a topic to talk about for many Halaqaat. The tongue is a small muscle, but a deeply dangerous one. That is why the Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam told us that one of the major matters that causes people entry to Jahannam is the tongue. The tongue is a killer, it is a ruiner and a destroyer. It could be one word that you say which attains the wrath of Allah and puts one seventy years into Hell. May Allah save you from that. And it could be that muscle you use to utter one word that makes you among the most successful.

Umar radhiallahu ‘anhu said I walked in on Abu Bakr as-Siddeeq radhiallahu ‘anhu one time while he was holding his tongue. He had his tongue in his hand and he is saying this destroyed me – my tongue destroyed me. What are you talking about Abu Bakr? Your tongue destroyed you? How did your tongue destroy you? The tongue that has done nothing but exert all its efforts in support of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. You Abu Bakr say your tongue destroyed you when you are going to be called by every single one of the eight gates of Jannah? The man who the Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam smiled to his leadership in Salah, on the morning that he sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam died in. The best man after the Prophets, radhiallahu ‘anhu. But they used to hold themselves accountable on a high standard.

Do not get the perception that slander and backbiting is only by tongues and lips. It could be by a wink or a gesture, and it only gets worse on Twitter, Facebook and internet forums. Does that count? Yes that does count. Someone might say but I was disguised by the screen and nobody knew.
أَلَمْ يَعْلَم بِأَنَّ اللَّـهَ يَرَىٰ ﴿العلق: ١٤﴾
Knows he not that Allah does see (what he does)? (Surat al-‘Alaq: 14)
Have you not heard the Qur’an? Does he not know that Allah sees?
يَوْمَئِذٍ تُعْرَضُونَ لَا تَخْفَىٰ مِنكُمْ خَافِيَةٌ ﴿الحاقة: ١٨﴾
That Day shall you be brought to Judgment, not a secret of you will be hidden. (Surat al-Haaqqah: 18)
On that Day you shall be exposed to view – no secrets. Now you can keep it a secret, but no secret of yours will remain hidden on that Day.
...سَتُكْتَبُ شَهَادَتُهُمْ وَيُسْأَلُونَ ﴿الزخرف: ١٩﴾
Their evidence will be recorded, and they will be questioned! (Surat az-Zukhruf: 19)
There is no difference between tongue and gesture, and Twitter and Facebook. You will be held accountable for all that.
Ramadhaan came to let this awareness and fear of Allah surface in our hearts. Yes there are some days left in Ramadhaan, but it is never too late. Try this from now until the end of Ramadhaan – every night before you go to sleep, do the checks and balances on the activities of your tongue for that day. If you lied, mocked, slandered, cursed, said derogatory words or were involved in backbiting, set aside five dollars or twenty dollars (whatever you can do) for each time you made a mistake. After a week or by the end of Ramadhaan, you will see you washed your tongue out. If you continue from now until the end of Ramadhaan with that method, you will continue Bi’ithnillahi Ta’aala for the rest of your life. You will see a difference in yourself.
We are not expecting you to be an angel but when you stumble, you jump up with repentance (Tawbah) and continue on the right path. Ramadhaan is to instill god consciousness, mindfulness of Allah and piety in you – that is Taqwa. A strong Imaanic immune system so that you fear Allah in every word you say – that is Taqwa. I want you to imagine that someone knows his boss has installed some secret cameras, or as a lot of people know – the government has their cars, phones and houses tapped, and they have cameras by their houses. A lot of people know that, so they are watching every exact word. Does he ever forget there is a wiretap or that his boss has installed a hidden camera? He never forgets that and he is always on alert – it is in his subconscious. How do we forget Raqeeb and ‘Ateed?
مَّا يَلْفِظُ مِن قَوْلٍ إِلَّا لَدَيْهِ رَقِيبٌ عَتِيدٌ ﴿ق: ١٨﴾
Not a word does he (or she) utter, but there is a watcher by him ready (to record it). (Surat Qaaf: 18)
Do not say like some people say – when I talked about him, I got it off my chest. No, keeping whatever you want to say in your chest is better than having it on your register before Allah on The Judgment Day. Muslims have different ways of thinking.
Ibn Mas’ood said I do not know anything more worthy of a long prison sentence than my tongue. That is the only thing that is worthy of going to prison. In Sulh al-Hudaybiyyah, Umar said a few words that he deemed were out of line. He was attempting to convince the Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam to change his mind so he can fight Quraysh, but at that time the Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam was not ordered to fight them. Umar wanted to change his mind and the purpose of him saying what he said was because he wanted to die for the sake of Allah. He deemed it inappropriate and years and years later as he got older, he said after that I did so much deeds in repentance and I still do ask Allah to forgive me for that which I said.

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♥ Jazak Allah khair ♥