Effects of Irresponsible Speech - Mufti Menk

Effects of Irresponsible Speech - Mufti Menk

Opening

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh

We praise Allah. We send blessings and salutations upon Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) his household, his companions. We ask Allah to bless them, to bless everyone of us, to forgive our shortcomings and to grant us Jannatul Firdaus, Paradise.

Ameen.

The Gift of Language

My beloved brothers and sisters, when Allah created Adam a.s, he was never a baby. He was created an adult.

And Allah taught him the words of everything. Allah gave him the language.

In Surah Al-Baqarah, Allah says, We taught Adam all the nouns, all the words, everything he was taught.

So when he came onto the earth, he was already able to speak. Where did he learn the language? The Qur'an says Allah taught him. A question arises later on.

Allah created Hawa and Eve. And when they came to the earth, they were together. They were able to communicate.

Because communication is very very important. For you and I to be able to get along, to be able to achieve anything, we need to communicate even if it is in sign language. Sometimes, I don't know your language, you don't know my language, and you are seeing that I am stuck somewhere.

Automatically as a human being, your heart will make you want to help me, even though I did not say one word. Because it was the communication based on the need that was understood by the other individual. This is the creation of Allah.

So Allah has kept communication very sacred. Through that communication, you will enter paradise or you will be cast into hellfire. So we don't realize how it is actually a gift and a favor of Allah to be able to communicate.

You know, look at those who are unable to speak, how difficult it is for them, what type of languages they have to learn and so on. But still it is a gift of Allah that they too can communicate over the centuries and the decades and the millions of years or how much ever, how many ever years it was. People's languages changed.

Because as they increased in number and as they went along everywhere across the globe, they communicated with each other and the dialects changed. But they still spoke to each other. If you look at the languages in Africa alone, they are all interconnected or mostly interconnected.

You look at Swahili, you look at Hausa, you look at Fulani, some of the most prominent languages across Africa, they are somehow interconnected, subhanallah. You come into southern Africa and you take a look at our languages here. They are also interconnected, but it is a favor of Allah.

What is the point? What am I trying to say? My brothers and sisters, the ability to communicate is a gift given by Allah and Allah is watching you and He is marking how you use that ability.

The Power of Words

Later on, the devil, shaitan taught the children of Adam swear words. Do you really think Allah taught swear words? A word that is used.

Imagine, your entire body changes in heat and temperature just because someone used one word against you or your mother. One word. They moved their mouth and the voice came out and suddenly it's like qiyamah for you.

You know, the day of judgment has come. People take out guns and shoot each other based on some voice that came out of the voice box that lasted a split second and suddenly the world changed, your face changed, your health changed, you collapsed based on that. Isn't it something we need to be careful about? Don't you really think that this tongue and the ability to communicate is something so powerful we need to be responsible? This is part and parcel of our journey to paradise.

Allah created us on the earth to test us. One of the things He's watching is how do you use your tongue? Wallahi, we are failing. You know why? We call each other bad words, terrible words.

We backbite, we say hurtful things, we lie, we cheat, we deceive. And you know what? We use words in order to create problems rather than to solve them, rather than to read the Quran, to engage in the dhikr of Allah, to say loving words. How many of us can go home and tell our spouses or our children or our parents or our siblings a loving word, an encouraging word, a kind word? Wallahi, if a bad word can make you angry, a kind word can even cure your sickness.

Wallahi. Why do you think it's a sunnah to go and visit those who are sick and ill and give them a word of encouragement? It helps them. It will cure them.

By the help of Allah, they feel good. If a bad word can make you sick and suffer a heart attack, a good word can do the opposite for you. Subhanallah.

This is Allah. Allah has taught you words. Subhanallah.

And Allah is just watching. Everything you say is written. Everything you utter is down.

Hadith on Controlling the Tongue

Muadh ibn Jabal radiallahu anhu was with the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wasallam). And the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) told him, Watch your tongue. Control this, holding his tongue.

Control this. So Muadh ibn Jabal radiallahu anhu looks at the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) and he says:

Will we be held accountable for what we say when we haven't even done anything? Wow. Do you understand the question? If I didn't do it, but I said it, am I accountable for it? Do you know what the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) said? He says:

You know, that's a figurative speech in the Arabic language. In the English, we could translate it as, What on earth do you think you're saying, O Muadh? That's what we would say, right?

Sahih at-Tirmidhi Hadith 2616

Do you really think there is any other reason that a person would be cast on his nose and dragged in hellfire except because of the tongue? Wow. Allahu Akbar.

That means the tongue is everything. Be responsible. Do you know what type of power your words have? When you're a father and you say a word, your son is watching, your daughter's watching, your spouse, everyone else is watching.

When they look up to you, they learn from you. You use a word on your wife, they use it on their mother. May Allah forgive us.

You use a word on the gardener or the maid or the one working for you, Wallahi, that bad word that you used will go not only up to your death, but you get a sin for all those who learned it from you, your children and the others going on after your death. Your sins are still clocking, clocking, clocking. Why? Because those bad words you used to say, now there are others you left behind on earth who are saying the same words.

Real Life Consequences

And I want to tell you something. Recently, there was a story, a true story in the news where we read of a girl complaining to her friends and others about how bad her mother is. You know how bad her mother is and how terrible her mother is.

One of the friends was affected out of love for that girl and out of perhaps, you know, the need or the want to solve the problem. This person went on to the side, went to the bedroom and killed the mother and came back and said, You know what? You're not going to have a problem again. What? Don't worry.

No more. Your mother's gone. Imagine a word just because you said a bad thing about someone.

Those who look up to you, those who love you, those who care for you, they translated it as something that should be considered beyond just a word and they took it into actions. This is why politicians, religious people, people of influence, all sorts of people are always called upon to watch what they say. They might just say a simple word, but their followers will translate it into violence, into killing, into civil war, into so many other things.

We need to be careful, my brothers, my sisters. These are words. We are responsible for them.

When you dislike someone, dislike them in moderation, use respectful words to express disagreement. As the world grows, meaning as the world progresses, it grows in technology, Your words that you say and post online will be seen by so many others. We have differences in religion with so many people.

No need to call them swines and morons and dogs and pigs because those are dirty words that will never result in your entry into paradise. You didn't need those words. People curse others openly and they don't realize these words are poisonous.

You might say it with a powerful mind saying that, You know, I'm only trying to fix the situation. You have created a situation a thousand times worse than the one you were trying to fix. Take a look at the walls on the globe.

Many of them are connected to a politician making a statement that was dirty, derogatory, cheap, filled with something they didn't realize or they may have realized was hate, but they didn't know or sometimes they may have known where it would spiral up to. It goes out of your control. Watch out.

There are people who love you, people who look up to you. When you express your difference with someone in a derogatory manner, they may take it to the point of punching them. Why? My father doesn't like this guy.

Let me punch him. Why did you punch him? And yet the difference with the father was very small. It was minute.

Watch out how you say things. It becomes such that it will go through your generations. When you dislike someone, my brothers and sisters, don't lose your paradise because of the way you expressed that dislike.

Not at all. You can say, listen, brother, I disagree with you. That is not correct.

Teach your children that when we disagree with people, we disagree in moderation. We still have to have that element of respect for human life and the integrity, the dignity, the respect for the human body as well. You don't just go up beating people, thumping them, etc.

or encouraging it directly or indirectly. Many people are guilty. Guilty by what? Guilty by influence.

What type of influence? A negative influence that they've had without even knowing people sometimes simply because they kept on spewing hate without realizing where it's going to reach. We witness a lot of issues and problems in every community, in every family, take it broader in every single country on earth. There are problems and issues.

Many of them could be resolved if we use the tongue in a respectful way. My brother, let's sort this matter out. My sister, this is not how it should be.

But rather we start using swear words that are not even in the dictionary. Imagine, not even in the dictionary. May Allah forgive us.

You know, before they used to say this guy is swearing F's and B's. Now they say he's swearing X's and Z's. When I asked, what is it? They said, we don't know either.

Allah forgive us. My brothers and sisters.

The Quranic Command

Nobody realizes how powerful that verse is until you analyze it. At marriage, you hear the verse because you're about to take somebody's daughter. You're about to live with somebody's son.

Watch how you talk. Allah is saying, O you who believe, Be conscious of the one who created you in the first place and who provides for you. That is a Rabb.

Rabbun, the one who provides, sustains, nourishes, cherishes, etc, etc. Be conscious of him at all times. You are brothers and sisters.

No matter how different you might think you are today, you are brothers and sisters from one mother and one father. No matter how different you might think you are, you are brothers and sisters. Watch how you talk to each other.

Allah says, O you who believe, Be conscious of your maker and only utter that which is upright. You know, what is sadeed? Straight, straight speech. That which is not hurtful, abusive, vulgar, false, deception, backbiting, slander.

All that is included in the warning here. (قُولُوا قَوْلًا سَدِيدًا). But then the verse doesn't stop there.

The verse continues to say:

Allahu Akbar. You know this verse, we hear it so many times.

Allah is saying, if you say only good words from your mouth, we will make your deeds acceptable. That means if you say bad words, your deeds will not be acceptable. That's what it means.

You say bad words, your good deeds will go to the person whom you've wronged with your tongue. That's what it is. So we need to be careful, my brothers and sisters.

Allah says, when you say straight words, when you say upright words (يُصْلِحْ لَكُمْ أَعْمَالَكُمْ) then your deeds will become acceptable, will make you good deed. My brothers and sisters, I call on myself and yourself. Watch how you speak.

Be respectful, become a better person, no matter who you are. Say nice things, stop swearing, stop abusing, stop the vulgar words. Don't oppress people with your tongue.

When you express difference, do it so respectfully, you will enter Jannatul Firdaus, a guarantee from Allah. Guarantee.

Hadith on Guaranteeing Paradise

(Sahih al-Bukhari Hadith 6474)

The prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) says, whoever guarantees me, two things, I guarantee him Jannah. What is the guarantee? Whoever guarantees me the correct use of their tongue and their private parts, I guarantee him Jannah.

Subhanallah, subhanallah.

It sounds nice and easy. It's a lifetime of a challenge. Subhana rabbiyal a'la.

May Allah guide us and grant us. The organs Allah gave you, the idea is to be in control, discipline, self-control. That's what Islam is all about.

You don't just use it as you want, you use it as Allah wants. If you use your private parts in the wrong way, you get a sin. That's why if you use it in the right way, you get such a great reward.

It's considered a charity to be intimate with your spouse. Imagine. May Allah grant us goodness.

But we don't realize. So Allah says (يُصْلِحْ لَكُمْ أَعْمَالَكُمْ). And on top of that, (وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ)

Your sins will be forgiven only by using your tongue correctly. Subhanallah. Have you thought of that? That means if you don't use your tongue correctly, your sins will accumulate.

They will be gathering, increasing because you have not used your tongue correctly. So Allah says, when you use it right, we do for you two things and we give you good news of a third thing. The two things Allah does for you when you use your tongue in the most respectful way is that He actually forgives your sins and He makes your good deeds acceptable.

And on top of that, you know what He says?

Subhanallah. Whoever follows Allah and His messenger has definitely succeeded a great success. You want great success? The verse starts off by saying, watch your tongue.

Look at how you talk to people. You know, sometimes we don't realize and I'm going to repeat this and I'm going to end with it because of its importance. You're a father, you're a brother, you're an uncle or you might be at your workplace.

People look up to you. Maybe you have a bit of influence somewhere. You might be an imam of a masjid.

You might be an orator. You might be anybody else people look up to. Every one of us have people who look up to us based on our level.

You may be a politician. You may be a king or whoever. If you speak in the correct way with beautiful respectful words during disagreement, you deserve merit.

You deserve credit because you did not use cheap language to refer to your opponent. Therefore, the problem you have can be resolved and you are earning the pleasure of Allah. But when you use hard words, people begin to hate based on your words and hate is then translated into violence based on your words.

You didn't even think that your words one day might be misinterpreted and taken to the point of violence and killing and whatever else. That's why be responsible how you speak. Give people hope.

Give people courage. Say good words to people. Like I said, one swear word that lasts a split second, not even a second.

One swear word that came out of your mouth where the voice box actually moved a little bit and your voice came out for naught point something of a second can result in a person whom you were addressing, their whole body becomes hot and heated up and they actually become so angry and their whole mood changes. They can suffer a heart attack based on split second of a bad word that you said about them or their parents or whoever else. If that's the case, by saying a good word, a kind word, a word of encouragement, a word of goodness and hope, the opposite will happen.

You will end up spreading so much of goodness. People will love you to greet someone. The prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) says should I not show you, lead you towards something, if you were to do it, it would increase the love between you.

That's not an easy thing. One would think, but he says spread not only the peace between you, but start off with the greeting. Greet someone with a smile.

Acknowledge them. Look in the eyes. Assalamu alaikum.

Even if I differ with you, my brother, my sister, I will respectfully differ. I don't have to be a cheap human being. Where is the value and the character of a Muslim?

Allah says to Muhammad (sallallahu alaihi wasallam), you are upon a very great level of character and conduct.

And then Allah tells us that you should follow the prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam). Wow! So, how's my character? How's your character? My brothers and sisters, I encourage you from this day on, watch how you speak. Say good words.

Go to the house, go home. Say loving, kind words. Every word you say will be written for you or against you.

Like I said, the prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) told that to Mu'adh ibn Jabal. May Allah grant every one of us goodness. And may Allah open our doors.

May Allah make us conscious of our tongues and the way we speak to each other. Trust me,