Title: The virtues of silence

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.

Silence is keeping the tongue from speaking evil and is the way to win both this life and the next. There are many Hadiths and sayings invoking its merits, among which:

• Our Prophet Muhammad pbuh said, "whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, then let him say what is good or keep silent." [Sahih Al Bukhari]. Allah, the Almighty, said, "Man does not utter any word except that with him is an observer prepared [to record]." (Qaf:18).

In his interpretation of Sahih Al Bukhari,  Ibn Battal said that he who strongly believe in Allah and the Last Day will have his faith compelling him to hold himself accountable in this life and refrain from saying anything that he will regret about on the Day of Resurrection.

• Our Prophet Muhammad pbuh said, "whosoever gives me a guarantee to safeguard what is between his jaws and what is between his legs, I shall guarantee him Jannah." [Sahih Al Bukhari].

• In Sahih Al Bukhari also: "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 the east and the west."

• In Sunan Ibn Maja: "Is there anything that throws people into the Hellfire upon their faces except the harvests of their tongues?"

• In Sunan Al Tirmidhi: "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: (i.e., we will be rewarded or 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'."

Many books were written on the virtues of silence, such as Al Samt Wa Adabu Allisan (Silence and Literature of the Tongue) by Ibn Abi al Dunya.

Among the idioms praising silence, one says: "speech is silver, silence is gold."

During times of hardship, man has to turn to his Creator, supplicate to Him and adhere to His commands. The most important elements of integrity and obedience to Allah's orders is keeping the tongue, except for doing good. And Allah knows best.