10-28-2006, 11:29 AM
Bismillah
Praise be to Allah, Maintainer of the skies and earth, Owner of the universe and all what is therein, prayer and peace be upon His Messenger, household and companions.
May Allah Inspire me with the correct words and evidence in what I am about to present here.
For many years I stopped on the following Ayahs, each time I read them I do stop at the same position and contemplate over an important issue in our life. Talking. What to say and what not to say:(Quran 23:1-11)
1. <b>Successful indeed are the believers.
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2. Those who offer their prayers with all solemnity and full submissiveness.
3. And those who turn away from evil, vain talk.
4. And those who pay the Zakat.
5. And those who guard their chastity (i.e. private parts, from illegal sexual acts)
6. Except from their wives or (the captives and slaves) that their right hands possess, for then, they are free from blame;
7. But whoever seeks beyond that, then those are the transgressors;
8. Those who are faithfully true to their responsibilities and trusts and to their covenants;
9. And those who strictly guard their (five compulsory congregational) Salawat (prayers) (at their fixed stated hours).
10. These are indeed the inheritors.
11. Who shall inherit the Firdaus (Paradise). They shall dwell therein forever.
Insh a Allah I will try my best with Allah’s Guidance to present the point.
The Ayahs start with stating a fact about the success of the believers, although the word aflah in Arabic means more than just success. It is the utmost success, the best success one can attain. Falah which is the root of the verb used in the Ayah is the success but here it also takes the sense of win. The Ayahs start with the particle <i><b>Qad</b>, </i> which is a confirmation particle.
So we can easily say that Allah starts the Ayah with a confirmation of the winning and success of the believer. This style of beginning is not haphazard, but rather it is important to attract full attention of the reader in order to focus on the following items one by one.
Now as Allah already made a statement of the certainty of the believers to win, Allah Shall move to define those believers. Note that Allah here Didn’t say the Muslims, but the believers since being a Muslim does not necessarily mean that one is a believer. Believing is another rank.
Now again to the definition. Certainly the believers win, but the believers who do what?
1. The first item which would definitly bring about success and wining is to be fully submissive, humble, full heartedly focused during prayer (develop khushou). Khushu is an Arabic word that is very hard to translate. It is a state when u actually develop a sense of being physically standing before Allah. Remember prayer is a meeting with Allah.
With this Allah Made it very clear how prayer is important, but the point here is not just to keep prayer. No to attain this success, to attain this winning, you must develop this state of full sense with Allah’s presence with you during prayer. To be able to keep your heart fully focused on the prayer.
2. To the surprise of the reader, one may expect that the second item could be for example keeping the fast, or the other obligatory worships. But no Allah Surprised the reader and placed here in the second item to walk away from vain pointless talk.
This is actually the point I like to stress.
But first let us continue. Why did Allah Put it here even before the 3rd item which is paying Zaka followed by refraining from Zina (illegal sexual intercourse)?
Is it for no reason? No it is for an important reason.
Allah Never establishes the order of deeds (or better say put priorities) without a wisdom. Much wisdom is inherent in this important advice if only we listen to it.
One who indulges in much pointless talk shall never be able to pay Zakah. In such case one will probably seek arguments like O why do I have to pay 2.5%, cannt I just make a good sum of money without this exact rate? I have children who can make much use of this money. I will still give out money but it does not have to be the 2.5%. And you can go on listening to such arguments. Isn’t this typically vain talk?
This is just an example.
Talking is of 3 types:
a. A type that must be said and encouraged to be said: Quran, dhikr, passing useful knowledge, encouraging others for good, enjoining good and forbidding evil, reconciling between conflicted parties etc.
b. A type which must not to be said: calling others for kufr, talking ill about Allah, Quran, the Messenger salla Allah a`lyhee wa sallam, encouraging others for sin, decorating the sins for others, ghayba, transmitting ill talking between two parties, creating fitnah between people, etc.
c. A type which if not said will have no consequent harm, like O I did this yesterday, I met so and so, my boss did this, my boss is unjust towards me, my co workers did this and that, I bought so and so.
I know I am actually trying to bring about what any friends may talk about.
But just think to yourselves. How many times you went back home from work, uni or school feeling sooooo tired, yet when you think you actually didn’t do that much of work or study that makes you so tired?
Actually your body is the manufacture of Allah, and only Allah Knows how it may function best. Thus, Allah Made it clear how important it is to avoid pointless talk. Allah Placed it second after being humble in prayer and before paying zakat and guarding private parts.
Now more on the issue, if u don’t try to avoid it, how can one talk another person from abstaining from approaching any situations which may lead to zina? I mean I can for example start advising a young sister of not watching movies with hard scenes in order to protect her eyes and her mind from sulking away with such scenes. If she does not observe this rule, this golden rule of abstaining from pointless talk, she will start, O but it is ok, I know how to control myself. And of course you know how this can go on.
You tell a co worker for example (who appears to be devout), why don’t u try and be more reserved with this sister lest you fall in the trap of shaytan? He would reply O but she does not mind the way I talk to her, matter of fact she likes it. It all starts with the desire to prove one’s point, to satisfy the self.
At the end you can clearly see how those who are inflicted with the vice of pointless talk feel. When you tell them resort to prayer, Quran or dhikr to overcome a difficulty, they will prefer to talk about their problems no matter how many times they relate it.
Of course I am not saying here that we must totally stop talking to each other, certainly not, lest people may take it on that sense. But we have rules and regulations to follow in terms of talking which is actually an essential issue in Islam that is not receiving adequate attention. For example, during a meeting at work, one may present the issue in a brief yet comprehensive form or may elaborate and go on just to remain more in the scene.
We can all start observing this golden rule which Allah gave it second priority for us to attain a position with the winning team.
After that Allah Covered a number of other deeds including keeping promises and then ended up with the mention of prayer again, but at this time, it is those who maintain their prayers their 5 obligatory prayers.
Brothers and sisters look at the fruit of such attitude it is really worth trying hard to attain it. It is to be among those who inherit the Firdaus.
Brothers and sisters, start trying to exercise refraining from vain talk. Just think before u speak and see if you will just hold on what you are about to say, will this have any harmful effect? If not then just don’t say it. Think about the words you are about to say, and see how much they will satisfy Allah, if they will then say them.
It just takes practice. Start now.
May Allah accept, whatever is correct is from Allah and may Allah Forgive any shortcomings in introducing this important point.