On Keeping Silent

Our master the Shaykh (Abdullah al-Fāiz al-Dāghestāni) recounted that in the time of the Prophet — upon him the blessings and peace of Allah — on a certain night at a late hour, Jibril came down with an important matter from the presence of Allah to His Messenger. In light of the gravity of the matter the Messenger of Allah sent word for Bilal to call out to the people so that they would gather in the noble Mosque. The time was late. The Companions became alarmed and were asking themselves, are we under attack by the enemy? When they gathered, the Messenger of Allah conveyed to them the command of his nurturing Lord, namely:

“O Muhammad! convey the news that whoever brings up the report of something that has already passed and has been dead and buried—even if it took place two hours before — and fitna flares up because of it, then that will be a reason for incurring the curse of Allah and of His Messenger. It will be the awakening of fitna. Fitna is dormant, Allah has cursed whoever awakens it! This is the matter that Jibril has brought and which he has ordered to be announced on the spot, before the morning, so that no one should bring up the report of something that is already buried and gone.”

On that night our liege lord Abu Bakr al-Siddiq placed the stone in his mouth. He could not speak unless he removed that stone and he would not remove it other than to eat, sleep or pray. The rest of the time he would put it in so that he would not speak or mention something. Allah then informed His Messenger about it and told him to tell Abu Bakr to remove the stone from his mouth because his tongue had become a lisān sidq (tongue of truthfulness), and nothing would come out of it but truthfulness. As for us, how many a stone must we put into our mouths so that we might guard our tongues? And once word comes to us that our tongue has become a lisān sidq — at that time we may speak whatever we wish.

Translated from the Arabic by Shaykh Gibril Fouad Haddad ﵀