Abu Musa reported that
رضى الله عنه ـ قَالَ قَالُوا يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ أَىُّ الإِسْلاَمِ أَفْضَلُ قَالَ “ مَنْ سَلِمَ الْمُسْلِمُونَ مِنْ لِسَانِهِ وَيَدِهِ ”
Some people asked Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ), “Whose Islam is the best? i.e. (Who is a very good Muslim)?” He replied, “One who avoids harming the Muslims with his tongue and hands.”
In a hasan (good, but not perfect) hadith in Jami` at-Tirmidhi, Abu Sa’eed Al-Khudri narrates that the Prophet, peace be upon him, said
إِذَا أَصْبَحَ ابْنُ آدَمَ فَإِنَّ الأَعْضَاءَ كُلَّهَا تُكَفِّرُ اللِّسَانَ فَتَقُولُ اتَّقِ اللَّهَ فِينَا فَإِنَّمَا نَحْنُ بِكَ فَإِنِ اسْتَقَمْتَ اسْتَقَمْنَا وَإِنِ اعْوَجَجْتَ اعْوَجَجْنَا
When the son of Adam wakes up in the morning, all of his body parts bow to the tongue and say: ‘Fear Allah regarding us, we are only part of you. If you are straight we are straight and if you are crooked we are crooked.’
Allah blessed us with two physical gates to help restrain our tongues: the teeth and the lips. SubhanAllah! Make use of them!
Of the two hollow ones, the mouth is probably the worst and hardest to conquer. It’s just so easy to lie, tell a bunch of things that we don’t really know, blow smoke, talk out both sides of our mouths, or speak ill of our brothers and sisters in faith and in humanity, and it’s sometimes hard to keep our mouths shut, remember to speak the good, or keep remembrance of God on our tongues. But if we can do it, that’s one BIG thing Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala won’t have to ask us about on the Day.
