Assalamu Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu
Admit it.
As human beings, we just looove to talk. Right?
We talk and talk and talk, so much so that even if no one is around, we end up talking to ourselves!
And if we try to adopt silence, we are often met with statements like:
“Are you ok? You’re so quiet today!”
Do you know how Allah describes the state of the people in Jannah?
لَّا يَسْمَعُونَ فِيهَا لَغْوًا وَلَا كِذَّابًا
No ill speech will they hear therein or any falsehood [Surah an-Naba: 35]
Laghw is all types of speech that is vain, useless, nonsensical, abhorrent, speech with no purpose or aim. And Kiddab is all forms of lies. And lying is one of the characteristics of a hypocrite as we see below:
Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet (ﷺ) said, “The signs of a hypocrite are three: Whenever he speaks he tells a lie; whenever he is entrusted he proves dishonest; whenever he promises he breaks his promise.” [Sahih al-Bukhari]
So the people of Jannah will not hear any form of Laghw or Kiddab, because Jannah is perfect and error-free.
Now to get to Jannah, we need to adopt the qualities of the people of Jannah. Which means, we need to remove Laghw and Kiddab from our day-to-day conversations.
In Surah al-Mu’minoon, Allah describes the qualities of a Mu’min. And one of them is:
وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ عَنِ اللَّغْوِ مُعْرِضُونَ
And they who turn away from ill speech [Surah al-Mu’minoon: 3]
So a Mu’min turns away from vain and ill talk. They don’t like to be in such gatherings or enjoy the company of such people.
But if we sit down and analyze everything we say over a 24-hour period, I think it’s fair to assume that most of it would probably comprise of ill, vain and useless talk. Wouldn’t you agree?
And it’s not just talking in the verbal sense. Today we have social media and we carry our useless conversations online…Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp…
Sometimes there’s no purpose to our status updates, I mean do we really want the world to know what shoes we wore today?? Will that benefit anyone? Think about it.
So if you want to be amongst the people of Jannah, take a moment or two today, and sit down and analyze your speech. And aim to remove Laghw and Kiddab from it, starting now.
Next week inshaAllah, I’ll share a story and a simple test to help you determine whether you should say something (esp. when you are faced with rumours) or remain silent.
