The lecture took place at Main Campus, IBA on March 10, 2011. It is a a part of the ongoing Scattered Pearls Series and the speaker was Sobia Qasim.

Please note that the following is not a transcription of the lecture and only based on the notes I took during the lecture. I have tried to cover as much as possible.




Remember the old Urdu saying before speaking " Pehley tolo, phir bolo" [ First weigh, then say ] But our sorry state is that we don't even think after we have spoken. Today, In fact, we  do such sins so easily which as if a fly comes and sit on our noses and then we easily shake our head away. For our elders, to sin was as if to have a mountain fall on you.


Also realize the importance of what we utter through Nikah. By declaring " I accept" three times through the tongue, a person who is supposed to be a Na-mehram for you becomes a mehram and you can spend your entire life with him or her. Similarly, if you utter the three statements of Divorce, that is enough to make a your wife Na-mehram for you, even if the words are uttered in sheer anger. What we say is so important to Allah that it is like words written on stone and it cannot be undone. What's said is said.

There are various Ahadith of Prophet S.A.W regarding protecting the tongue:

He said "Whosoever gives me a guarantee to safeguard what is between his jaws and what is between his legs, I shall guarantee him Jannah.''  This implies protecting the tongue and the private parts.


Another hadith of Prophet S.A.W is that "one who remains silent attains salvation"

On another instance, he said "Hold your tongue, make your houses spacious and repent for your sins"

And "Silence is a rule and few people can observe it"

A Shaykh once said "What can one learn from my words when he or she doesn't learn from my silence"



Another thing to point out is that when a person wakes up in the morning, all the organs rebuke the tongue and say "don't punish us because of your misuse"

We must realize through the misuse of the tongue that we can actually end up doing Gunaah-e-Kabira, for example lying.  A hadith of Prophet S.A.W tells us regarding lying that "When a servant (of Allah) tells a lie, (his) Angel goes away from him to the distance of a mile, because of the internal commotions of what it brings" We ask Allah why aren't our duas accepted? How can it be accepted when we cause the angels to go away from us on account of our own actions? due to our own lying? One of the remedies for getting rid of lying is to punish yourself whenever you utter such a statement. For example, you can make a niyat "everytime I lie, I will offer 20 Rakaat nafal" It is guaranteed that you will think a thousand times next time before you say an untrue statement.




1. Looters of war booty
2. Talkers of useless things
3. Those who are dafe

