Why Are Words Becoming Meaningless?

Allah is discussing The issue of using words properly This is extremely important First, last week, we discussed What words to use and what words not to use? Right? A general prohibition of using words that are lowly, that are profane, that are vulgar, and a general, encouragement to use words that are sound and eloquent and so forth. Now, we come into a very unique chapter which is a chapter that honestly his heart you'd you'd be hard pressed to find in another book and that is the issue of not only using proper words and not using words that are improper but also using those words to properly describe what it is you are describing. And not overusing words because when overuse words, what happens? We render them, we render them meaningless, right? What makes a pearl valuable? It's rarity. The fact that it's rare. If pearls were everywhere, they would not have much value. If diamonds were everywhere, as useful as diamonds are, industrially, if they were everywhere, they would not have much value. What makes these things valuable is their rarity. The fact that they're rare and so, words are very similar. It is not permissible. Not the of the prophet to use words that are good and clean and pure to describe things or name people that are not according to those names. So, for instance, the prophet prohibited that a person referred to a hypocrite as say it. Say it in the Arabic language means someone who is is someone who is noble, someone of nobility, someone of honor. Actually, it could very well be translated as sir. Sir, it usually means say it. But now, that's a good example. The word sir. Does it really have any meaning? I mean, we use it to be cordial, right? But does it have any meaning in itself? If someone calls you sir, do you walk around with your head held high after that? Right? No, it's just, it really doesn't have much meaning because we call everybody, sir, right? So, what happens when we overuse a word improperly, we render it less rare. And when it is rare, when it is, when it is you know, when when our words are saturated with it, and it's not rare. And it's not unique. It it has very little meaning. So, for instance, in Islamic titles, there are names such as Usteth and Hafath and Sheikh. These words have very little meaning now. Because we overuse them. Pretty much anyone who has a beard wears a thou, will call him Sheikh, right? Anyone who memorizes the Quran or memorizes a portion of it will probably refer to him as half of right? What stabbed is anyone? Who stands in front of a class? We call him Mustad but these words in the history of Islam, the way that the scholars use these words traditionally, actually are words that are extremely Noble. So, the word half of would never be used for anyone who has not memorized at least 100, 000 narrations. This person, that is the bare minimum criteria to be referred to as a half of. The word was extremely rare in the history of Islam when referencing scholars because it was so difficult to reach that level. It's mentioned that a person must perfect at least 14 independent sciences in Islamic in Islamic disciplines to be referred to as and it was used to refer to scholars such as Ibn Huzema, the great Muhadith. Likewise, the word Sheikh, Sheikh was a word that you would articulate, immense respect and nobility. Has very little meaning now because these words have been overused. When we overuse words, or when we over emphasize, what happens is, our our words, our speech becomes weak. And weak speech, and inarticulate speech, articulates, weakness in mind The stronger a person's speech is, the better they are able to speak, the more articulate they are, this articulates intelligence. And a lack of good speech and proper articulation, this this communicates a lack of thought and a lack of intelligence and a people will become more and more weak, the more weak there, their speech is. The more intricate of speech, we see the more intricate the society. But how do we overuse words in our time? For instance, in America, especially in American English, we overuse words and we render these words meaningless. we will use hyperbole and this harms the language. So, we say things. I go and eat some chicken somewhere. I say, this is the best, tastiest chicken I've ever had anywhere at all times. So, what am I going to say when I eat something that's better? Right? I blunt my speech when I do that. I probably is dangerous for for language. Likewise, a lack of vocabulary is dangerous for thought and it's been positive by many linguists and scholars and this is articulated very well in the book 1984 by George Orwell that one way to control a person's mind is to control their language. If you teach a people how to speak a certain way, you actually control how they think. and by limiting a person's speech, you will limit a person's intelligence and freedom of thought. And that's actually very accurate. And in his book, 1984. basically mentions a scenario where the government wishes to be overbearing and controlling of every little thing that each person does and so they one of the ways that they do this is they take the dictionaries which basically is the sum of all vocabulary and and any particular time and they start to change the words and take away the richness of the English language. And So, a dictionary that would have 50000 words, they trim it down to 40thousand. They trim it down to 30000. They trim it down to twenty thousand. So, where people are no longer able to articulate depth. Right? They're not able to articulate shades of meaning and this will limit their free thinking. They'll no longer be able to think and express and put their finger on those feelings that they have. This extremely dangerous. and I I'm not sure if there's ever been in the history of humanity a time when language is most weak. amongst people in general than the time we're living in. And we can thank social media for that and we can thank in articulate people that we listen to. So, the presidential debates in the time of Lincoln. how four scores than seven years ago. The these were at a college level. The Obama debates which were considered to be very high caliber. We're actually at a sixth grade level. 6th grade. That was the language used. Anything more than that people won't understand what you're saying. This is alarming because it means people's thoughts has become very weak. and the average person can speak and read at about a fifth or sixth grade level in America. This is seriously disturbing information. And it is an unacceptable for the Muslim to submit his mind and his free thought. This is one of the most important things and gifts that we have been given by Allah That the Quran is our minds from the bondage of of false authority The Quran, the Sunnah has taught us to liberate our thoughts, to question authority, to think for ourselves. And it's expanded our minds all the way to the cosmos, the Quran. However, spelling is atrocious in our time Words are used overused to the point that in order to exclaim things, people are resorting to profanity, right?

[Silence]

Be judged for A person will be ultimately judged. Based on the meanings that are articulated, not necessarily the sounds that a person makes. The meanings that are articulated. This is what's intended by speech. So, for instance, we have this very hypocritical way of censoring speech. So, if you're watching a program for instance, right? You're watching a program with subtitles. And they will say something profane. Use some kind of profanity. And in the subtitles, it will have like the first letter and then the rest will be you know, stars or you know, different different symbols and different characters, right? And this is censoring. That is the same as just saying it because that's what we understood when we read it. Correct? That's exactly what we understood. Your mind as well write it out. As a matter of fact, leaving things to people's imagination could actually be worse. Then outright saying things. Let me give you an example. A person doesn't want to backbite someone. Allah I.

[Silence]

Opens the mind to just kind of swim in open waters of imagination, that actually could be very much worse than the actual thing that the person did. As a person starts to all kinds of wild things and usually as human beings, as pessimistic human beings, we to go to the most terrible thing that comes to mind. That's what we usually start with when it comes to evil. This is a type of, a type of the.