Why Your Words Hold More Power Than You Think

That all share commonality These chapters seem arbitrary For the untrained eye from Zedenmat. As a matter of fact, every book written by man, pros and has cons, has pros and has shortcomings. Things that could have been better, could have been done better, right? It is only Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's book that is perfect. It could not be perfected more, right? And Zad Al Maad, one of the One of the points that some of the scholars have made with regards to Zad Al Maed that this book could have been done better is the order of the chapters. They seem arbitrary. They'll discuss one thing and then he'll discuss the rest of that thing. Many many pages later. And it seems because honestly that is how he wrote it. He wrote it from his memory as he was traveling. And he said in the introduction I'm writing this book, Away From My Library and Traveling. My thoughts are scattered and my books are not with me, right? So, he wrote it as it came to mind. So, some scholars have actually taken this book Zad il Maed. And they've reorganized it. They've put all the chapters together you would find in a book of Filk, right? That's interesting but always, we to have the original that the scholar wrote. Right? We want to have the original work. It's good to have, you know, a bridged versions. It's good to have versions that have been worked on and pined over by other scholars but at the end of the day, we do want to always have the original work of the scholar at hand because that is invaluable, really. These chapters that we are dealing with, they seem arbitrary. They seem random but they're not. Because Ibn Allah, he introduced these chapters after we finished Hajj, right? The five pillars of Islam. He introduced to us chapters with a he introduced these chapters with a chapter regarding the tongue and the etiquettes of the tongue and speech. We've discussed the principles of those etiquettes in detail. He started it out really by discussing names and how names have an effect on on the and have an effect on the thing that has been named, right? How even people, their own name will have an effect on their destiny and have an effect on who they identify themselves as. But all of these chapters now, we've discussed in the previous chapter, in the previous chapters we've discussed, how he used to make the prophet How, what he used to say when he would enter his home, what he would say for Adan, and and after salah, and during Eid. Now, we going into the etiquettes of what he would say and how he would conduct himself in the presence of food. How he would eat, what he would say, before he eats, after he eats, etcetera. So, these seem arbitrary chapters but really they are all connected and they are all tied together by one overarching theme and that is etiquettes of the tongue, etiquettes of speech. I can't enough. How pivotal speech is in our lives We live in a world currently that is overflowing with speech, idle talk, right? Overflowing with love. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran. Describing the believers He describe the people of El Ferdos, the highest levels of paradise, one of their traits is that they turn away from level. So, what is a level? A level in the Arabic language, literally translates to Twitter. I'm not joking. That's really the literal translation of the word level. What is Twitter? Twitter is the sound of birds. a level in the Arabic language is the sound of birds that is unintelligible. It just fills the atmosphere. We don't really know what they're saying. It, right? That's what is. If you look it up in the dictionary, it'll say Twitter, right? Which kind of is ironic But the point is, is that we live in a world that is overflowing. Just busting at the seams with excessive talk, excessive actions, level. It's overflowing with level. People complain all the time. I don't have time to do this. I don't have enough time to, you know, learn the Quran. I don't have enough time to do this and that. You we have plenty of time. We have more time than we would know what to do with it. we are so preoccupied with the distraction that we are under this under this we have this belief that we have no time when really we have more time allotted to us than probably any other time in human history I mean just just a vehicle or an airplane saves months of travel right people wanted to travel we we the trip in 1 hour. Used to take three, four, five days to get there, right? One way. So, we have, you know, a person wants to bathe. You had to go to a well and draw water and heat the water up and bathe. Now, you just turn the faucet and there you go. Hot water coming down on you. You don't even have to pour it on yourself. Right? People wanted to cook. They had to make fire and they had to set it up and get firewood and chop wood and all these things. Now, you just turn the gas on. We have more time than we know what to do with but unfortunately, our time has been filled with because we live in a time of so much speech, so much talking we start to think that our words are meaningless. Our words don't have the effects that they have. Words are very powerful. The way that you use them may completely change the perspective of a person listening for good or for bad. For positive or negative. When you speak, when I speak, and the more influential a person is, the more important becomes for them too. Be wary of their words. Every time you articulate something to another human being, you are essentially changing the way that they look at the world. They're never going to be the same after whatever you've said to them. Even if it's something trivial, it has an effect. It has an effect When somebody is listening, it will have an effect. And so, we are taught in the Quran, in the Sunnah, to be very of our words. The prophet teaches us that we are to either speak and earn merit or we are to remain silent and escape punishment. We are to either speak and earn merit right? A person is to either speak and gain merit or they are to remain silent and remain safe, remain in safety. And it's interesting because It's almost impossible to be too quiet We should always speak less than necessary, right? Because the tongue is a monster. It can become a monster. It is a caged beast that is constantly straining to break out of its cage and run wild and cause you grief. But we have to be very wary of our speech. A person who is naturally quiet, naturally earns more respect than a person who speaks more than necessary. The scholars tell us and some of the wise men of Islamic scholarship say, that we should remain silent as much as possible. because silence is an adornment for the intelligent and it is a cover for the for the fool. Meaning, a person who is intelligent, if they are silent, if they, the more they are, the less they speak, the more they they become beautiful in our eyes and the more what they say becomes valuable. And a person who is a fool, if he doesn't speak, it's a cover. No one will know a person is a fool until he opens his mouth and tells us. So, it's a win-win for a person to say less than necessary. The prophet was asked as a what are the things that people go to hell for most? He said, El Femu, al fortune. He said, the mouth and the private parts. These are the two things that lead people to hell most Now, when we say the mouth and the private parts, we want to imagine that these are really two categories of sin. One being a category of vengeance and the other being a category of desire and passion. These two things will lead a person to hell. The prophet also said, He says, whoever guarantees to me that he will protect and preserve what is between his two jaws and between his two legs. I will guarantee for this person paradise. Though this is paramount for us to dwell on speech. Speech is very important. How you use words has an effect. The words that you choose to use. The emphasis that you place on them. All of this is very important. We've discussed in previous chapters how a person can overuse words and cause them to lose value. A person overuses words. It causes them to use value, lose value. What makes diamonds precious and valuable? Obviously, the rarity. Likewise, gold and silver These things are rare and because they're rare, they're valuable. Pearls are rare and they have a very particular way that they come about and you can only bring them about in that way. And so, they become very valuable because of their rarity. However, if a person were to have if if the world were to have too many diamonds, they would no longer be valuable because they are common Likewise is the issue with words. We can overuse words. We can overuse words and in doing so, we cause them to lose value. Words such as sorry or I apologize. How overused are these words? Right? If they burn your house down or if they accidentally bump into you in the street, it's the same word. Sorry. Right? Sorry, I burned your house down. Sorry, I bumped into you, right? And in our very superficial society, that's you know, what we do. Oh, sorry. Oh, excuse me. Sorry. this kind of fake, fake presentation of of humility, right? sorry has no meaning now. It has no value. Doesn't mean anything. Likewise, the word love. You know, I love this. I love that. I love. I hate this. I hate that. I hate this movie and I hate, you know, and I and I hate death. It's there's no contrast with those words. And so, we're using the same words to express very different levels and intensities, those words start to lose value and this is why the prophet war us about overusing words, right? Overusing words, number one and number 2, using words in the wrong way, using something good to describe someone terrible. So, he said, he prohibited that a hypocrite be referred to as a Sayed, as a person who was a you know, an upstanding person. Say, it is sir, you know, he prohibited that that word be used to describe a hypocrite. Why? Because if we use that word to describe good people and bad people, the word has no meaning anymore. Let's take a look at the word Sheikh. What does Sheikh mean now? Everybody is a Sheikh. if you have some remnants of a beard and you talk a little bit, you're a shirk, shirk. Imam has no meaning. Everybody is imam. If you studied for 40 years, your Sheikh and if you studied for 4 days, your Sheikh. So, the words have no meaning anymore. What about the word we hear this word a lot, right? In the books of history where we research the people that are in the chains of narration, very, very, rarely will you find a scholar being described as an Ustad. It's almost unheard of. One who was described as a Ustev was Ibn Hosema, Rahima Allah the great Muhadith. Was described as an and that was a crown on his head. Why? Because traditionally among scholars the word is only used to describe a person who has perfected at least 12 different disciplines in Islamic sciences. Hadith and Tafsir and Luga and on and on and on. If a person has not perfected at least twelve then this person is not referred to as a Usteth Likewise, the word half of, half of. Half of was only traditionally used by the scholars to describe someone who at the bare minimum, memorized one 000 narrations. That is the bare minimum. If a person has not memorized 1 000 narrations, committed them to memory, by heart, then this person is not considered a half of. Now, the word half of this, you know, thrown around for everybody So, we see how words can lose their value and if these words are then used to describe bad things, bad things will find their way into our lives. The prophet mentions the narration collected by Ibn Maja on the authority of he says, He said, a group from my nation will eventually come to make alcohol permissible, intoxicants permissible. They will do so by naming it by other than its rightful name. Right? So, we use a good name to describe something bad. That is the first original trick of a Shaitan in using words. Shaitan when he tried when he was seducing Adam and Hawa to eat from the forbidden tree. He described this tree with its opposite descriptions. He said He described that tree that Adam was prohibited to eat from. He described it as the the the tree of eternity, the eternal tree, and a dominion that will never perish, right? It's exactly the opposite. Because when they ate from that tree, their dominion perished and they were subject to death. It's exactly the opposite This is the trickery of a Shaitan. We have to watch out for how we use our words. Allah has stressed this in the Quran. He's been very precise with his words and the prophet throughout his life. Very precise with his words. Used his words very judiciously. Says this is another sub chapter He says.

[Silence]

Pain. Just bismillah, right? and he commanded others to do the same and if he were would have forgotten to say Bismillah he would say which literally translates to, I eat in the name of Allah at its beginning and end. Right? If a person goes to eat, they begin with bismillah. If they forget, they say, bismillah Based on you know, if they remember. This is graded as an authentic narration by it's been reported by on the authority of Aisha. Yes. Start with what? I I don't understand the question.

[Silence]

Well, I mean, that's that's a topic for FCF. I mean, it's kind of kind of off topic. so the prophet would always start with bismillah and if he'd forget he says and the correct opinion of scholars is that saying bismillah when a person goes to eat is obligatory. a Meaning it is a binding. It is obligatory upon a person. It say bismillah. He says and the correct opinion is that a person who purpos ely does not say bismillah than a Shaitan is his companion in that food and drink that he is having. He says and the narrations that have been mentioned and collected of the prophet commanding others to say bismillah when they eat. They are all authentic and they are all very clear They're not ambiguous. He said and there's nothing authentic which contradicts that command. And there is no consensus amongst the scholarship of Islam. That dictates that It is not obligatory to say Bisminda. So, Ibn al Kaim here, he's discussing with us the issue that some people, some of the scholars of Islam have viewed saying bismillah as being a sunnah, as being something encouraged. He's saying, that is a weak opinion, the correct opinion is that it is obligatory. This is also the opinion of Sheikh Al Islam. Ibn Tami, and that is that, a pu who does not say bismillah when they go to eat purposely. This is a person who is in imitation of a Shaitan. And he says the least case scenario of imitating a Shaitan purposely is that it is haram. This is the reasoning of Sheikh Al Islam. All our health.

[Silence]

Gather. There's a few of us and is it enough for just one of us to say bismillah or do we each individually have to say bismillah? It's a difference of opinion. Although he does mention that mentions that it is permissible and it is acceptable for just one person to say bismillah amongst the group. He said, and it could be argued that a person who does not say bismillah. Even if someone else in the group said bismillah, they are still in error of imitating a Shaitan because a Shaitan, when he goes to eat, he is described to us as someone who eats with his left hand, who does not say bismillah. And so, If I'm sitting in a group and one of us says bismillah, that may be sufficient for the barakah. However, me not saying bismillah, does not I I am because one person said it and and that is not enough for everybody to be outside of the realm of imitating a Shaitan or a Shaitan being joining a person in his meal. This is an interesting topic. And what is clear is that each person is commanded to say bismillah individually the opinion of a is very strong and I won't get into why that is. However, it's not easily argued against Now, we go back to a narration of Omar Ibn Ebi Salema, who was the prophet stepson, right? In Omar, he describes to us. that he went to eat and he was eating in the presence of the prophet and he was picking his food from all over the dish. You know, they used to eat together in one dish and he was kind of picking out from wherever he wanted. The prophet said to him, he says, he said to me, young, young man, say and eat with your right hand only and eat.

[Silence]

And a Bedouin man came and made them seven and he started eating with them and he seemed to devour the dish in two quick swipes. Two, it could have been or five or ten but two meaning very quickly. He finished up the food. And the prophet commented on this incident and said, indeed, if he had merely said bismillah, then, that food would have suffice you all. It would have been sufficient. Why? Because, by him, intentionally, not saying bismillah, the barak that Allah would generally place on the food was was revoked. However, had he said bismillah and began with bismillah, the would have been placed into that food. We live in a time of superficiality where everything that matters is size and number, right? It's gotta be the biggest. If it's not super big, it's not important and it's gotta be the most and if it's not the most, it's not important, right? This is how we judge our environment now. It's all about the most numbers and the biggest crowds and right? How many followers I have? Don't worry about the quality of those numbers. All we worry about is the number. However, the same thing goes with issues of wealth, money. We only look at how much I have and how much I make but how much of it is actually blessed by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That is what is important. What makes wealth and food and health and so forth. Something that is worthy and worthwhile and qualitative is that Allah blesses it. If Allah has not blessed it, it doesn't matter how much it is. Even if it appears to be more, it's actually less. Allah subhanahu.

[Arabic recitation]

He says subhanahu wa ta'ala, Allah does stunt He does stunt Usury and he increases charity. What does that mean? When a person takes interest, they've essentially made one dollar into two. It's a very simple to simplify it. They've essentially made one dollar into two. You would think that a person who takes Ribba is always winning. But really he's always losing. Even if he has a higher number, the in that money is not going to be there and you can see that. I mean, there's people swimming in wealth taken by way of Riba and they it goes and comes as fast as you know, it goes as fast as it comes. There's no quality to it. Person can't really can't really catch it, can't capture it because there's no in it and the same thing goes with time. and so, the issue is not the number. The issue is what? The issue is whether Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has placed in it or not. It's mentioned this issue of Barakah Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions this, the prophet mentions this in a narration. He says He says, were in.

[Silence]

Un untruthful then the the blessing of that transaction will be will be stunted, will be taken, will be revoked. And so, let's say a person has a a car, right? If I tell the buyer, if I, let's say I have a car and I tell the buyer, hey, this car has a problem with the transmission. What's going to happen to the price of that car? It's going to go right? But the prophet promises us that if you are transparent and honest, even though the price is less, you will receive more in way of blessing from Allah. That wealth will be qualitative. However, if I conceal that problem, I conceal that problem. The price of that vehicle goes up, right? And I will get more. It appears to be more but really it is. It is So, the issue of Barakah is very important. We have to seek quality, not necessarily quantity. Quantity is only important when it is qualitative. If it is, if it is lacking in quality, quantity will not necessarily amend that. So, this is an important point that Ibn Al Kaim Rahim Allah makes here. It's a point that is alluded to throughout the Quran and Sunnah. It's important that an individual understand that just because something appears to be more doesn't necessarily mean that it is. Just because something appears to be less doesn't necessarily mean that it is. And this is what we are taught in the Quran that no minority is mentioned in the Quran except that it is praised. And no major is mentioned in the Quran except that it is dispraised. This is not to say that a majority cannot be praiseworthy but it is to say that quality is always more important than quantity. It's enough for tonight. Inshallah, we'll continue next week with.

[Arabic recitation]