Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
سنة طيب القول - Pleasant speech -
He [pbuh] had pleasant speech
He had pleasant words
He would always pick the most pleasant, beautiful, and gentle words
Even if someone imagines that maybe they can replace a word,they would not be able to find
So the best human speech is that of the prophet [pbuh]
Allah [swt] said to His prophet [pbuh]: "Tell my servants to say what is best;
indeed the Shaitan is always inciting evil between them"
This verse is indicating that when we talk to each other,
the shaitan uses our very own words to create problems between us
It's due to this that you find so many people with problems caused by their own speech
One person says a word and that word in misunderstood by another person.
This is what they always refer to as a misunderstanding
[Allah says: Tell me servants to say that which is best]
The prophet [pbuh] in his discussions and arguments with the disbelievers,
those that showed enmity and fought against him,
the prophet [pbuh] would say to them,
as Allah mentions in the Quran:
"Say, you will not be questioned about our sins and we will not be questioned about your deeds"
The prophet [pbuh] used to say to the disbelievers that you accuse us of being wrong,
you will not asked about us, everyone will be responsible for their own selves
And he didn't say accordingly "you will not asked about our sins nor will we be asked about your sins"
No. He was respectful to them and said, we will not be asked about your deeds
Meaning that the prophet [pbuh] did not accuse them of any wrongdoing.
So the prophet [pbuh] used this manner with them,
which is called: showing fairness and not demanding it in return
[From the etiquettes of the prophet [pbuh]: At times he spoke with others in their own tongue]
When the prophet [pbuh] wanted to alert people to the errors they are committing in their religion,
he would never mention people by name
Instead he would say: What do you think about people that do such-and-such
He did not like to mention people in bad terms and he used to avoid doing so
From his manners, when he wanted to inform someone of their mistakes,
he would ask someone close to that person to talk to him
so that the prophet [pbuh] is not himself the one to mention his errors to him
[The successful person is the one that closes his mouth before others plug their ears]
Today, in the minds of some people, pleasant speech is considered dull
They consider someone who has pleasant speech to be boring
The reason for this change in attitude is perhaps
because they did not fully understand that this a prophetic practice
Among some people nowadays, offensive, outlandish,
and curse words have become the greetings amongst them;
the style of the youth,the example to follow.
One of the companions came to the prophet [pbuh], his name was Jabir.
He asked the prophet [pbuh] to give him advice.
The prophet [pbuh] said: “Do not curse anyone.”
Then the man said, I swear by Allah that after that I did not curse any man, women, or animal.
Meaning, he completely abstained from cursing anything anymore, even the animals.
He understood the prophet’s words very well,and he executed his words and never cursed anyone after that
There’s was a woman that cursed the she-camel she was riding on,
then the prophet [pbuh] said, unload the goods off the camel
and leave her, a cursed she-camel should not accompany us.
So this she-camel walked by herself
and the prophet [pbuh] did not accept that she accompany them.
[The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue]
The prophet [pbuh] said:
“Perhaps someone speaks a word to make his friends laugh,
he plunges into the depths of Hell because of it”.
Sometime a person wants to say something to make other laugh,
then he says something that shows bad etiquette with Allah
or maybe not befitting good character
The prophet [pbuh] forbade us from using words of frustration,
words of grievance, words that exhibits forgetfulness of the blessings that Allah granted people
It’s perhaps what they call today negative talk.
It depresses the society and causes people to always look at the gloomy side of things,
the negative aspects, and this destroys the purity and tranquility in people’s hearts
[Choose your words before you speak and give ample time for your choice of words to mature,
for words are like fruit, they need enough time to ripen]
What’s really beautiful is that this is continuous prophetic practice
If you use pleasant speech,
it means that you are constantly following the prophet [pbuh]
because you’re always intending to use pleasant speech.
So anything your say to your colleagues, your family, your elders,
is a sign of what is inside you.
As the saying goes: “Every container becomes splashed by what’s in it”
and “The tongue is an expression of what’s in the heart”
The beloved of Allah had the purest heart and so he had the purest tongue.
This is the benchmark.
Would like to be on the winning side or on the other.
This is the choice that Allah has offered in His saying:
“Say if you truly love Allah, then follow me and Allah will love you.”
It is very important for us to know and understand
that following the prophet [pbuh] is not just in his actions but also in his speech and expressions.
So even our speech can be in accordance to the prophetic practice. �