Restraining the tongue

Sayyiduna Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) said: A man came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: "O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), who is the best Muslim?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The one from whose hand and tongue the Muslims are safe."

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with him) said: A Companion stood and asked: "O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), what is the best Islam?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "That the Muslims be safe from your hand and your tongue."

Sayyiduna Mu'adh bin Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) said that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him: "Shall I not show you the root of all these things?" He said: I said: "O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), what do you mean by your saying: 'Shall I not show you the root of all these things'?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) pointed to his tongue. I said: "O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), will we be taken to account for every word that comes out of our tongues?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "O Mu'adh, may your mother lose you! What throws people into Hell on their noses will be nothing but the harvests of this tongue."

Shu'bah said: Al-Hakam said: Maymun bin Abi Shabib also narrated it to me, and I heard it from him forty years ago.

Anbas bin Uqbah said that Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "By the One besides whom there is no god, there is nothing on earth more in need of long imprisonment than the tongue."

Aslam said: Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) entered upon Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) while he was holding his tongue and saying thus: "Indeed, it is this that has brought me to places of ruin."

Abdullah bin Sufyan said that his father, Sayyiduna Sufyan (may Allah be pleased with him), said: I said: "O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), what should I guard against?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) pointed to his tongue in reply.

Abdullah bin Dinar said that Sayyiduna Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: The thing most deserving of being kept pure by a Muslim is his tongue.