Gems Of Ramadan ✔

DAY 26 - FASTING OF THE TONGUE (Part 1)

One of the courses you get out of fasting is not only depriving yourself from the stomach and private part desires that we all know about, but you also have to work on other prohibitions, especially matters that pertain to the tongue. One of the biggest courses in the university of Ramadhaan is training yourself to refrain from lying, oppression, backbiting, and all those tongue ailments in particular. There are many ailments, but those tongue ailments in particular, and we are going to go over this issue.
The Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said:
لَيْسَ الصِّيَامُ مِنَ الطَّعَامِ وَالشَّرَابِ إِنَّمَا الصِّيَامُ مِنَ اللَّغْوِ وَالرَّفَثِ
In Mustadarak al-Haakim. Abu Hurayrah said the Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said fasting is not just abstaining from food and drink, rather fasting is abstaining from idle and foul, vain and obscene speech.
That is all included in fasting. You all know the Hadith – if someone curses you or treats you in an improper, ignorant or foolish manner, you say:
إِنِّي صَائِمٌ
Let me say a side issue on this. The Hadith in Bukhari mentions it twice in one Hadith:
إِنِّي صَائِمٌ إِنِّي صَائِمٌ
I am fasting, I am fasting. Most people when they say it, you hear:
اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي صَائِمٌ
They change the statement into a Du’aa, which is not part of a Hadith. It is better to stick to the appropriate wording of the Hadith, which is:
إِنِّي صَائِمٌ
There are other Ahaadith pertaining to this matter.
مَنْ لَمْ يَدَعْ قَوْلَ الزُّورِ وَالْعَمَلَ بِهِ فَلَيْسَ لِلَّهِ حَاجَةٌ فِي أَنْ يَدَعَ طَعَامَهُ وَشَرَابَهُ
In Sahih al-Bukhari. Whoever does not abandon falsehood in word and in action, then Allah has no need for him to leave his food and his drink.
In another Hadith in Sunan an-Nasaa’ee, Ibn Maajah and al-Haakim, the Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said perhaps a fasting person gets nothing out of his fast but hunger. In another narration which is only in Ibn Maajah, it says a fasting person attains nothing out of his fast but hunger and thirst. There are some people who get only hunger and thirst out of their fast.
All these Ahaadith and there are many more. Someone will say alright, you mentioned all these Ahaadith so if I curse someone, backbite someone or lie, I have negated my fast so I might as well go eat and drink. Some believe that and some really do that. What we say and we always reiterate is that you do not understand these Ahaadith like you and I understand them, or like I want to understand them – we understand them like they were meant to be understood. The ‘Ulamaa mentioned and talked about this and actually, the Hanaabilah, the Shaafi’iyyah and everyone from the old generation who I read from said the same thing except the Dhaahiriyyah. The Dhaahiriyyah are those who take the texts and understand them in such an extreme apparent way, and they are too literal in their understanding. Everyone else said what one breaks and voids is not the fast, it is the reward – meaning he will lose the reward if he does any of these things. Depending on what he does, he gets sins, and to top that off not only does he get sins, but he loses the reward for his worship (according to whatever he did). Imaam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal said if gossip and backbiting were to break the fast, none of us would have a fast.

Evil speech, lying, backbiting and gossip are all prohibited throughout the year, so why is it emphasised more so in Ramadhaan when one is fasting? Because you are doing something contrary to the wisdom and purpose of the worship you are engaged in. You are in a pure worship and you are trying to purify yourself, so you are doing something that defeats the purpose. It is because like we always say, in Ramadhaan the deeds are multiple folds, but that comes at a cost because sins are multiple folds as well. On an ordinary day, you get sins for gossip and backbiting. In Ramadhaan, it is deeper – you get more sins for that because of the holy days. Not only that, but you get stripped of the reward for that hard work you are doing – the Qiyaam, Salah and Ibaadah. Now do you understand why?