A Small Organ, a Great Danger
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Welcome. This is the twenty-fourth book of The Revival of the Religious Sciences, by Imam al-Ghazali. It is about one small part of the body. The tongue.
The tongue, he says, is small in size and enormous in its danger. It costs nothing to move. It never tires. And there is no limit to what it can say.
The Prophet ﷺ said, whoever guarantees me what is between his jaws, and what is between his legs, I guarantee him Paradise.
Two things. The tongue, and desire. Guard those two, and Paradise is promised.
He also said, whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, let him speak good, or remain silent.
There are only two choices. Good words, or silence. There is no third option of saying whatever comes to mind.
al-Ghazali lists twenty dangers of the tongue. He begins with the lightest, like talking about what does not concern you, and rises to the gravest, like lying, backbiting, and tale-bearing.
In this book, we will walk through those dangers, learn when speech is allowed and when it is forbidden, and see why the early Muslims valued silence so highly.
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