Al-Ghazali: The Banes of the Tongue for Young People & Their Parents (Book 24 from the Ihyaʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn)

Title: Al-Ghazali: The Banes of the Tongue for Young People & Their Parents (Book 24 from the Ihyaʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn)
Author: Imam Al-Ghazali
ISBN: 9781941610695
Publisher: Fons Vitae

Al-Ghazali: The Book on the Banes of the Tongue for Young People and Their Parents  (Book 24 from the Ihyaʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn)

The Mystery of the Mount & the Golden Cave

A Word from the Publisher:

Very dear Ghazālī Family – young adults and their parents:

Now that we have completed the first seven books of Imam al-Ghazālī’s Revival of the Religious Sciences, which include the pillars of our faith, we turn to other key teachings which can help raise our awareness and practice of the sunna.

The work you are about to read will be one of the most wonderful texts you will ever encounter for your life’s journey. We are all talking most of the day, even speaking in our heads to ourselves continuously. The ways we use speech can easily harm others and then, at the same time, destroy our own inner core while compromising our dignity. We are, for the most part however, completely unaware of the hurt we are causing.

Here you are provided with one of the most useful tools you will ever have to help you be conscious of what you are saying and re-align yourselves with your highest nature. You will thereby be better able to act and speak directly from the Heart.

If someone advises you not to lie or argue, why doesn’t that prevent you from doing so? It’s because you do not understand all the components and subtle dimensions of lying or arguing.

The brilliant way that Imam al-Ghazālī explains the “banes” – or scourges – of the tongue will not only astound you but will elevate the entire relationship you have with your Self. A greater awareness of the dangers of speech will arise.

Excerpt from the Introduction by Hamza Yusuf Hanson

Of all the gifts God granted humankind, none compares to the gift of speech. From the mercy of God, we have the gift of revelation in language we understand. The Qur’an states, “The Benevolent One taught the Qur’an, created man, taught him expression” [55:1-4]. As Imam al-Ghazālī reminds us, we are a unique creation of God, partly angelic and partly animal. Language, the act of symbolizing, which makes us the “talking animal,” enables communication, discovery, and understanding. Unfortunately, these two seemingly contradictory elements, rationality and animality, live for the most part in a state of tension. Harmonizing the two seems to be the great challenge of our species and, more importantly, of our individual lives. How do we live with ourselves harmoniously so that we might live with others in harmony? The tongue holds the answer to this question.

This piece of flesh in our oral cavity serves two main purposes: tasting our food and articulating our thoughts. Thus, both animality and rationality reside in the hollows of our mouths, as we open them to eat like animals or to speak like angels. Our tongues aid in nourishing our bodies as well as translating for our souls. And just as we too often consume foods that are harmful to our animal bodies, so do we too often speak in ways that are harmful to our angelic souls, causing the animality to become more rapacious and the angelic rationality to become more demonic. Hence, we must be wary of the banes of the tongue to prevent falling into some of our most destructive tendencies.
Without hyperbole, this may be one of the most important books you will ever read. The harvest of our tongues plagues us in our daily lives more than anything else. The Qur’an reminds us,

“No one utters a word without a ready observer there” [50:18], and “Don’t speak ill of others behind their back. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother?” [49:12]. The Prophet s.a.w.s. said, “If you can guarantee for me what is between the two sides of your jaw and the two sides of your thighs, I can guarantee for you paradise.” In other words, if one guards one’s tongue from saying anything prohibited and one’s genitals from doing anything untoward, God will forgive the minor sins and grant such a person paradise.

Most people are unaware of how often they utter words displeasing to the Creator of tongues. The Prophet s.a.w.s. said, “A man will utter words, giving them no consideration, that will cause him to fall into hell, the distance of what is between the East and the West.” The Prophet s.a.w.s. also said, “Are people dragged into the hellfire for anything other than the harvests of their tongues?” This rhetorical question does not indicate there are no other sins; rather, it emphasizes the enormity of the sins of the tongue, how widespread they are, and what little consideration people give them.