– al-jahl (ignorance): foolishness that shows itself through insulting, abusing, or slandering others; it is the opposite of forbearance.

• Points derived from the ḥadith:
  1 – “False speech” is any utterance that deviates from truth to falsehood. It therefore covers every forbidden word: lying, backbiting, tale-bearing, perjury, insulting, reviling, and the rest.
  2 – Every instance of false speech is prohibited at all times and in all places, yet its sin grows graver when it occurs in a blessed time such as Ramadan, a sacred place such as the Two Sanctuaries, or a virtuous state such as fasting.
  3 – Ignorance, being the opposite of forbearance and expressed through obscene speech, is likewise forbidden in every circumstance—and even more severely so for the one who is fasting.
  4 – A fast accompanied by false speech, ignorance, and foolishness is deficient in meaning and scant in reward, for it is not a complete fast; had it been perfect, it would have protected its practitioner from forbidden words and idle talk.
  5 – The saying, “Allah has no need for him to give up his food and drink,” is meant to underscore the enormity of engaging in false speech and ignorance while fasting; Allah, exalted is He, is in no need of the worlds or their deeds.
  6 – A fast remains outwardly valid and the obligation fulfilled even when joined to prohibited speech, for such speech is not among the physical nullifiers of fasting.
  Al-Iqnaʿ states: “Backbiting and the like do not break the fast.”
  The Wazir said: “The scholars agree that lying and backbiting are disliked for the fasting person but do not invalidate his fast; legally his fast remains sound. This rests on the principle that a prohibition which is general and not specific to an act of worship does not nullify that worship, unlike a prohibition that is particular to it.”
  7 – Among the etiquettes of the fasting person, al-Iqnaʿ says: “He must avoid lying, backbiting, tale-bearing, cursing, obscene language, and the like at all times—more emphatically in Ramadan and in a sacred place—and he should refrain from any deed that wounds his fast, restraining his tongue from what is unlawful or disliked, and if—"