testimony when it is incumbent upon one, and speaking truthfully.

Its recommended acts include reciting the Quran, constantly remembering Allah, discussing beneficial knowledge, and related activities.

Its forbidden acts include uttering anything that Allah and His Messenger hate, such as voicing religious innovations contrary to what Allah sent His Messenger with, calling others to them, presenting them as good, and strengthening them. They also include slander, insulting a Muslim or harming him through any words, lying, giving false testimony, and speaking about Allah without knowledge—the most strictly forbidden of these.

Its disliked acts consist of saying things better left unsaid, though doing so carries no punishment.

The early generations differed over whether a person’s speech can be permissible in the sense that speaking and remaining silent are equally balanced. Ibn al-Mundhir and others mentioned two views. The first is that everything a person says must count either for him or against him; nothing he says counts neither for nor against him.

They cited as evidence the well-known hadith:

“Everything the son of Adam says counts against him, not for him, except the remembrance of Allah and whatever is connected with it.” «1»

They also argued that all his speech is recorded, and only good and evil are recorded.

Another group said: Rather, such speech is permissible, counting neither for nor against him, just like movements of the limbs. They reasoned that much speech is subject to neither a command nor a prohibition, which is the defining characteristic of what is permissible.

The correct conclusion is that using the tongue to speak is never equally balanced between speaking and refraining: one or the other is always preferable. For the tongue has a significance unlike that of the other limbs. Every morning, all the limbs humble themselves before the tongue, saying, “Fear Allah, for we depend upon you; if