so He loves that they avail themselves of these concessions, for the generous love their kindness and bounty to be accepted. As he said in the hadith:

“Shortening the prayer is a charity Allah has bestowed upon you, so accept His charity.”

It is also because these concessions enable worship and obedience to Him to be fulfilled. Whatever a person says or does without need, merely to no purpose, counts against him, not in his favor, as stated in the hadith:

“Everything the son of Adam says counts against him, not in his favor, except enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, or remembering Allah.”

In the two Sahīh collections, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is reported to have said:

“Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day should speak good or remain silent.”

He thus commanded the believer to do one of two things: either speak good or remain silent. Hence, speaking good is better than remaining silent about it, and refraining from evil speech is better than uttering it. For this reason, Allah Most High says:

“Not a word does he utter without an observer ready at hand.”

Quran commentators have differed over whether all a person’s words are recorded. Mujāhid and others said, “The two angels record everything, even his groaning during illness.” Ikrimah said, “They record only that for which he is rewarded or incurs sin.”

The Quran indicates that they record everything, for He says:

“Not a word does he utter.”

Here, “word” is an indefinite noun in a conditional construction, reinforced by the particle min; this therefore encompasses everything he says. Furthermore, whether a person is rewarded for a particular utterance or incurs sin for it requires the recording angel to know what that person has been commanded and forbidden to do. Establishing that the recording angel possesses this knowledge therefore requires transmitted evidence.

Moreover, a person is commanded either to speak good or to remain silent. If he turns away from the silence he has been commanded to observe and instead indulges in needless speech containing no good, this counts against him, for it is disliked, and what is disliked diminishes his standing. Hence the words of