at the two ends of the day, morning and evening. This may also include remembering Allah with the heart alone. However, remembrance within oneself may be complete or incomplete: complete remembrance involves the tongue together with the heart, whereas incomplete remembrance involves the heart alone.

Similar to this are His words, Most High:

“And they say to themselves, ‘Why does Allah not punish us for what we say?’”

Those who hold that speech, without qualification, means inner speech have cited this verse as evidence. Our fellow scholars and others have given two answers to this argument. First, they spoke quietly with their tongues. Second, He qualified their saying as being “to themselves”; when speech is qualified in this way, its meaning differs from that of speech without qualification. This resembles the saying of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“Allah has pardoned my community for what passes through their minds, so long as they neither speak of it nor act upon it.”

His words, “what passes through their minds, so long as they do not speak of it,” demonstrate that inner speech is not speech in the unqualified sense and does not involve the tongue.

Some of these people have also appealed to His words:

“Whether you conceal your speech or proclaim it aloud, He surely knows what is within the hearts.”

They have taken concealed speech to mean speech within the heart rather than with the tongue, on account of His words:

“He surely knows what is within the hearts.”

This is a very weak argument, because