Malfuzat – Volume II — Page 136
136 Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Controlling One’s Tongue When all of these points make it evident that no comfort and happiness can be attained without true righteousness, one must know that righteousness has vari- ous aspects, like the divided sections made by the strands of a spider’s web. Right- eousness relates to all of a person’s limbs, their beliefs, their tongue, morals, etc. The most sensitive of these affairs relates to the tongue. Often, a person will aban- don the fear of God and make a statement; then they will feel pleased at heart for saying such and such thing, though it was immoral. At this, I am reminded of a story. A worldly man invited a holy man. When the holy man arrived for food, the host, who was an arrogant man of a worldly bent, said to his servant: ‘Bring such and such tray, which I brought back from my first Hajj. ’ Then he said: ‘Bring the second tray as well, which I brought from my sec- ond Hajj. ’ Then he proceeded to say: ‘Bring the one from the third Hajj as well. ’ The holy man said: ‘You are deserving of immense pity. In these three sentences, you have ruined your three pilgrimages. Your only purpose in making these state- ments was to show that you have gone to pilgrimage three times. ’ Therefore, God has taught that a person ought to control his tongue, and abstain from making useless, absurd, inappropriate, needless comments. Observe how Allah the Almighty has given us the teaching of ُ اِيَّاكَ نَعْبُد (Thee alone do we worship). Now, since there was a possibility of man depending on his own faculties and distancing himself from God, immediately after these words, God also teaches us to supplicate: ُ اِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِيْن (Thee alone do we beseech for help), and tells us that a person must not surmise that whatever worship he performs, he does so of his own power or strength. Not at all. On the contrary, without the help of Allah Almighty and until God—the Holy One—confers this ability and strength Himself, man can achieve nothing. Moreover, God does not teach us to say: ُ اِيَّاكَ اَعْبُد (Thee alone do I worship) and ُ اِيَّاكَ اَسْتَعِيْن (Thee alone do I beseech for help), because this carries an unpleasant air of giving preference to one’s own ego, while this is contrary to righteousness. A person who is righteous always keeps the whole of humanity in consideration. The tongue alone is sufficient to distance a man from righteousness. It is with the tongue that one expresses conceit and it is with the tongue that one begins to develop Pharaoh-like tendencies. It is by this very tongue that an individual turns his hidden deeds of virtue into ostentation. The tongue is quick to cause harm. It is narrated in a Hadith: ‘I guarantee para-