The Importance of Silence

salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato Bismillah Ar Rahman Al Rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa sallahu wa Sallim wa ala a shot of Colombia even more saline. Now begin our Habibi now our karate our unit Mohammed ebene Abdullah la he while he was happy he of the Lusaka divided them with the slim and my bad.

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, we begin today's virtual hotbar the Friday virtual hotbar by praising Allah subhanho wa Taala. We ask him the almighty for his help, we ask him to ease our affairs to bring about healing, and he is and we asked him to send his choices of blessings and salutations upon the final messenger, our beloved prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam his family members, his companions and all those who tread upon his path with utmost sincerity until the day of karma.

I'd like to begin today's reminder by firstly advising myself and then all of you all tuning into this stream to adopt a life of taqwa. And that is to bring in the consciousness of your maker into your lives. And you need to do this in such a way where it is ingrained, and in such a way where it permeates into every aspect of your life every single second of your life, if you wish to attain victory and success in this world, as well as the hereafter in accordance to the words of our maker in sort of the neighbor, in little mud cleaner. Mufasa Indeed, for the people of taqwa is Mufasa Mufasa as in victory and success, victory and success in this world as well as the hereafter. May

Allah subhanho wa Taala make us all from the people of taqwa. And may He make us from the victorious and successful ones me.

today's world, when you look around, you see that we are surrounded by a wide variety of sounds and noises every day.

However, one sound is rarely heard, although it is particularly beneficial. And that is the sound of silence. Our world today is noisier than it's ever been from the emergency sirens car horns, the motto of the air conditioner, the refrigerator, the steady hum of highways in the background notifications coming through digital notifications on your mobile phones, your smart watches, your your devices, your iPads, your tablets, your computers, and then this urban city living and our news obsessed 24 hour culture, these are the biggest culprits.

But you know, in this digital era, even those living in less concentrated areas,

you know, times we go into interior villages.

Their living lives, in a frugal lives, so much of poverty. But you can see

the due to the fact that we are living in this digital era, you find mobile phones, you see people, you know using their mobile phones to tune into

the networks that we are upon as well Subhana Allah, so it's permeated everywhere. So even in this digital era, those living in less concentrated areas still have plenty of annoying noise to deal with. And most of this noise is self inflicted, and there are real and serious implications to all of this racket around us. Research suggests that too much noise raises cortisol, it raises your heart rate, it raises blood pressure, it can contribute to memory loss and insomnia. People are finding it difficult to fall asleep these days. It raises our collective anxiety levels, it depletes our creativity. it impedes productivity, and it hinders good and thorough decision making. One

recent study, if I'm not mistaken, even found that noise pollution is the second or third biggest threat after air pollution to public health. And this is linked to diseases that include cancer, heart disease and depression.

And on the other hand, studies have shown that silence can regenerate brain cells. In fact, even a few minutes a day of quiet can help regulate your cortisol. It can help regulate your heart rate and your blood pressure. The absence of noise has a positive effect on our health, our cognition and our well being in the long run.

Having said all of this

I think it is important that we highlight that

silence too, can be harmful. So balance is key.

Too much noise after all, whether it's in the form of your neighbor's booming sound system or, you know, somebody's ranting, even you ranting can prevent us from being present from hearing one another, and ourselves. And hearing one another is what imparts change. So this video is not necessarily to say don't speak up. You know, Islam teaches us that, in the face of oppression, when there's injustice taking place, you must speak up. So this video is not to say don't speak up, but rather to recognize that taking a break from the constant engagement can also be very beneficial. So for those for today's reminder, I'd like to talk about the importance of silence. Islam are

beautiful religion praises the quality of silence, it is considered a characteristic that beautifies a believer and it instills modesty, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he embodied the art of staying silent, and he used to only speak when necessary, and the righteous predecessors, the righteous people of the past, they understood that silence. A sump in the Arabic language was the preferred default state of being. And this is according to the words of our messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam whose report prep said, Whoever believes in Allah men can you mean ob la he William will.

Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, Filippo hiren Alia smoked, some again, let him speak goodness or remain silent. And this is an authentic hadith recorded on the book of Imam Bukhari and Muslim Rama life i'm not mistaken. So whatever words that come out of our mouth should be true and beneficial, as per this Hadith of the Prophet salaallah Islam otherwise, we should opt to remain quiet and taking time to listen, taking time to remain quiet, to listen to one's own breath, and the natural sounds of the environment around us can help us push aside the chatter. It can help us become more centered, grounded, and it helps us to make space for thought. Reflecting see Allah says

in the form of a rune for

the board, to then not reflect on the Quran. So reflecting, pondering, instead of speaking, when an idea comes to mind can encourage us to practice focus and self control, silence and reflection contemplative reflection, it supports and encourages this practice of mindfulness that we see

in the life of the messengers sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, look around you, my dear brother, my dear sister, see how nature the trees, the flowers, the grass, look at how they all grow in silence. Look at the stars, the moon, and the sun, how these massive and colossal creations of the Almighty how they move around in silence, silence has an important effect on our hearts and on and on our character. Because you see a habit of bad speech. You know, there are some people you know, words are bad and negative words keep, you know, rolling off their tongues, and having a bad speech results in an impure heart. And again, these are not my words, the Prophet sallallaahu Selim is

reputed to have said, the fate of a servant is not upright until his heart is upright, and his heart is not upright until his tongue is upright. So Hannah Lord had recorded the book of Imam Muhammad Rahim a lot. So as you can see, based on this Hadith, the heart and the tongue, are linked or connected. So to guard our speech to guard our tongues is to also guard our hearts. There was once a companion of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi Salaam was asked, Have you sat with the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam to which she replied in the affirmative, he said, Yes, I have. And he goes on to now describe the Messenger of Allah sallallahu Sallam and this had to do as recorded

in the book of Imam Ahmed Rahim Allah. He says that yes, he sallallahu alayhi wa sallam would observe silence for long periods of time. And he would laugh very little.

The scholars of the past like Wahhabi been Manabe Rahim, Allah Himalayan others, the reporter have said that the doctors have agreed that the head of medicine Okay, so the head of medicine is diet. And the Why is once the ones filled with wisdom have agreed that the head of wisdom is silence assumptive

In the Arabic language, but the brothers and sisters, so for this reminder, I'd like to quickly run through a few benefits that you stand to achieve by holding on to the art of silence, may Allah subhanho wa Taala help us to embody this virtuous straight in a balanced way, as we highlighted at the beginning of the video balance is key in the balanced way, as the teachings of the Prophet salaallah Islam, just as how the Prophet embodied it, let us strive to do so. So benefit number one, heightened sensitivity, there was an article that I was reading in regards to silence. And in that article, they went on to illustrate this this experiment, where 100 researchers they went on a

retreat, a kind of a retreat for research. And they noted that shutting off the faculty of speech heightens awareness in other areas, starting off with breathing. And

then the focus and sensitivity is then transferred to sights, sounds, sensations, thoughts, intentions and emotions. SubhanAllah. by shutting off the faculty of speech, you use that to experience this heightened sense of awareness. Silence brings our awareness back. And that's that's basically the second benefit. It brings our awareness to the present. Silence brings our awareness back to the present where concrete,

feelings are experienced, concrete, happiness is experience. The future, you see the future, a lot of us, we are worrying, they're constantly in body. They're constantly, you know, stressed out, thinking about the future, anxiety about the future, the future falls short of what the present can deliver. And this is why Islam teaches us that no one knows what the future holds. Law says in the Quran, Omar de nevsun, know that exceed ohada. You don't know what you're going to earn tomorrow. So canon law, it is in the knowledge of Eliza Jen, but do you have with you the present. Silence brings that awareness back to the present. So a lot of us we're not living, we're not in the present

moment.

We're either dwelling,

you know, on the past, or stressed out and worried about the future.

So the future falls short of what the present can deliver silence and solitude pulls us out, and helps us to immerse ourselves in the present. Moving on next benefit, silence increases self awareness.

You see, a lot of us,

we fail in terms of self control. Think about it at times after a heated argument with a loved one. Or after all, we're disciplining our children, what comes regret, regret just creeps in and you feel bad, that this happens when we are completely governed by our actions. And we are absent of reasonable thought to help us you know, think

in an in a way where we are aware of our actions. So through silence, what happens is we make room for this self awareness, we make room for self awareness to be in control of our actions, rather than under their control. Rather than you being under the control of your actions you are in control of your actions, this silence and by being aware of yourself, you are able to break from these external voices. And this break from external voices puts us in tune with our inner voices and you understand that it's the inner voices that drive our actions. So some of us be we literally feel ourselves going insane because of the chatter of the inner voices. So by practicing silence and by

making yourself aware, and bringing in the self awareness, you start to become you start to make yourself in tune with your inner voices. So this awareness is what leads to control my dear brothers and sisters.

When talking about anger, what do we learn from the teachings of the Prophet sallallaahu Selim Abu huraira Allah one is about to upset that a man said to the prophets, Allah Allah so let me have sort of like give me advice advice me. What did the Prophet sallallahu Sallam tell this man? The Prophet said, la da Whoa, Bob, do not become angry, do not get angry. The man then when

Don't to repeatedly ask the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam for advice. The Prophet kept answering each time a lot of a lot of bought a lot of Bob for the mirror the mirror and so the prophets a lot of love and Amanda, advise me further and the Prophet would respond again last. Do not get angry Hadith is in the book of Bukhari, any Muslim or Hema home Allah so as you can see, this hadith clearly illustrates how important anger management is how important it is that we keep our tempers our anger at check. And by practicing the art of silence, following the teachings of the Prophet salaallah Islam you're you are able to bring in self awareness and control these emotions

control these feelings. Moving on to the next benefit, and it's a big one that comes through practicing silence. You protect yourself from sins, from things that displease our maker subhanho wa Taala.

Like backbiting, arguing unnecessarily verbal Spats, so on and so forth. You see, all these things are rooted in what in excessive talking. And these are sins, my dear brothers and sisters, that start to accumulate. Without the individual being aware, lack of awareness.

You know, this piece of Arabic poetry it says that

don't

underestimate deeds for ineligible lemon AlHassan because mountains are made up of tiny pebbles, that this can be said for good deeds as well as bad ones.

You see, when a person becomes accustomed to backbiting lying crossings varying

with every passing day, and with every passing conversation, as the words roll off this individual's tongue, it just becomes so easy to back by to gossip to lie. These days, think about it sometimes, you know, there are some of us when asked on our way to a meeting or whatever it is, if for example, you say you know what, I'll be at this place at this time. The person you're supposed to meet calls you up and where are you and you without hesitating we say you know we're on our way was the times you're not even hit the shower yet Subhan Allah and and we don't even think of it as being false hood. We don't even think of it as being a lie. We say I'll meet you at 10 o'clock and we end up

turning up only attempt 30 so lack of punctuality that's one thing, which is, you know, not the practice of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam he was known as El amin he was known as the trustworthy one, the truthful one Subhan Allah so these are Hallmark traits for a believers panela but really what has happened, they've become so accustomed to lying that we don't even think twice it's just a lie. And and you know, the thing is interesting, sometimes it's between it's between people who share close relationships friends, you know, by you telling your friend that you know what, I'm sorry I woke up late or I'm just gonna hit the shower Can you give me like half an hour or my

meetings are spilling onto one another can be reached you can be postponed he's gonna understand, but we because we're so accustomed to lying. We lie like you know what i'm just them around the corner was just, you know, having breakfast or you're not even hit the shower subpanel and you run from one thing to the other, stressing yourself out and displeasing your makers panel what the hell. So these are grave sins by the brothers and sisters

that are like water drops, they start accumulating, and eventually they become this huge flood that washes you away. May Allah protect each and every one of us.

Another Hadith the Prophet sallallaahu was reputed to have said and this hadith have the light of binominal Allah one who he reports the Messenger of Allah sallallahu Sallam his report tribe said

whoever is silent and Abdullah hibben amarin call hollow sort of lays that along while he was a man samata Naja. Whoever is silent has been saved. That is in the book of a moment. tirmidhi Rahim Allah, whoever is silent, has been saved man samata Niger May Allah subhanho wa Taala makers of the saved ones mean. So as you can see many brothers and sisters, look at this list of benefits. And in this short reminder, I hope I was able to illustrate and touch on the importance of speaking a good word or remaining silent as per the beautiful Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, Montana you know Billa he will do milaca family of colheita run Alia Smith. So with that we conclude

this video we pray that Allah Subhan

Words Allah forgives us of our sins. We pray that he helps us to purify our hearts. We pray that he helps us to guard our tongues and we pray that he admits us into His beautiful and lofty garden. I mean, just like Kamala highrock for tuning into this stream, and I look forward to talking to you all in another video soon inshallah Allah wa salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.