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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Provisions for the Journey (Mishkat), Volume 2 Lesson 33: The Need to Hold the Tongue and Censure Its Defects “O Abu Dharr! A person who does not guard his tongue renders his good deeds useless. O Abu Dharr! Do not be a fault-finder, bootlicker, flatterer or argumentative person. Abu Dharr!

Man is remote from Allah for as long as he is bad mannered.” The Reciprocal Effects of Deeds or Annulment [Ihbat] and Proscription [Takfir] In these explanations, the Noble Prophet (S) explains the importance of watching over the tongue in a different manner. The reason for this is that man ought not to leave his tongue free to say whatever his heart desires but he has to hold his tongue and reflect over what he says.

Because talking is very easy and sometimes minor motivations become a cause for too much talking or speaking ill of other people, the prominent religious scholars have tried by the use of different expressions and various methods to advise us to take care and not let our tongues reign freely. One of those is the Noble Prophet’s (S) expression that anyone that does not guard his tongue has squandered his deeds and leaves no good works to his account.

Perhaps, the point of this expression is that the tongue leaves calamitous effects in the heart and soul of man and breeds mischief as well as depravity which exterminates the rest of man’s deeds because as has been recorded in the verses of the Qur’an and successively narrated hadith s, man’s deeds affect one another: sometimes man does a certain deed but later on he does another act that changes the quality of his previous deed and leaves such an effect on it that it wipes it out.

In books of theology a discussion has been held under the title ‘annulment and proscription [or excommunication of deeds]’ [ ihbat wa takfir ]. Annulment [ habt ] means good deeds becoming ineffective; that is to say the bad deeds of man annul his good deeds and make them useless and ineffective while proscription [or excommunication] [ takfir ] denotes compensation of sins in such a way that good and decent deeds make up for the breach of previous deeds.

And, because the root of all our deeds is belief and disbelief, the most delicate instance of annulment and proscription [or excommunication] is faith and infidelity.