Before you is a chapter from the great book "Al-Adhkaar" of the Imam and great scholar of the seventh century, Abu Zakariyyah Yahya ibn Sharaf an-Nawawi. The chapter is entitled "Hifdh-ul-Lisaan" or "Guarding the Tongue." The original source, "Al-Adhkaar," is one of the prize works of Imam an-Nawawi in which he compiles and discusses the texts related to what is recommended and forbidden from speech, focusing on al-adhkaar (words of remembrance) and al-ad’iyah (supplications). In the last part of the book, as he explains, Imam an-Nawawi devotes a chapter to what is forbidden and disliked from speech, such as backbiting, gossiping, and slander. So he brings the evidences from the Qur’aan and Sunnah on the obligation of guarding the tongue from evil speech. This great work was checked and verified by Shaikh Saleem ibn ’Eed al-Hilaali and printed in two volumes. In his verification, Shaikh Saleem provides a grading for each hadeeth as well as a discussion about the reason for the hadeeth’s authenticity or weakness. Due to a desire to make the e-book a source of easy reading and benefit, the verification of hadeeths have been limited to just the grade that Shaikh Saleem al-Hilaali has provided and the references of the hadeeth sources they can be found in, while abridging his discussions of certain hadeeths in some places.
