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yuṣliḥ lakum ʾaʿmālakum wa-yaghfir lakum dhunūbakum wa-man yuṭiʿi llāha wa-rasūlahū fa-qad fāza fawzan ʿaẓīman
He will rectify your conduct for you and forgive you your sins. Whoever obeys Allah and His Apostle will certainly achieve a great success.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Al-’Ahzab – Verses 70-71
70. “O’ you who believe! Be in awe of Allah and speak you the right word,”
71. “He will adjust your works for you and will forgive you, your sins, and whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger, then indeed he has achieved a great success.”
If a person practically observes Allah in his behaviour He will solve other problems for him, because the key to salvation is piety and obeying both Allah and the Apostle. Following the discussions about the rumourmongers and the foulmouthed ones mentioned formerly, this verse issues an order which, in fact, is the remedy of this great social pain. It says:
The Arabic word /sadid/ is derived from /sadd/ with the sense of ‘firm’ and ‘unchangeable’ which adapts with the truth, and reality. It is a statement which is similar to a strong dam, stands against the waves of corruption and falsehood. Then, if some of the commentators have rendered it into ‘right’, and some others into ‘free from false and idle talk’ or ‘outward being adapted with inward’ or the like, all are meant in the above inclusive meaning.
In the next holy verse, the conclusion of ‘the right word’ has been stated as follows:
In fact, piety is the basis of the improvement of the speech and it is the origin of the right word, and the right word is one of the factors of the deed improvement, and deed improvement is the cause of forgiveness of sins, since:
The scholars of ethics have said:
“The tongue is the most blissful part of the body.”
It is the most effective means of obedience, guidance, and improvement; and in the meantime it is counted as the most dangerous and the most sinful limb of the body, so much so that there may appear about thirty sins from this little limb. The holy Prophet of Islam (S) in a tradition has said:
“The faith of a servant (of Allah) does not truly straighten unless his heart straightens, and his heart does not straighten unless his tongue straightens.” 3
It is interesting that in another tradition Imam Sajjad (as) has said:
“Every morning everyone’s tongue inquires after other limbs’ health and says:
‘How are you?’
and all of them in reply to the tongue’s affection answer:
‘We are fine, if you let’.
Then they add:
‘By Allah! Be careful of us! Verily we will both get reward because of you and will be punished because of you’.” 4
There are a lot of traditions in this regard all of which denote the extraordinary importance of the function of the tongue and that its improvement causes the improvement of ethics and purification of the carnal soul. That is why we recite in a tradition:
“The Messenger of Allah (S) did not sit on his pulpit but he recited this verse:
Then, at the end of the verse, the holy Qur’an adds:
What a salvation and success is better than this that one’s deeds become purified, his sins be forgiven, and he becomes acceptable before Allah.
Footnotes