Urging good words

We relate in the Ṣaḥīḥs of al-Bukhārī and Muslim from ‘Adī ibn Ḥātim that the Messenger of Allah said: “Ward off Hell-Fire, even if it be with a portion of a date; and whoever does not have that, then [let him do so] with a good word.” ^[2].

We relate in both their Ṣaḥīḥs that Abū Hurayrah related that the Messenger of Allah said: “There is charity due on every joint of a man’s body, every day that the sun rises. To bring about justice between two people is charity, to help a man with his riding animal, lifting him on to it or lifting his merchandise up to him on it is charity.” He [also] said : “A good word is charity; every step taken walking to ṣalāh is charity; and to remove something harmful from the road is charity.” ^[3].

I say sulāmā, with a ḍammah on the sīn and a single lām, means one of the joints of a person’s limbs, and its plural is sulāmayāt with a ḍammah on the sīn and a fatḥah and a single yā’; and we looked at its spelling at the beginning of this book.

We relate in the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim that Abū Dharr narrated: “Allah’s Messenger said to me: ‘Do not think little of any good deed, even if it be meeting your brother with a smiling face.’” ^[4].