The 365 · Tazkiyah · Day 102 · Tongue
Namīmah · Carrying Tales
The disease
النَّمِيمَة
An-Namīmah
The story
Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī: 'Whoever carries tales to you, will carry tales about you.' The structural reality: the nammām's tongue does not discriminate; the same tongue that brings you tales about others will bring others tales about you.
Why it's named first
Namīmah is carrying tales between people in a way that produces enmity: 'X said about you...' said to person Y to damage their relationship. The Prophet ﷺ: 'The carrier of tales (nammām) will not enter Paradise.' (Bukhārī 6056, Muslim 105, Hudhayfah.) Namīmah is structurally more dangerous than ghībah because it not only mentions the person negatively but actively works to break relationships.
In the Qur'an
Q 68:10-11: 'And do not obey every habitual swearer of oaths, despicable, slanderer, going about with malicious gossip (hammāzin mashshāʾin bi-namīm).' The verse pairs namīmah with humiliation (hamz) and oath-breaking, naming the nammām's structural character.
In the Sunnah
Bukhārī 6056, Muslim 105 (above). Cross-ref the Prophet's ﷺ hadith of the two graves: 'These two are being punished, and they are not being punished for something major. As for one of them, he used to walk with namīmah; as for the other, he did not protect himself from urine.' (Bukhārī 216, Muslim 292.) The Prophet ﷺ qualified 'not major' rhetorically: the punishment was severe.
The cure
1. Refuse to listen: when someone begins 'X said about you...', stop them immediately. 2. Refuse to carry: do not transmit what others say about anyone, even if true. 3. If carrying-tales has been a habit, identify all relationships you have damaged and work to rebuild trust. 4. The classical scholars: when a believer hears namīmah-from-someone-about-someone, the discipline is (a) do not believe it without verification; (b) do not transmit; (c) advise the nammām to stop; (d) do not develop suspicion against the named person.
What is at stake
The Prophet's ﷺ explicit naming: the nammām does not enter Paradise (paths of disqualification). The grave-punishment hadith: even unrepented, the punishment begins in the grave. Beyond the akhirah, the dunya consequences are severe: relationships destroyed, communities fractured, families divided.
A du'a for this day
'Allāhumma hādī al-muḍillīn, ahdinī min al-ʽalāl, wa-jannibnī min sharri lisānī.' (O Allah, Guide of the misguided, guide me from misguidance, and protect me from the evil of my tongue.)
The door of mercy
Al-Ghazālī devoted significant sections of Iḥyāʾ Book of Āfāt al-Lisān (the Diseases of the Tongue) to namīmah. The cure requires structural retraining of the tongue's automatic patterns; the nammām has typically been carrying tales for years before the diagnosis.
A reflection to carry
Namīmah is carrying tales between people in a way that produces enmity. The Prophet ﷺ: 'The carrier of tales (nammām) will not enter Paradise.' (Bukhārī 6056.) More dangerous than ghībah because it actively works to break relationships.
Read the longer reflection
The grave-punishment hadith (Bukhārī 216): the Prophet ﷺ passed two graves and said: 'These two are being punished... one of them used to walk with namīmah.' Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī: 'Whoever carries tales to you, will carry tales about you.' Cure: refuse to listen (when someone begins 'X said about you,' stop them); refuse to carry; advise the nammām to stop; do not develop suspicion against the named person. Within months, the believer becomes known as the safe-tongue, and the nammāmūn stop bringing him their tales.
Sources: Quran, Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Ghazali, Ibn al-Qayyim. The Qur'an and its translation are verified; the scholarship is retold faithfully in our own words and credited to its sources, never reproduced verbatim.
A verse, a healing, and a Sunnah, every morning.
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