The 365 · Tazkiyah · Day 220 · Tongue
Dhikr al-Lisān · The Tongue of Remembrance (Cluster Closing)
The disease
ذِكْر اللِّسَان
Dhikr al-Lisān
Why it's named first
Because the closing of the Tongue-cure cluster is not a state of silence; it is a state of dhikr. The Prophet ﷺ narrated, when a man complained: 'ya RasūlAllāh, the laws of Islam have become many for me; tell me one thing I can hold on to.' He ﷺ said: 'lā yazālū lisānuka raṭban min dhikri Allāh.' Let your tongue remain moist with the remembrance of Allah (Tirmidhī 3375). One instruction. Keep the tongue WET. Five days of cures (216-220) collapse here: ṣidq (truth), ṣamt (silence from harm), kalimāt ṭayyibah (active good speech), dhabb (defending absent honor), and now dhikr. The complete believer's tongue is wet with Allah's name in every silence between khayr-speech.
In the Qur'an
'O you who believe, remember Allah with much remembrance (dhikran kathīrā)' (al-Aḥzāb 33:41). 'And remember your Lord much, and glorify Him in the evening and the morning' (Āl ʿImrān 3:41). 'Verily in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest' (al-Raʿd 13:28). 'Those who remember Allah standing, sitting, and lying on their sides' (Āl ʿImrān 3:191). The believer's posture: always in dhikr.
In the Sunnah
Tirmidhī 3375: 'let your tongue remain moist with the remembrance of Allah.' Muslim 2675: 'the example of the one who remembers his Lord and the one who does not is like the living and the dead.' Bukhārī 6407: same meaning. And: 'The mufarridūn have outstripped (preceded all others).' They asked who they are. He ﷺ said: 'those who are unrestrained in dhikr of Allah' (Muslim 2676). The tongue-tireless dhikr-rs lead the procession to Jannah.
The cure
Build dhikr as the tongue's resting state. Practical: 1) Master the four key dhikr phrases: subhanAllāh, al-ḥamdu lillāh, lā ilāha illa Allāh, Allāhu akbar; 2) Recite them in transitions: walking, waiting in line, driving, between tasks; 3) Maintain morning and evening adhkār as non-negotiable; the Prophet ﷺ's full collection (the ḥisn al-muslim or equivalent); 4) Recite the laḥawla wa lā quwwata illa bi-llāh often; the Prophet ﷺ called it a treasure from the treasures of Jannah; 5) Send ṣalāt and salām on the Prophet ﷺ abundantly; he ﷺ said: 'whoever sends one ṣalāt on me, Allah sends ten on him' (Muslim 384). The tongue is no longer empty; it is moving in Allah's name when not speaking khayr.
What is at stake
We close the Tongue cluster (211-220) on this discipline. Five diseases named. Five cures climbed. The mature believer's tongue: truthful (ṣidq), silent on harm (ṣamt), abundant in good words (kalimāt ṭayyibah), active in defense of absent honor (dhabb), and continuously moist in Allah's remembrance (dhikr al-lisān). The complete tongue is a tongue of īmān. And on the Day, the Prophet ﷺ described the dhākirūn as the mufarridūn, those who have left the rest behind. The tongue that was loose in this dunyā will be heavy on the Day; the tongue that was loose in dhikr in this dunyā will be the lightest on the bridge.
A du'a for this day
All four phrases: subhanAllāh, al-ḥamdu lillāh, lā ilāha illa Allāh, Allāhu akbar. Plus laḥawla wa lā quwwata illa bi-llāh. Plus ṣalāt ʿalā al-nabiyy ﷺ: 'allāhumma ṣalli ʿalā muḥammad wa ʿalā āli muḥammad.' Build these into the tongue's resting state.
A reflection to carry
We close the Tongue cluster (211-220) on the Prophet's ﷺ simplest and most operational instruction. A man said: 'the laws have become many.' He ﷺ replied: 'let your tongue remain moist with the remembrance of Allah.' Read that. He distilled the dīn for a struggling believer into one instruction: a wet tongue. Wet with what? Allah's name. Ya akhī, ya ukhtī, the mature believer's tongue is not a fence and not a fountain only; it is a river. Truth flows through it (ṣidq). Silence cuts the harm-currents (ṣamt). Good words refresh the listeners (kalimāt ṭayyibah). Defense protects the absent (dhabb). And underneath all of these, dhikr is the constant current: subhanAllāh, al-ḥamdu lillāh, lā ilāha illa Allāh, Allāhu akbar. The tongue between words. The tongue between encounters. The tongue waiting in line. The tongue while walking. The tongue while driving. The tongue while preparing dinner. The tongue while waiting for sleep. Each silence between obligations is an opportunity for dhikr. The Prophet ﷺ: 'the example of the one who remembers his Lord and the one who does not is like the living and the dead.' Choose the living tongue. Close the Tongue cluster on this single discipline. Keep your tongue moist.
Read the longer reflection
Yā Rabb, we close the Tongue cluster (211-220) on the Prophet's ﷺ most accessible and most demanding instruction. Five diseases named (211-215). Four cures climbed (216-219). And today, the crown: keep your tongue moist with the remembrance of Allah. Not just refrain from gībah. Not just align with truth. Not just produce kind words. Not just defend the absent. ALL of these, PLUS, the tongue is never empty; it is always in dhikr between khayr-speech. The mature believer's tongue, ya Allah, is what You described in Āl ʿImrān 3:191: 'those who remember Allah standing, sitting, and lying on their sides.' Every posture, dhikr. Every transition, dhikr. Every silence, dhikr. Forgive me, ya Allāh, for the years my tongue was empty between conversations. The walking to the car in silence. The waiting in line on the phone. The driving without the radio off and dhikr on. The minutes before sleep spent on the screen rather than on Your name. Each was a missed wetting of my tongue. Repair me. Build me into the mufarrid You described, the one unrestrained in dhikr, who outstrips the rest in the procession to You. Place the four phrases on my reflex: subhanAllāh, al-ḥamdu lillāh, lā ilāha illa Allāh, Allāhu akbar. Place 'laḥawla wa lā quwwata illa bi-llāh' on my breath. Place 'allāhumma ṣalli ʿalā muḥammad' on my heart-beat. And ya Rabb, on the Day the bridge of ṣirāṭ is laid, when the tongue-burdens of this dunyā will be the heaviest of weights, let mine be light, because You wetted it with Your name throughout my life. The Tongue cluster closes here. Make my tongue a tongue of īmān. Āmīn ya Munīr al-Lisān.
Sources: Quran, Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Tirmidhi, Ibn al-Qayyim, Ghazali. 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.
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