Al-Ghashiyah · Makki · ayah 11 of 26

Al-Ghashiyah 88:11

لَّا تَسْمَعُ فِيهَا لَـٰغِيَةً

“Wherein they will hear no unsuitable speech.[1911]”

Saheeh International

Essence

After the garden's height, its first described gift is for the ear: not one word there that wounds, deceives or counts for nothing.

A reflection

Words that do not count

When blood-money was paid in camels, a hundred animals were owed. The very young calves did not count towards the hundred. They were called laghw: present, but not counted. Speech that is laghw is the same. It fills the air and adds nothing. The lexicons also give the laghw of birds, their chattering before dawn.

The early commentators listed what lāghiya shuts out of the Garden. Lies, slander and denial of Allah, said one. Falsehood and sin, said another. Abuse, said a third. Disobedience. A false oath sworn in passing. One commentator gathers it all up: they speak only wisdom, and praise of Allah for the bliss He has given them. That, another notes, is the best explanation, because it includes all the rest.

Picture a family who, for a joke, leave a voice-to-text app running through a Sunday lunch. That evening someone reads the transcript aloud. Nobody can believe it. Three hours of talk. Half of it is complaint about people who were not there. A quarter is the same argument about the car park, again. Somewhere in the middle, almost lost, is the grandmother saying she is proud of them.

Most of us would not enjoy reading our own transcripts. The ayah describes a place where the transcript would contain nothing to regret. Every word would count.

This is not a demand for grim silence here and now. It is a direction. Before speaking, ask one small question: will this count? Will it help, or heal, or honestly amuse without wounding? If not, it is a calf that will not be counted, and there is no need to put it in the herd.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.