Most Muslims know that Ramadan forbids food and drink from dawn to dusk. Far fewer remember that the Prophet (peace be upon him) extended that discipline to something far harder to restrain the human tongue.
“Whoever does not give up false speech and acting upon it, Allah has no need of him giving up his food and drink” (Sahih Bukhari, Hadith 6057). This hadith strikes at the heart of a common mistake, treating Ramadan as purely physical abstinence while the tongue remains free to lie, backbite, argue, and slander without consequence.
The Quran is unambiguous about the tongue’s destructive power: “O you who believe! Avoid much suspicion, for some suspicion is a sin. And do not spy on one another, nor backbite one another” (Al-Hujurat 49:12). If backbiting is forbidden in ordinary days, its commission during fasting carries a particular spiritual recklessness.
The Prophet further instructed: “When one of you is fasting, let him not speak obscenely or behave ignorantly. If someone argues with him or insults him, let him say: I am fasting, I am fasting” (Sahih Bukhari, Hadith 1894). These words ‘inni saa’im’ are both a reminder to oneself and a dignified response to provocation.
In Kashmir, where political tension, social media arguments, and neighbourhood disputes are daily realities, Ramadan offers a thirty-day school of deliberate silence. Guard the tongue. The fast of the mouth may be harder than the fast of the stomach and far more rewarding.
