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He, the Exalted, said: 'And who is better in speech than one who calls to Allah?' (41/Fussilat 33) And He also said: 'Kind speech (ma'ruf).' (2/al-Baqarah 263) And He also said: 'Say: We [believe].' (2/al-Baqarah 136) Know that speech from the Truth (God) to the servant is a command, such as affirming His oneness and His praises, and calling creation to His court. Speech is a great blessing from God the Exalted to the servant, and by it the human being is distinguished from other animals; He, the Exalted, said: 'And We have certainly honored the children of Adam.' (17/al-Isra 70) One statement of the commentators on this is that it refers to speech. So, however much speech from the Truth to the servant is a manifest blessing, its calamity (aafat) is also great; for his saying, peace be upon him: 'The thing I most fear for my community is the tongue.' In sum, speech is like wine that weakens the intellect: when a man falls into drinking it he can never come out and cannot restrain himself from it. When the people of the Path knew that speech is a calamity, they did not speak except out of necessity; that is, they watched over the beginning and end of their speech: if it was entirely for the Truth they spoke, and otherwise they kept silent. For they believed that God is the Knower of secrets, and creatures are blameworthy if they suppose God—exalted be His majesty—to be otherwise; for His saying, the Exalted: 'Or do they think that We do not hear their secrets and their private conversations? Yes, and Our messengers are with them recording.' (43/al-Zukhruf 80) 'Or do they imagine that I do not know their hidden things? Yes, I know, and the angels also write them upon them, and I am the Knower of the Unseen and the One informed of secrets.' And his saying, peace be upon him: 'Whoever is silent is saved.' 'The one who stays silent attains salvation.' So in silence there are many benefits and openings (futuh), and in speaking there is much calamity. A group of the shaykhs have given precedence to speech, and a group to silence over speech. Among them, Junayd said, may God be pleased with him: 'Expression is all claims (da'awi), and where there is the affirmation of meanings, claims are idle babble.' There may be a time when, in a state of [free] choice, one is excused for the lapse of speech—that is, in the state of dissimulation (taqiyya), in a state of fear—despite having choice and power to speak; and his denial in speech does not harm the reality of gnosis (ma'rifat). At no time is a servant without inner meaning excused by mere claim, and the ruling on this is the ruling of the hypocrites. So a claim without meaning is hypocrisy, and meaning without claim is sincerity (ikhlas); 'for whoever founds his edifice upon clarity becomes independent, between himself and his Lord, of the tongue'—that is, when the way is opened to the servant, he becomes independent of speech; because expression was for informing others, and God the Exalted is free of need for the description of states, and another than Him does not deserve that one be occupied with him. This is confirmed by the saying of Junayd: 'Whoever knows God, his tongue becomes dulled.' The one who knows the Truth with his heart, his tongue is prevented from expression; for in direct vision (iyan), expression appears as a veil. And it is related from Shibli, may God be pleased with him: that in the assembly of Junayd he stood up and said in a loud voice, 'O my Desire (ya muradi),' pointing to the Truth. Junayd said: 'O Abu Bakr, if your desire is the Truth, why did you make this gesture? For He is independent of it. And if your desire is not the Truth, why did you speak in opposition? For God the Exalted is All-Knowing of your speech.' Shibli sought forgiveness for what he had said. And that group who gave precedence to speech over silence said: 'Explaining our states is a command from the Truth to us, for a claim stands by its meaning; and if someone were a gnostic in heart and inner secret for a thousand years, with no impediment of necessity, until he joins affirmation (iqrar) to gnosis, his ruling is the ruling of the disbelievers. And God the Exalted commanded the believers all to give thanks, praise, and laudation; He said: "But as for the favor of your Lord, proclaim it." (93/al-Duha 11); and laudation and the proclaiming of the blessing are necessarily His speech. So our speech is for the exaltation of Lordship; for His saying: "Call upon Me; I will respond to you." (40/al-Mu'min 60), and: "I respond to the call of the caller when he calls upon Me." (2/al-Baqarah 186), and the like.' And one of the shaykhs says: 'Whoever has no expression (bayan) from his [spiritual] time has no time; for the speaker of your time is your time.' 'The tongue of the [inner] state is more eloquent than my tongue, And my silence from your questioning is my interpreter.' And in the anecdotes I found that one day Abu Bakr Shibli was walking in Karkh of Baghdad. He saw one of the pretenders saying: 'Silence is better than speech.' He said: 'Your silence is better than your speech, because your speech is idle (laghw) and your silence is jest (hazl); and my speech is better than my silence, because my silence is forbearance (hilm) and my speech is knowledge ('ilm).' If I do not speak, forbearance keeps me upon it; and if I speak, my knowledge keeps me upon it. When I do not speak I am forbearing, and when I speak I am knowing. And I, who am Ali ibn Uthman al-Jullabi, say: Speech is of two kinds and silence is of two kinds: of speech, one is truth and one is falsehood; and of silence, one is the attainment of the goal and the other is heedlessness (ghaflat). So each person must take hold of his own collar in the state of speaking and of silence: if his speech is truth, his speaking is better than silence; if it is falsehood, silence is better than speaking; and if silence is from the attainment of the goal and witnessing (mushahadat), silence is better than speaking; and if it is from veiling (hijab) and heedlessness, speaking is better than silence. And a world is bewildered in these two meanings. A group of the pretenders have taken in hand a handful of babble and caprice and an expression empty of meanings, and say: 'Speech is more excellent than silence.' And a group of the ignorant, who cannot tell a minaret from a well, have tied their silence to their ignorance and say: 'Silence is better than speech.' And these two are just like one another. So it depends whom they bring to speech and whom they make silent; for the root of these meanings is: 'Because whoever speaks either hits the mark or errs, and whoever is made to speak is preserved from deviation.' Whoever speaks either speaks wrongly or rightly, and whoever is made to speak is guarded from error and defect; as when Iblis spoke, 'I am better than him' (7/al-A'raf 12), until he saw what he saw, and when Adam was made to speak, 'Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves' (7/al-A'raf 23), so that they chose him. So the callers of this Path are, in their speech, given permission and compelled, and in their silence ashamed and helpless. 'Whoever's silence is from modesty (haya), his speech is life.' The one whose silence is from modesty, his speech is life to hearts; because their speech is from vision (didar), and speech without vision is despised in their eyes; and they hold not-speaking dearer than speaking as long as they are with themselves, and when they become absent from self, creatures inscribe their words upon their souls. It was for this that that elder said: 'Whoever's silence is gold to him, his speech is a way (madhhab) for another.' So the seeker must silence a tongue whose plunging was into servanthood ('ubudiyyat), so that the tongue whose speaking was to Lordship (rububiyyat) may come to speech, and his expressions become the hunter of the hearts of the disciples. And the manner (adab) in speech is that one not speak without command; and if one is silent, one not be ignorant and heedless. The disciple must not interfere and meddle in the speech of the elders, nor bring strange things upon them by his expression; nor, with the tongue by which he uttered the testimony (shahadat), speak lies and backbiting; nor offend the Muslims; nor call the dervishes by a bare name; nor speak until something is asked of him; nor initiate speech. The condition of the dervish's silence is that he not be silent about falsehood, and the condition of his speaking is that he speak nothing but truth. This has many branches and countless subtleties, but I have contented myself with this amount, for fear of prolixity. And God knows best what is correct, and to Him is the return and the destination.