Gems of the Promised Messiah & Imam Mahdi (as) – True Happiness & Controlling One’s Tongue

A God-fearing person can find more happiness in a hut, than a worldly person, who is a slave to greed and avarice, can ever find even in a magnificent castle. The more a worldly person acquires the material wealth of this world, the more they are confronted with afflictions. Hence, remember that true comfort and pleasure are not partaken of by worldly people. Do not be misled to believe that abundant wealth, expensive and elegant clothing, and fine foods can bring happiness. Absolutely not. True happiness depends on righteousness alone.

When all of these points make it evident that no comfort and happiness can be attained without true righteousness, one must know that righteousness has various aspects, like the divided sections made by the strands of a spider’s web. Righteousness relates to all of a person’s limbs, their beliefs, their tongue, morals, etc. The most sensitive of these affairs relates to the tongue. Often, a person will abandon the fear of God and make a statement; then they will feel pleased at heart for saying such and such thing, though it was immoral.

At this, I am reminded of a story. A worldly man invited a holy man. When the holy man arrived for food, the host, who was an arrogant man of a worldly bent, said to his servant: ‘Bring such and such tray, which I brought back from my first Hajj.’ Then he said: ‘Bring the second tray as well, which I brought from my second Hajj.’ Then he proceeded to say: ‘Bring the one from the third Hajj as well.’ The holy man said: ‘You are deserving of immense pity. In these three sentences, you have ruined your three pilgrimages. Your only purpose in making these statements was to show that you have gone to pilgrimage three times.’ Therefore, God has taught that a person ought to control his tongue, and abstain from making useless, absurd, inappropriate, needless comments.

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), Malfuzat – Volume II (Farnham, Surrey: Islam International Publications Ltd., 2019), 135-136.