Sufism

Silence is the first word on the path, for the tongue that talks cannot yet truly listen

Al-Qushayri's chapter on silence argues that mystical hearing requires a discipline of the tongue before it can develop at all.

In the chapter on samt, silence, in Al-Risala al-Qushayriyya, al-Qushayri collects sayings and practices establishing silence as a foundational discipline of the Sufi path, on the reasoning that a tongue habituated to constant talking - gossip, argument, unnecessary speech - trains the whole person toward outward distraction rather than inward attention. Silence in this technical sense is not merely the absence of sound but a practiced restraint that clears space for the deeper listening, sama, that Sufi practice requires - hearing not just external teaching but the subtler movements of one's own heart and states. Al-Qushayri situates samt among the early disciplines a seeker must adopt, treating it as preparatory rather than an advanced achievement, consistent with classical Sufi manuals' general pattern of building outward behavioral discipline before addressing interior states. The chapter reflects a broader concern in early Sufi ethical literature with guarding the tongue as one of the most basic and most frequently neglected disciplines.

Al-Risala al-Qushayriyya

Written about in

• What Sufism says about humility and the ego

  Al-Qushayri collects sayings placing silence first among disciplines. The reasoning is plain: a tongue trained on argument and gossip trains the whole person outwards.

• What Sufism says about habit and discipline

  Qushayri's chapter on samt argues that a tongue habituated to gossip and unnecessary speech trains the whole person outward. Silence in this technical sense is practised restraint, not the absence of sound, and it is placed early because the listening the path requires cannot develop while the mouth is busy.