What is Badzubaani?
Badzubaani means bad or foul speech. It covers crude and obscene language, abusive words, cursing people, insulting others, and disrespect toward elders. It is one of a cluster of tongue-related diseases that Islah ul Akhlaaq addresses together as the 20 diseases of the tongue, and it is among the most common and most damaging.
The believer is not defined by their speech alone, but their speech is one of the clearest windows into their character. The Prophet ﷺ explicitly removed the title of believer from those who habitually use their tongue in certain ways:
"A believer is not one who taunts, curses, acts obscenely, or speaks crudely."
Hadith. Tirmidhi
The statement is about character, not about a single incident. Anyone can speak badly in a moment of shock or anger. The hadith is describing the person for whom these forms of speech are habitual, who taunts as a pattern, who curses as a reflex, whose default register is crude. That person, as long as they continue in that habit, is at odds with what Iman requires of the tongue.
The Danger of the Tongue
"Whoever guarantees me what is between his jaws and what is between his legs, I guarantee him Jannah."
Hadith. Sahih al-Bukhari
The tongue is identified alongside the private parts as the two things that, if controlled, guarantee Jannah. This pairing reveals how seriously Islam treats speech. The tongue is not a minor organ with minor consequences. It is one of the two primary gateways through which a person either earns Jannah or loses it.
The reason is practical: the tongue has no physical cost of entry. Other sins require effort, movement, planning. The tongue costs nothing and operates at the speed of thought. A word said in one second can:
Destroy a relationship built over years
Permanently damage someone's reputation before others
Leave a wound in a person's heart they carry for decades
Commit the sin of Gheebt, or lying, or cursing, in a single sentence
Erase the reward of an act of worship through Riya in one remark
Many people who are careful in their prayer, their fasting, their dealings, are careless with their speech. They do not realise that their tongue may be doing damage that their other acts of worship are struggling to repair. The angel on the left is recording faithfully, and the tongue gives it constant work.
The 20 Diseases of the Tongue
Islah ul Akhlaaq catalogues 20 distinct tongue diseases. Badzubaani sits among them alongside other closely related habits. Understanding the full list helps a person recognise which diseases of the tongue they carry:
Useless speech
Excessive speech
Narrating the evil deeds of oppressors
Debate and argument
Quarrelling and fighting
Artificial and affected speech
Abusing and cursing
Badzubaani, foul speech and disrespecting elders
Issuing curses and la'anat
Singing against the Shariah
Excessive joking and mockery
Speaking about someone to demean them
Revealing people's secrets
Lying (Kazb)
Breaking promises
Tale-bearing (Chughal Khori)
Praising someone excessively to their face
Speaking beyond what is acceptable
Being overly cautious about subtle speech errors
Unnecessarily answering public questions
Badzubaani does not stand alone. It is connected to abusing (7), cursing (9), demeaning speech (12), and excessive mockery (11). A person who has Badzubaani typically has several of these simultaneously, because they all flow from the same root: a tongue that has not been brought under the discipline of Hayaa and the awareness of Allah.
What Foul Speech Reveals About the Heart
Speech is not separate from the heart, it is the heart's output. What comes out of the tongue consistently is a reliable indicator of what lives inside. This is why the scholars of Tazkiyah treat tongue diseases as heart diseases expressed outwardly.
Habitual foul language reveals absent Hayaa
Hayaa, the inner sense of shame and restraint, is what holds a person back from saying what is beneath them. A person with genuine Hayaa before Allah cannot speak crudely in Allah's presence, which is everywhere. The absence of Hayaa in the speech points to its absence in the heart.
Cursing reveals absent mercy
The Prophet ﷺ described himself as not being one who curses. Cursing is the wish for harm to descend on someone, the direct opposite of the mercy and compassion that Iman is supposed to produce. A tongue that curses freely is a heart that has not yet received the mercy of Islam fully.
Disrespect toward elders reveals absent adab
Adab, respectful conduct toward those who deserve it, is foundational in Islamic character. Disrespect toward parents, teachers, and elders with foul language or rudeness is not just a social failing. It is a sign that the heart lacks the quality of ta'zeem, esteem for what deserves to be esteemed.
Excessive crude joking reveals a heart not engaged with what matters
A person whose tongue habitually goes to mockery, crude humour, and language that demeans others is a person whose attention is on entertainment and on the reactions of people rather than on the Akhirah. The tongue follows what the heart values.
This is not to say that every person who uses bad language is a bad person. Most people have grown up in environments where certain speech patterns are normal and have absorbed them without reflection. But these patterns are not neutral, they are reshaping the heart slowly, normalising what should feel wrong. The fact that it is habitual and unconscious is exactly why it needs to be addressed.
The Cure for All Diseases of the Tongue
The cure prescribed for all 20 tongue diseases is a single practice, applied before every act of speech. It is the most effective protection against Badzubaani and every other tongue disease:
The Practice. Before Every Word
When about to speak, ask yourself: will what I am about to say please my Rabb and Master, or displease Him? If it will please Him, speak. If the heart responds that He will be displeased, stay quiet. If the answer is unclear, stay quiet until it becomes clear.
If after staying quiet, what you wanted to say was genuinely useful and pleasing to Allah, it will still be there to say. And if it disappears because it could not survive the pause, it should not have been said.
Shaykh Sa'di Shirazi رحمة الله عليه described the same principle:
Na chit karo baat bolo soch samajh kar
Agar chir bhi khamosh raho to phir bolo kuch mufeed
Think deeply before you speak. If you must stay silent for a long time, then after the silence speak only what is useful.
Hazrat Shaykh Sa'di Shirazi رحمة الله عليه
The practice works on a simple mechanism: Badzubaani and most tongue diseases survive on speed. The foul word, the curse, the crude remark, they escape before the person has thought. The pause-and-assess practice introduces a moment of thought between the impulse and the word. In that moment, the habit loses its power.
Apply the test before every significant utterance
Not just before formal speech, before casual conversation, before responding in an argument, before making a joke. The test applies universally because the tongue does its damage universally. With practice, the habit of pausing becomes automatic.
Replace bad speech with good speech actively
The tongue needs occupation. When foul language is removed, replace it with dhikr, with useful words, with kindness, with du'a. A tongue busy with what is good has no room for what is bad. The Prophet ﷺ said: speak good or stay silent.
Keep company that speaks well
The tongue learns from what it hears. People who speak cleanly, who do not curse, who choose their words carefully, their company recalibrates the ear and then the tongue. The tongue of the people around you becomes the template for your own.
Revisit what was said with bad speech and correct it
When foul speech has already escaped, an insult, a curse, a rude remark, go back and correct it where possible. Apologise. Replace the bad word with a good one in the same relationship. Each correction weakens the habit at the exact point where it expressed itself.
The tongue is one of the smallest organs in the body and one of the most consequential. It is the organ that says the Kalimah, that recites the Quran, that makes dua, that spreads knowledge. And it is also the organ that can commit Gheebt, Kazb, cursing, and mockery in a single unguarded moment. Guarding it is not a minor refinement of character. It is one of the central acts of Tazkiyah.
Next. Blameworthy Character
Khushk Mizaji. Harshness and Coldness
The dry, harsh, cold manner that drives people away, why the Prophet ﷺ was sent with softness, and how this trait blocks the heart from receiving guidance.
Khushk Mizaji