ما هو الفهم الصحيح لحديث "من صمت نجا"؟

The meaning of the hadith is that silence is a cause for salvation from the innumerable harms of the tongue. For safety from sin, a servant must contemplate speech before uttering it. If it is good, he should speak it; otherwise, he should remain silent.

Ibn Abd al-Barr said: Speaking good, such as the remembrance of Allah, recitation of the Qur'an, acts of righteousness, and reconciliation between people, is better than silence. The praiseworthy silence is silence from falsehood.

Al-Ghazali said: The reason for the virtue of silence is the multitude of harms of the tongue, such as error, lying, backbiting, slandering, hypocrisy, insincerity, obscenity, contention, self-praise, delving into falsehood, disputes, meddling, distortion, addition, subtraction, harming creation, and exposing flaws. There is danger in delving into speech and safety in silence. Furthermore, silence brings concentration, continuous dignity, leisure for thought, remembrance, and worship, and safety from the consequences of speech in this world and its reckoning in the Hereafter. Allah Almighty said: (Not a word does he utter but there is an observer by him ready [to record]). Speech is of four types: purely harmful, purely beneficial, mixed with harm and benefit, and neither harmful nor beneficial. That which has no benefit and no harm is superfluous and a waste of time. That which is purely harmful or whose harm outweighs its benefit should be kept silent. There remains a quarter of speech, which is beneficial, but this quarter may be mixed with subtle sin. Whoever understands the subtleties of the harms of the tongue will know with certainty that what the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, mentioned in his saying: (Whoever is silent is saved) is the conclusive statement.