Hadith #14

IslamWiki Explanation — IslamWiki Scholarly Team

The Prophet ﷺ said: 'It is also charity to utter a good word.' This hadith expands the concept of sadaqah (charity) beyond financial giving to include speech. Ibn Allan explains that Islamic charity (sadaqah) is defined as any act done for the sake of Allah that benefits others or removes harm — and good speech achieves both. Ibn Hajar notes in Fath al-Bari that this hadith teaches Muslims that the concept of worship is vast: every good deed done sincerely for Allah is an act of worship that carries spiritual reward. Ibn Uthaymin comments that this hadith should motivate Muslims to be generous with kind words, words of wisdom, words of encouragement, and words of truth — since all of these count as sadaqah. The hadith also implies its opposite: harmful, false, or unkind words are like withholding sadaqah or even causing harm, and will be accounted for.