Chapter IV: Dangers of the Tongue
(10) Laugh and jokes: There is another harm of tongue, laugh and jokes. Basically these are not commendable but these are not harmful within limits. The Prophet said: 'Don't dispute with your brother ;and cut jokes with him. Excessive jokes and continued jokes are unlawful. If they are done continuously, they are included within sports and plays. Though sports and plays are lawful, yet to get habituated to them is condemned. Excessive jokes give rise to excessive laughters, excessive laughter makes the heart dead and sometimes creates hatred and destroys gravity and fear. When they are necessary, they are not condemned. The Prophet said: I cut jokes, but I don't say but truth. He said: A man utters talks to raise laughter of friends, but he takes himself down to Hell from heaven. Hazrat Omar said:
The fear of one who laughs much is reduced. He who cuts jokes becomes light to the people. He who cuts jokes much, becomes well-known. He who talk much commits much faults. He who has got little shame has got much faults and less piety. He whose piety is less, has got his heart dead. Jokes keep away a man from the next world. The Prophet said: Had you known what I know, you would have wept much and laughed little. Eusof-b-Asbat said that Hazrat Hasan Basari did not laugh for thirty years. It has been said that the sage Abu Salma did not laugh for 40 years.
Abdullah-b-AHYala said: You are laughing while your coffin is coming out of the building. Hazrat Ibn Abbas said: He who commits sin laughing will enter Hell weeping.
It is therefore condemned to be engaged in jokes and laughs.
Smiling only is laudable. The Prophet used to smiles only.
Sayyed-b-A's told his son: O dear son, don't cut jokes with any honourable man, lest he may hate you. Don't cut jokes with a man of dishonour, lest he becomes daring against you. Hazrat Omar-b- Abdul Aziz said: Fear Cod. Don't cut jokes as it creates
wives. Once an old woman came to the Prophet who said to
her: No old woman will enter Paradise. The old woman was peeping at this. Then he said to her: On that day, you will not remain old as God says: I shall create them a new and make them young. Hazrat Zaid-b-Aslam said: Once Omme Ayman came to the Prophet and said: My husband calls you. The Prophet said:
Who is your husband? Is he not your husband who has got whiteness in his eyes? The woman said: By God, the eye of my husband is not white. The Prophet said: Is there any man who has not got whiteness in his eyes?