likewise a person owes God the modesty of avoiding what he is not permitted to hear, such as backbiting and evil speech from someone who says what is improper and unlawful to utter.
That bare skin between the sideburn and the ear is the place of doubt. The doubt takes this form. A person says, “I listened only to answer him and defend the person who was being spoken against.” This is the soul’s own reasoning. His statement belongs to the sideburn, ʿidhār, through its connection with excuse, ʿudhr. When reproached, he makes the excuse we have mentioned or one like it.
He says, “I listened only to ascertain what he was saying, so that I could forbid him to do so with certainty.” Thus the sideburn stands for this, or the place of the sideburn in someone who has none. Whoever considers himself obliged to wash it washes it with what He, exalted is He, has said, “Those who listen to speech and follow the best of it, those are the ones whom God has guided,” meaning He has shown them the good in it and distinguished it from the bad, “and those are the people of understanding” [al-Zumar 39:18]. That is, they have understood what We intended. The word is related to the kernel that is protected by a shell.
Whoever does not regard it as obligatory may wash it if he wishes or leave it unwashed. This is like one who hears from a person of authority whose speech he cannot refute to his face, fearing that he may act wrongfully toward him. If he can get up and leave the gathering, he leaves, and that is his washing if he wishes. If he judges it better to remain seated for some reason he deems likely, he sits and does not leave. This is the view of those who do not regard it as obligatory.
(The Inward Application to What Supervenes Upon the Face)
As for washing what
Notlar
Translator’s note TN1372-1: The author links ʿidhār, the sideburn, with ʿudhr, an excuse. The bare strip of skin on the border between face and ear figures the uncertain boundary between listening to prohibited speech and listening in order to answer it. “People of understanding” translates ulū al-albāb, literally people of kernels.
