everyone always has something to say. when i talk about what helps me, i can be talking to others with things to say about what i say. this is when what i say partially falls on infertile ground and helps only me. or those who hear me are not looking to say something about what i say but willing to hear, and also share, what help they need and what helps them. this is when our talking, what we talk about, falls on fertile ground.
so much of our speech-based interactions in the world involving talk (webinars, talks, seminars, classrooms etc etc) are people gathering to say something and say something about what others say). empty speech and empty listening – empty because it leaves me empty, without help, without a realization for my need for truth and meaning, as speaker and listener and busies me with thoughts and worries about saying something that exceeds what others say, responding in ways that exposes the other’s talk as missing something etc etc.
if i do not feel the need to help, if i do not hear to be helped, and i do not speak to share what helps me, the deny the ability to speak and hear their service to me, to my soul, that through them my maker’s help could reach me.
by all means engage in speech of all kinds…but find time for words that speak to the soul’s needs
The Quran as Revelation 