Silence As A Discipline

"[Zakariya] said, 'Give me a sign, Lord.' [God] said, 'Your sign is that you will not speak to anyone for three full [days and] nights.' [Zakariya] went out of the sanctuary to his people and signalled to them to praise God morning and evening." Qur'an 19:10-11 [M.A.S. Abdel Haleem translation, slightly modified].





A statement attributed to Jesus by Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali in the Ihya: "Devotion has ten degrees: the ninth is silence and the first is flight from people [exile]."