[Parisienne]

The Prophet (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: "Good tidings to him who avoids the excess in his speech and spends the excess of his money."

In other words, we should save our words that are unnecessary, but spend our money (in sadaqah) which is in excess of our needs. Withholding excess words means to elaborate more than necessary about matters which do not concern one, or to ask about things which are of no importance. One should express oneself succintly and with brevity. This was the way of our noble Prophet (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam). Ali (radi Allahu anhu) said, "The best discourse is expressive, great, brief, and interesting." [al-Durar al-mubaha]

It has become common these days to converse about what is useless or immoral, for example to discuss acts of disobedience, such as stories about drinking sessions and fornicators. When there is no legitimate purpose connected with the conversation, this is unlawful, because it manifests one's own disobedience or another's, and encourages others to do the same by desensitizing them to the sin. Ibn Mas'ud (radi Allahu anhu) said, "The greatest in sins on the Day of Judgment will be the one most given to speaking about the useless and immoral." [Ibn Abi Dunya]