English Translation

Abd al-Razzaq told us, Ma'mar informed us, from Asim ibn Abi al-Najud, from Abu Wa'il, from Mu'adh ibn Jabal, who said: I was with the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, on a journey, and one morning I found myself close to him while we were traveling. I said: O Prophet of Allah, tell me of a deed that will admit me to Paradise and keep me far from the Fire. He said: You have asked about something great, yet it is easy for the one for whom Allah makes it easy: worship Allah and do not associate anything with Him, establish prayer, give zakah, fast Ramadan, and perform pilgrimage to the House. Then he said: Shall I not guide you to the gates of goodness? Fasting is a shield, and charity extinguishes sin, and so does a man's prayer in the depths of the night. Then he recited the words of the Almighty: {Their sides forsake their beds...} until reaching {...they used to do}. Then he said: Shall I not tell you of the head of the matter, its pillar, and the peak of its hump? I said: Yes, O Messenger of Allah. He said: The head of the matter and its pillar is prayer, and the peak of its hump is jihad. Then he said: Shall I not tell you of what controls all of that? I said to him: Yes, O Prophet of Allah. So he took hold of his own tongue and said: Restrain this. I said: O Messenger of Allah, will we be held accountable for what we say? He said: May your mother be bereaved of you, O Mu'adh! Is there anything that topples people onto their faces in the Fire — or he said, onto their noses — except the harvests of their tongues?