A Conversation That Set The Foundation

Reading time: 1 minute

Muadh bin Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) said:

I asked, “O Messenger of Allah ﷺ, tell me of an act which will take me into Paradise and will keep me away from the Hellfire.”

He ﷺ said, “You have asked me about a great matter, yet it is easy for him for whom Allah makes it easy: worship Allah, without associating any partners with Him; establish the prayer; pay the zakat; fast in Ramadhan; and make the pilgrimage to the House.”

Then He ﷺ said, “Shall I not guide you towards the means of goodness?

Fasting is a shield; charity wipes away sin as water extinguishes fire; and the praying of a man in the depths of the night.”

Then he ﷺ recited:

“[Those] who forsake their beds, to invoke their Lord in fear and hope, and they spend (charity in Allah’s cause) out of what We have bestowed on them. No person knows what is kept hidden for them of joy as a reward for what they used to do.” [as-Sajdah, 16-17]

Then He ﷺ said, “Shall I not inform you of the head of the matter, its pillar, and its peak?”

I said, “Yes, O Messenger of Allah ﷺ.”

He ﷺ said, “The head of the matter is Islam, its pillar is the prayer, and its peak is a meritorious struggle in the path of Allah.”

Then he ﷺ said, “Shall I not tell you of the foundation of all of that?”

I said, “Yes, O Messenger of Allah ﷺ .”

So He ﷺ took hold of his tongue and said, “Restrain this.”

I said, “O Prophet of Allah ﷺ, will we be taken to account for what we say with it?”

He ﷺ said, “May your mother be bereaved of you, O Muadh! Is there anything that throws people into the Hellfire upon their faces — or on their noses — except the harvests of their tongues?”

It was related by at-Tirmidhi, who said it was a good and sound hadeeth.