Narrated Mu’adh ibn Jabal: (Allah be pleased with him) I said to Allah’s Messenger [Peace be upon him] ‘Inform me about an act which would entitle me to get into Paradise, and remove me away from Hell-Fire’. The Prophet [peace be upon him] said…
You have asked me about a matter which ostensibly appears to be difficult but it is easy to those for whom ALLAH [the Exalted] has made it easy.
#1/- Worship Allah and do not associate anything with him
#2/- Establish Prayer
#3/- Pay the Zakat
#4/ Observe the fast of Ramadan and
#5/ Perform ‘Hajj’ to the sacred House… [ Ka`bah]
The Prophet [Peace be upon him] then said… Should I not direct you to the gateways of good? Listen to me… Fasting is a shield against evil. Charity extinguishes the fire of sin… just as water extinguishes fire. The Prayer of a person during the middle of the night. he then recited … ‘Who Forsake their Beds’… then he continued… Should I not direct you to the highest level of this matter to the Pillar on which it rests and it’s top?
I said…’Yes, do tell me…Prophet [Peace be upon him answered…The uppermost level of the matter is Islam, its Pillar is the Prayer,
and its Top is ‘Jihad’. Should I not inform you of the sheet anchor of all this…?
I said… ‘Yes, Allah’s Apostle of course do it. he took hold of his Tongue and said…Exercise restraint on it.
I said: ‘Apostle of Allah, would we be held responsible for what we say with it?
Thereupon Prophet [Peace be upon him] said… ‘ Mu`adh, may your mother be bereaved. will anything else besides irresponsible talk cause the people to be thrown into the Hell-Fire upon their faces or on their nostrils?