you wish, I will inform you of the gates of goodness: fasting is a shield, charity extinguishes sin, and a man’s standing in the middle of the night. Then the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) recited: "Their sides forsake their beds, they invoke their Lord in fear and hope" (1).

17841 - From Mu'adh ibn Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) who said: I was with the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) on a journey. I woke up one day near him while we were traveling, and I said: "O Prophet of Allah, inform me of a deed that will admit me into Paradise and distance me from the Fire." He said: "You have asked about something great, and it is indeed easy for whoever Allah makes it easy for. You worship Allah and do not associate anything with Him, you perform the prayer, you pay the Zakat, you fast Ramadan, and you perform the pilgrimage to the House." Then he said: "Shall I not direct you to the gates of goodness? Fasting is a shield, charity extinguishes sin, and a man’s prayer in the middle of the night." Then he recited: "Their sides forsake their beds," until he reached: "as they used to do." Then he said: "Shall I not inform 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 is Islam, its pillar is prayer, and the peak of its hump is Jihad." Then he said: "Shall I not inform you of the control of all that?" I said: "Yes, O Prophet of Allah." He took hold of his tongue and said: "Restrain this from yourself." I said: "O Messenger of Allah, are we to be held accountable for what we speak?" He said: "May your mother be bereaved of you, O Mu'adh! Does anything else cast people into the Fire upon their faces, or on their noses, except the harvests of their tongues?" (2).

His saying: "And no soul knows what has been hidden for them of comfort for eyes."

17842 - Al-Hasan said: A people hid their deeds, so Allah hid for them what no eye has seen and what has not crossed the heart of any human (3).

17843 - From Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with both of them) who said: The Throne of Allah was upon the water, then He took a garden for Himself, then He took another beneath it, then He covered them with a single pearl. Then He said: "And below them are two [other] gardens," and creation does not know what is in them. This is what Allah said: "And no soul knows what has been hidden for them of comfort for eyes as reward for what they used to do." A gift comes to them in them every day (4).