Doors of Good and Guarding the Tongue: Hadith 29 of an-Nawawi

Many of us keep careful count of our prayers and fasts, but rarely count our words. In Hadith 29 of Imam an-Nawawi’s collection, the Prophet ﷺ first shows Mu’adh ibn Jabal the doors of good, then takes hold of his own tongue and says: restrain this. This is the guard your tongue hadith, and it ties all our worship to what we say.

The hadith

Mu’adh ibn Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) was traveling close to the Prophet ﷺ and asked him:

أَخْبِرْنِي بِعَمَلٍ يُدْخِلُنِي الْجَنَّةَ وَيُبَاعِدُنِي مِنَ النَّارِ “Inform me about an action by which I will be admitted into Paradise, and which will keep me far from the Fire.”

The Prophet ﷺ said that he had asked about something great, yet easy for whoever Allah makes it easy for: to worship Allah without associating anything with Him, establish the prayer, give zakah, fast Ramadan and perform Hajj. (These are the pillars of Islam; see the five pillars hadith.) Then he said:

Then he recited these two verses from Surah As-Sajdah:

Then he asked Mu’adh whether he should tell him the head of the whole matter, its pillar and its peak, and said:

Finally he asked whether he should tell him what governs all of that. He took hold of his own tongue and said:

In between, Mu’adh had asked whether we will really be held to account for what we say, and the Prophet ﷺ began his answer with the words “May your mother grieve your loss, O Mu’adh!” Imam an-Nawawi gives this hadith as Hadith 29 of his 40 Hadith.

The doors of good

The Encyclopedia of Translated Prophetic Hadiths (HadeethEnc) explains the three doors like this:

• Fasting is a shield: it protects from sin by weakening the desires that lead to it.
• Charity puts out sins after they are done and removes their traces, as water puts out fire.
• Prayer in the depth of the night: voluntary prayer in the last part of the night, with dhikr, Quran and dua. The verses the Prophet ﷺ recited describe exactly this, and the reward is a joy kept hidden for them.

HadeethEnc also explains the head, pillar and peak: the head is Islam, meaning the two testimonies of faith; the pillar is the prayer, because Islam cannot stand without it, just as a tent falls without its pole; and the peak is jihad, striving so that the word of Allah is highest. It adds that these extra doors show Allah’s mercy, since voluntary deeds after the obligatory ones bring a person closer to Him.

Guard your tongue: what the hadith means

• “Restrain this”: HadeethEnc explains that the Prophet ﷺ told Mu’adh to control his tongue and avoid speech that does not concern him.
• “May your mother grieve your loss”: this is not a curse. It is an Arabic expression used to make the listener pay attention to something important.
• “The harvest of their tongues”: HadeethEnc lists words of disbelief, slander, insults, backbiting, tale-bearing and false accusations as what can throw people on their faces into the Fire.

Among the benefits HadeethEnc lists: guarding the tongue against what harms one’s religion is obligatory, and controlling the tongue is the basis of all good.

Reflection: what stays with me is the order of the hadith. Mu’adh hears about the pillars, the doors of good, the night prayer and the peak of the religion, and only then is told what holds it all together. It is a reminder that a tongue left unchecked can quietly undo what our prayers and fasts have built.

How to put it into practice

The hadith does not set a number for these deeds, so these are suggestions:

• Pause before you speak or post, and ask whether it is good, true and needed.
• Keep a voluntary fast, such as Mondays and Thursdays or three days a month; see the best type of fasting.
• Give a small charity after a slip, hoping Allah wipes the sin away.
• Pray two rak’ahs at night, even a short prayer before you sleep or before Fajr.
• Leave conversations that turn to backbiting; see speak good or remain silent.

Key lessons

• The pillars of Islam are the way to Jannah, and Allah makes them easy for whom He wills.
• Fasting, charity and the night prayer are doors of extra good.
• Prayer is the pillar of Islam.
• Guarding the tongue holds all of this together.

Questions people ask

A question to reflect on: if your words today were weighed with your prayers, which would be heavier?

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