The gates of goodness and guarding the tongue

On the authority of Muʿādh ibn Jabal, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: I said: O Messenger of Allah, tell me of a deed that will admit me to Paradise and distance me 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 without associating anything with Him, establish the prayer, give the zakah, fast Ramadan, and make pilgrimage to the House. Then he said: Shall I not guide you to the gates of goodness? Fasting is a shield; charity extinguishes sin as water extinguishes fire; and a man's prayer in the depths of the night. Then he recited: Their sides forsake their beds, until he reached: they 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 is Islam, its pillar is the prayer, and the peak of its hump is jihad. Then he said: Shall I not tell you of what holds all of that together? I said: Yes, O Messenger of Allah. So he took hold of his tongue and said: Restrain this. I said: O Prophet of Allah, will we be taken to account for what we say? He said: May your mother be bereaved of you! Is there anything that throws people down on their faces, or he said on their noses, other than the harvests of their tongues?