Aslam

Praise be to Allah.Being truthful means speaking the truth and also saying things that

reflect reality.

Being truthful is one of the necessities of a human society, one of the

virtues of human behaviour, and brings great benefits, whilst lying is one of the major

elements of corruption in human society, and the cause of the destruction of social

structure and ties, one of the most evil features of bad conduct, and causes widespread

harm. Hence Islam commanded truthfulness and forbade lying.

Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

O you who believe! Be afraid of Allaah, and be with those who

are true (in word and deeds). [al-Tawbah 9:119]

Ibn Katheer (may Allaah have mercy on him) said (2/414): It

means: be truthful and adhere to truthfulness, and you will be among its people and will

be saved from calamity, and this will make a way out for you from your problems.

Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

if they had been true to Allaah, it would have been

better for them. [Muhammad 47:21]

Abd-Allaah ibn Masood (may Allaah be pleased with him)

said: The Messenger of Allaah

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said:

You must be truthful, for truthfulness leads to righteousness and righteousness

leads to Paradise. A man will keep speaking the truth and striving to speak the truth

until he will be recorded with Allaah as a siddeeq (speaker of the truth). Beware

of telling lies, for lying leads to immorality and immorality leads to Hellfire. A man

will keep telling lies and striving to tell lies until he is recorded with Allaah as a

liar. (Reported by Muslim, 4721)

This hadeeth indicates that truthfulness leads to

righteousness (al-birr), an all-embracing concept that includes all kinds of

goodness and different kinds of righteous deeds. Immorality is basically an inclination

towards deviation from the truth, and the immoral person (faajir) is one who is

inclined to turn away from the path of guidance. Hence immorality and righteousness are

diametrically opposed.

Al-Hasan ibn Ali ibn Abi Taalib (may Allaah be pleased with them

both) said: I memorized from the Messenger of Allaah

(peace and blessings of Allaah

be upon him): Leave that which makes you doubt for that which does not make you

doubt, for truthfulness is certainty and tranquillity, whilst lying is doubt and

confusion. (Reported by al-Tirmidhi, 2520; al-Nisaa'i, 8/327; and Ahmad,

1/200)

In the lengthy hadeeth of Abu Sufyaan describing his

meeting with Heraclius, Abu Sufyaan (may Allaah be pleased with him) said:

[Heraclius] said, What does he [meaning the Prophet

(peace and blessings of

Allaah be upon him] command you to do? I said, He says: worship Allaah alone

and do not associate anything in worship with Him, and abandon that which your forefathers

did. He commands us to pray, to be truthful, to be chaste and to uphold the ties of

kinship. (Reported by al-Bukhaari, 1/30 and Muslim, 1773).

Hakeem ibn Hizaam (may Allaah be pleased with him)

reported that the Prophet

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: Two

parties to a deal have the option of changing their minds until they part; if they are

open and honest, their deal will be blessed, and if they conceal and tell lies, the

blessing of their deal will be diminished. (Reported by al-Bukhaari, 4/275

and Muslim, 1532.)

Truthfulness includes being truthful towards Allaah by

worshipping Him sincerely; being truthful towards ones own soul by making it adhere

to the laws of Allaah; and being truthful with people in one's words and by keeping one's

promises, and in dealings such as buying, selling and marriage, so there should be no

deceiving, cheating, falsifying or withholding of information. Thus a person should be the

same on the inside and the outside.

As regards lying, it is highly forbidden, and is of varying degrees of

abhorrence and sin. The most obnoxious form of lying is falsely attributing things to

Allaah and His Messenger, because this involves fabrication about the religion and is an

act of outrage against Allaah. Hence one of the characteristics of the Prophet

(peace and

blessings of Allaah be upon him) is that he truthfully conveyed that which Allaah

commanded him to convey. So Allaah said (interpretation of the meanings):

who does more wrong than one who invents a lie against

Allaah, to lead mankind astray without knowledge. Certainly Allaah guides not the people

whi are zaalimoon (polytheists and wrong-doers, etc.) [al-Anam 6:144]

And who does more wrong than he who invents a lie against Allaah?

Such will be brought before their Lord, and the witnesses will say, These are the

ones who lied against their Lord! No doubt! The curse of Allaah is on the zaalimoon

(polytheists, wrong-doers, oppressors, etc.). [Hood 11:18]

Equally bad is lying about the Prophet

(peace and blessings of

Allaah be upon him), as he is reported to have said in the mutawaatir hadeeth:

Whoever lies about me deliberately, let him take his place in Hell. (Agreed

upon).

The basic rule with regard to lying is that it is not

permitted, but there are certain circumstances in which Islam permits lying to serve a

greater purpose or to prevent harm.

One of these situations is when a person mediates between two disputing

parties in order to reconcile between them, if reconciliation cannot be achieved in any

other way. Um Kalthoom (may Allaah be pleased with her) reported that the Prophet

(peace

and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: He is not a liar who reconciles between

people and conveys something good or says something good. (Reported by

al-Bukhaari, 2495).

Another example is a mans speaking to his wife, or

a woman speaking to her husband, with regard to matters that will strengthen the ties of

love between them, even if that is accompanied by exaggeration. Asma bint Yazeed

said: The Messenger of Allaah

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said:

Lying is not permitted except in three cases: a mans speaking to his wife to

make her happy; lying at times of war; and lying in order to reconcile between

people. (Reported by al-Tirmidhi, 1862; he said: it is a hasan hadeeth.

See also Saheeh Muslim, 4717).

One of the most important forms of both being truthful

and lying is in the area of promises and covenants. Being truthful in promises and

covenants is one of the characteristics by which the believers are known. Both promises

and covenants involve saying something about an issue to confirm that you will do it,

especially with regard to one's duties towards Allaah. Allaah says, praising some of His

slaves (interpretation of the meanings):

Those who are faithfully true to their amaanaat (all the

duties which Allaah has ordained, honesty, moral responsibility and trusts, etc.) and to

their covenants. [al-Muminoon 23:8]

and who fulfil their covenant when they make

it [al-Baqarah 2:177]

Among the believers are men who have been true to their covenant

with Allaah [i.e., they have gone out for jihad (holy fighting), and showed not their

backs to the disbelievers], of them some have fulfilled their obligations (i.e., have been

martyred), and some of them are still waiting, but they have never changed [i.e., they

never proved treacherous to their covenant which they concluded with Allaah] in the

least. [al-Ahzaab 33:23]

We ask Allaah to make us sincere and truthful in word and deed. And

Allaah knows best.