The importance of being truthful

Question

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.