Honesty
[Quran 33:70–1] O you who believe, reverence GOD and utter only the correct utterances. He will then fix your works, and forgive your sins….
[Psalm 15:1–2] O Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill? Those who walk blamelessly, …and speak the truth from their heart.
[John 1:17] The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
[Hindu scripture — Mahābhārata 12.190.5] Where there is truth, there is Dharma; where there is Dharma, there is light; and where there is light, there is happiness….
[Buddhist scripture — The Dhammapada 223] ….Overcome the liar by truth.
[Saying of Confucius] “They who know the truth are not equal to those who love it, and they who love it are not equal to those who delight in it.”
As all of those quotes from the worlds religions show, those who are truly trying to follow divine guidance know the importance of being honest and truthful people. At the same time we live in a society where white lies and half-truths are part of the world around us. For example, a study was done where researchers recorded test subjects who were strangers to each other for ten minutes. At the end of the test, the subjects generally believed they had been honest in their conversation. But when they reviewed the ten minute conversation, about 60% of the subjects recognized that they had spoken at least one lie during those ten minutes and on an average of 2.92 false things.
Just as interesting as how often humans lie is the question of why we lie in the first place. We tell untruths for several reasons. Sometimes we lie to gain others’ respect. For example, maybe a coffee-fetching intern tells friends he’s a “research assistant.” Other fibs help stave off the consequences of making a mistake. Still others will lie to spare someone’s feelings. While a person’s hearts might be in the right place, and a diplomatic answer may appear to be nicer than the absolute truth, the fact is they’re still telling a lie. As a submitter, God says we must be honest.
[Quran 3:17] They are steadfast, truthful, submitting, charitable, and meditators at dawn.
The thing is that even if in the short term you may spare someone’s feelings, in the longer term you will end up hurting them. For example, suppose a student who is getting a “C” asks me how he’s doing and I say, “you’re doing ok, a B is in sight.” That’s not going to help the student. In the moment it may feel better because I spared his feelings, but in the long run it will hurt him.
Honesty doesn’t mean being a nasty person. Usually the nastiness is based on lies to begin with. For example with that same student who was getting a “C” if I said, “You’re failing — get it together. You’re hopeless and stupid,” that would also be a lie. I may think he’s going to study harder now to save himself, but it’s still not right. A white lie told either to spare his feelings or to scare this person — are both wrong. For all I know, the poor kid may get depressed or simply give up, saying he can’t figure the subject out, and then actually end up failing. The right thing to say is the truth. “You’re currently getting a C. Would you like some help to understand the subject better so you can try and raise your grade?”
[Note, though we appreciate and accept the Godly truths of all of His faiths, our own focus is on the Quran, so from this point forward all of the verses quoted will be from that scripture, taken from the translation available at the Masjid Tucson website.]
In terms of being factually honest a good example is in Sura 109 (Chapter 109 of the Quran), which some people might see as being a harsh sura. But it’s stated in a factual way, not trying to get personal or hurtful.
It does not say, for example, “O you disbelievers — you’re scum of the earth and I will rejoice in seeing you suffer in hell.”
[109:1–6] Say, “O you disbelievers. I do not worship what you worship. Nor do you worship what I worship. Nor will I ever worship what you worship. Nor will you ever worship what I worship. To you is your religion, and to me is my religion.”
We don’t have to go running around telling atheists, “See you in hell.” But if someone asks us, “I am an atheist and don’t believe in mumbo-jumbo religion. Will your God, the Most Merciful, put me in hell?”, we shouldn’t sugar coat the response. One can simply say, “If you maintain atheism until the end, then you’ll get what you chose — the absence of God, which is Hell.” Maybe it’ll help the person, or maybe they’ll laugh and walk away. But we did our job which was to be truthful and not tell them something that’s outside Quran. Now they cannot say, “I didn’t realize it was so bad.”
Truthfulness is a trait of the righteous, and being truthful saves our souls.
[5:119] GOD will proclaim, “This is a day when the truthful will be saved by their truthfulness.” They have deserved gardens with flowing streams. They abide therein forever.…
[33:24] GOD will surely recompense the truthful for their truthfulness…
[49:15] Mu’mens (believers) are those who believe in GOD and His messenger, then attain the status of having no doubt whatsoever, and strive with their money and their lives in the cause of GOD. These are the truthful ones.
[7:159] Among the followers of Moses there are those who guide in accordance with the truth, and the truth renders them righteous.
[9:33] He is the One who sent His messenger with the guidance and the religion of truth, and will make it dominate all religions….
[22:62] It is a fact that GOD is the Truth, while the setting up of any idols beside Him constitutes a falsehood….
[35:5] O people, GOD’s promise is the truth; therefore, do not be distracted by this lowly life. Do not be diverted from GOD by mere illusions.
[17:81] Proclaim, “The truth has prevailed, and falsehood has vanished; falsehood will inevitably vanish.”
[2:177] Righteousness is not turning your faces towards the east or the west. Righteous are those who believe in GOD, the Last Day, the angels, the scripture, and the prophets; and they give the money, cheerfully, to the [poor]… and they observe the Contact Prayers (Salat) and give the obligatory charity (Zakat); and they keep their word whenever they make a promise…. These are the truthful; these are the righteous.
What you may notice is that after all the traits, God says, “these are the truthful, these are the righteous.” So in other words, the people who believe in God, the last day, do charity, do Salat … these are truthful people. We are striving to be righteous; we must strive to be truthful.
[39:33] As for those who promote the truth, and believe therein, they are the righteous.
Basic article written by Faiz Currim and first published in The Submitters’ Perspective. Edited and expanded with interfaith quotes by Lisa Spray.
