too, since he has spoken the truth with immense courage.’ (Wafyaat-ul-A’yaan, vol. 2, pp. 28; The Lying Thief, pp. 19)

Dear Islamic brothers! We learnt here that honest people will always prosper. There is an Urdu proverb, “Saanch ko aanch nahin”, meaning an honest man has nothing to fear; only benefit shall be in his destiny. However it is with tremendous disappointment that we must acknowledge that today in our communities lying has transformed into an awfully fatal disease. Men, women, children, adults, rich, poor, minister, secretary, adviser, officer, security guard, almost every single individual in our community is seen to be suffering as a result of this epidemic. Sadly today people even lie in predicaments where speaking the truth does not even cause any worldly harm.

Lying to children

One such case is that of parents lying to their young children. You can easily notice parents forging various lies in order to get their way with young/small children. Examples are: “Come here son I’ll give you something, then you can go (but you don’t intend to give him anything).” Or saying something like this in order to calm him down: “Son be quiet, we’ll buy you toys (when in fact you have no intention to do so).” Another example is using lies to scare them into obedience and prohibit them from disobedience. Such as: “Go to sleep quickly otherwise a cat or dog will come” etc. Please remember that statements such as these are all examples of lying. In such cases not only is the speaker himself committing the major sin of lying in fact one of the side effects of this is that the behaviour and attitude of the child is also damaged by such lies, consequently children are deprived from hearing and speaking the truth rather they develop a habit of listening to and telling lies from childhood. Children who grow up in such environments lie all the time as they grow older. To summarise, we must not lie in front of our children.

Sayyiduna ‘Abdullah Bin ‘Aamir رَضِىَ الـلّٰـهُ تَـعَالٰی عَـنْهُ narrated: ‘One day the Most Beloved and Blessed Rasool صَلَّى الـلّٰـهُ تَعَالٰى عَـلَيْهِ وَاٰلِهٖ وَسَلَّم visited our home. My mother said to me: ‘Come, I will give you something.’ Noticing this, the most Noble Nabi صَلَّى الـلّٰـهُ تَعَالٰى عَـلَيْهِ وَاٰلِهٖ وَسَلَّم asked her: ‘What do you intend to give (to him)?’ ‘I’ll give him date [to eat].” She answered. Upon which the Rasool of Rahmah, the Intercessor of the Ummah صَلَّى الـلّٰـهُ تَعَالٰى عَـلَيْهِ وَاٰلِهٖ وَسَلَّم remarked: ‘If you would not have given him anything, it would have been recorded as a lie in your deed-register.’(Sunan Abi Dawood, vol. 4, pp. 387, Hadees 4991)

صَلُّوۡا عَلَى الۡحَبِيۡب              صَلَّى اللّٰهُ تَعَالٰى عَلٰى مُحَمَّد