Prophetic Qualities: Honesty and Trust

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ ٱتَّقُواْ ٱللَّهَ وَكُونُواْ مَعَ ٱلصَّـٰدِقِينَ

“O you who have believed, fear Allah and be with those who are truthful.”

(Translation from Sahih International)

 When witnessing such calamities that have fallen upon and are still currently falling upon the Muslim Ummah around the world, how will we answer Allahﷻ about our own blessings that He bestowed upon us? How will we answer to Allahﷻ about how we used these calamities to make change in our lives and become better Muslims? Allah ﷻ is not necessarily looking for us to go and physically fight against the oppressors, as that is not realistic nor feasible. However, He does want us to fix our own problems as a result. In the Quran, Allahﷻ says, “Allah does not change the condition of an entire nation until they change what is within themselves.” The change mentioned in this verse is on the individual level and some of the best changes that we can make is our character.

One of the best ways to describe the character of our beloved Prophetﷺ is that “He was a Quran walking on Earth.” The Prophet ﷺ had every character trait that the Quran held, so much so that he was the perfect embodiment of the Quran as a human being. Although we know that we will never be nearly as perfect as our beloved Messenger ﷺ was, we can certainly do our best to follow in his footsteps and the sunnah.

مَنْ لَمْ يَدَعْ قَوْلَ الزُّورِ وَالْعَمَلَ بِهِ فَلَيْسَ لِلَّهِ حَاجَةٌ أَنْ يَدَعَ

طَعَامَهُ وَشَرَابَهُ

(Sahih Al-Bukhari)

A character trait that a Muslim must have is honesty and truthfulness. This also means to completely abstain from lying and falsehood. Lying is one of the few things that our Messenger ﷺ explicitly stated that a Muslim can never do. According to Sahih Al-Bukhari, Abu Hurairah narrated that the Prophet (ﷺ) said, “Whoever does not give up false statements (i.e. telling lies), and evil deeds, and speaking bad words to others, Allah is not in need of his (fasting) leaving his food and drink.” A Muslim will sin, say bad words, and do wrong actions. However, a Muslim will never lie. In another authentic hadith, the Prophet ﷺ says, “المؤمن لا يكذب.” It is completely against the nature of a Muslim and everything Islam stands for.

Islam is built on a concept called “Tawheed.” Tawheed is the belief in the oneness or singularity of God. The belief that there is no God but Allah ﷻ and we do not associate any other entity with Him. Tawheed also encompasses the belief that Allahﷻ sees everything we do, even while others cannot. As a result, lying completely contradicts this belief. We cannot say that we believe in the oneness of God and that he sees and hears everything while we lie! That would mean that we do not actually believe that Allahﷻ sees and hears everything we do.

There are countless examples of the embodiment of this characteristic of honesty within our Messengerﷺ. He was known as “The Honest and Trustworthy one.” Prophet Muhammad ﷺ had this nickname given to him by the people well before Islam was even revealed! So much so that even when he was publicly known to be a Muslim and was being persecuted by Quraish, the disbelievers still entrusted their belongings to him because they knew that he would protect them. Prior to embarking on the Hijrah to Madinah, the Prophet ﷺ ensured that all of those possessions entrusted to him were returned to their owners safely. This is the level of honesty, truthfulness, and trustworthiness that our Messenger ﷺ had and we certainly strive to attain such dignity.

We ask Allah ﷻ to make us amongst those who follow in the footsteps of our beloved Messenger ﷺ. We ask Allah ﷻ to make us among the honest and truthful ones and to forgive us for any lies that we have committed in the past. We ask Allah ﷻ to forgive us for our shortcomings and unite us with our Prophet ﷺ in the highest level of paradise. Allahumma Ameen.

By Ahmad Salah