2014-12-05 - Friday Prayer - Imam Ghyasi McKenzie

Honesty and Integrity: A Universal Virtue in Islam

Khuṭbah delivered by Imam Ghyasi McKenzie — Friday, December 5, 2014

السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah. I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.

Fear Allah and always speak the truth.

O you who believe, fear Allah and always speak the truth. He will direct you to righteous deeds and forgive you your sins. And whosoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has indeed achieved a great achievement.

To proceed — verily the truest speech is the Book of Allah, and the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad ﷺ. And the worst of affairs are the newly invented matters of religion. And every newly invented matter of religion is a heresy, and every heresy leads us astray, and everything that leads us astray leads to the Hellfire.

The Universal Virtue of Honesty

Honesty and integrity are one of the greatest of all moral virtues. And according to many scholars, it is the foundation for all the moral virtues. Honesty and integrity are one of the greatest universally admired virtues — admired by mankind collectively. It is not only admired, but it is even demanded by us.

We demand honesty and integrity from our leaders and politicians. From our teachers and coaches. Even from our athletes. We demand honesty and integrity from our justice system, from law enforcement officers. We demand honesty and integrity from our business partners, from our spouses, our children. And we should even demand honesty and integrity from ourselves.

So though honesty and integrity are virtues — one of the greatest virtues, virtues that are universally admired, virtues that we are commanded to have as Muslims, and virtues that we admire — though this is the case, and we demand these virtues from others, this is one that we severely struggle with.

I don't want to bash us, but I want to alert us that this simple, essential topic is one that we as Muslims severely struggle with. If you look at the countries that are predominantly Muslim — isn't this what we are defined by? Defined by a lack of integrity, a lack of honesty. Are we not afraid when we go to a merchant and buy and sell that he or she would deal with us dishonestly? Aren't we afraid of being forced into bribery? And many of us have explicitly told me that we left because of the lack of honesty and integrity. This simple quality that we talk to our kids about is something that we struggle with as a whole, globally.

And not only do we struggle with this globally — and this is something that we really have to pay attention to — but we struggle with it even here. If we look at the urban centers — and I'm from Memphis, so I know this very well — if you want pirated DVDs, handbags, that market — Muslims are well known to be well entrenched in that market. That's the reality.

And not only is this issue of honesty and integrity present on this level, but also on the professional level. How many cases have we heard about a doctor in Florida, or in Michigan, or in Tennessee, being indicted because of Medicare fraud? Embezzling or cheating people out of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars. And how many of us are taking entitlements and hurting the system in general, even though we are okay — and there are people who are more needy than we are. And this is the case because we haven't paid close enough attention to this simple but essential topic.

So what I want to do today is give us maybe four or five things that will help us acquire this quality. Again, this is a quality which we admire globally — women admire honesty and integrity, men, elderly people, young people, Muslims, non-Muslims — everyone admires this and demands this. But this is something that we struggle with as a community. And this is unfortunately something that we need to wake up to and do a better job at, inshAllah.

How to Acquire This Noble Quality

1. Educate Ourselves About the Importance of Honesty

The first thing that we can do to acquire this, or to possess this noble quality, is simply to talk about how important it is. How many āyāt in the Quran explicitly tell us to speak the truth. Explicitly tell us to be with the truthful. Explicitly tell us to render the amānah back to its people. Allah mentions it in many different ways, in many different perspectives and angles.

Likewise, we know of a great hadith that tells us how important this simple topic is — the hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ was giving a lesson, talking to the people, trying to educate them. A Bedouin man stood up and asked: "When is the Hour?" A very heavy question, and something that no doubt would seem to distract from the lesson of the Prophet ﷺ. So the Prophet ﷺ did not immediately respond, and some of the companions said perhaps he heard but didn't respond because this was inappropriate, or perhaps he did not hear at all. But at the end, the Prophet ﷺ asked about the questioner and responded to his question — this heavy question, the greatest of all secrets. And of course he does not know, but he could only give a sign.

When is the Hour? And the Prophet ﷺ responded by saying:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 59)

"If the amānah is lost — if honesty is gone, is lost — then wait for the Hour." And we know that the Hour will only be established upon the most wicked of people. So this should incite fear in our hearts. This should make us pay attention to honesty. If even our human existence depends upon honesty — when we stop and cease being honest people, then the Hour will come, then our time will be finished. This is how important it is to be honest, truthful, and to have integrity.

One other hadith of the Prophet ﷺ — and there are many, many ahādīth, many āyāt, and many of them we have perhaps heard of — but I just want to remind us of this quality that we struggle with. And one of the perhaps most potent and powerful of these ahādīth is the one collected by Imam Muslim, in which the Prophet ﷺ says:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 45, Hadith 7)

"You must be truthful. For if you are truthful, it will bring you to righteousness. It will help you be generous, forbearing, and better in all these other aspects. Be truthful and you can be a better Muslim, a better worshipper, a better father, a better son, a better brother. And this righteousness that we want and desire will bring us to Jannah." And as I always say, this is the reason that we're here today — this is the reason why we're praying our prayers, fasting in the month of Ramadan, performing Hajj. It's all because we want this land in which we're told we can have whatever we want. This land of bliss, which we should be thinking about 24/7 — no more stress and anxiety, fear and pain. That's what truthfulness will ultimately lead to.

And the Prophet ﷺ did not stop. He said: "You continue to tell the truth until Allah writes you — until you are recognized, not just admired by the people, but recognized and admired by Allah as one who speaks the truth." And then the Prophet ﷺ turned and spoke about lying, saying: "Beware of lying. For if you lie, it will bring you to wickedness. If you lie, perhaps you will steal, perhaps you will do these other things." And that's the reality — lying isn't harmless. Lying leads to more lying. And this wickedness which started with lying will lead you to the Hellfire, to disgrace. The people who are lying are ultimately trying to make their situation better, but it makes the situation worse. Honesty truly is the best policy.

And you will continue to lie, becoming this habitual liar, until you are written with Allah, recognized by Allah, as a liar — not just a liar, but كَذَّاب, a big confirmed liar. And what a disgraceful quality.

So this teaches us that we should be very careful and understand that honesty is extremely important. So this is number one — just have this awareness, talk to our kids about honesty, remind ourselves of all these verses about being truthful.

2. Remind Ourselves That We Are Not Getting Away

We should remind ourselves that lying does not make things better. We lie to try to escape conflict. We try to lie to get away with things. But Allah addresses this lying in so many different places.

Woe to those who cheat — those who, when they have to receive by measure, they make sure that they receive in full. But when they have to give, they give people less than is due. And what an evil quality. They're trying to make a quick profit, a quick benefit. But Allah says: "Do they not recognize or realize that they will not be escaping? That they will be resurrected for a great day — a day when they will have to stand in front of Allah, the Lord of the worlds."

Allah is obviously aware of everything. So we have to remind ourselves that we are not getting away. We have to remind ourselves of the beautiful story of Umar ibn al-Khattab when he leaned against a door and heard the conversation of the mother telling the daughter to dilute the milk. And the daughter said: "How can we dilute the milk when someone today told us that this is prohibited?" She said: "Umar is not here. He can't see us." Even though, subhanAllah, he actually was aware. And the daughter — who is now teaching the parent, the mother — said: "If Umar is not aware, then Allah sees and is aware."

And this is the case. And this is the scary thing. You can justify lying. She was a widow, she did not have a husband, they were poor — they could perhaps justify adding water to the milk, right? They needed the money. And that's what we do. The worst lie is when we lie to ourselves to justify our actions. "Well, America does this and that, so I don't need to worry about it." And we start to just lie to ourselves and begin to buy our own lies. You cheat and con yourself — that's how evil this is.

Again, when you get into this mentality, you can con anyone. How many stories have we heard about uncles and aunts taking kids' money? And I know so many people who say they are afraid to send money to a certain family member to get it distributed to everyone else, because of this lack of honesty and integrity. And, as I hate to say this, we even began to con other Muslims. For example — and this is a real story I encountered — a brother doesn't want to pay the full dues because the masjid has issues, so he says: "I'll just tell them I make this amount of money, because they don't deserve the full membership fee anyway." We lie and con them. Or someone goes to a Muslim school — and the school is not accredited, it has issues — so they lie and misrepresent information to get financial aid.

We began to con and cheat everyone, even each other. And like I said, ultimately, subhanAllah, you cheat your own self. That's the ultimate. You're not cheating and deceiving Allah or anyone else — ultimately, you are cheating yourselves.

So — number one, we said: just educate ourselves. Number two: remind ourselves that we are not escaping. We are not getting away.

3. Be Role Models

We should try not to just talk the talk, but walk the walk. And we should remember that one of the characteristics of the hypocrites is that when they speak, they lie. So we should share stories with our kids and let them know some of the struggles that we go through, and let them know that daddy is a man of integrity, that mama is a lady of integrity. Let them know that they were pulled over by the cops and they could have found an excuse, but they told the truth, bit the bullet, and paid the ticket.

But many times, when you tell the truth, people actually admire it and you get away. How many times has someone told the truth and the officer said: "Go ahead" — and you know how that is. I mean, that's rare. But the reality is, when you tell the truth, many times you don't even have to bite the bullet. Many times people admire that. I've heard so many stories of bosses actually giving someone a new position — and this is not an exaggeration — because of the integrity that they found in that employee, which is so hard to find nowadays. So honesty is the best policy.

4. Understand That Honesty Leads to Success

This is perhaps one of the most powerful of the things that we need to remind ourselves of. Allah talks about it over and over again — being truthful and having integrity leads to success. Allah talks about the mu'minūn and of their characteristics. He first of all says that they will be successful. And of one of the few characteristics that Allah describes them by, He says:

Those mu'minūn, those people who will be successful in this life and the Hereafter — they will be those who have this honesty. Success is attained by those who honestly look after their trust and their covenant.

And we will end with this powerful, powerful verse. Allah tells us that on the Day of Judgment He will say:

Allah will say on the Day of Judgment: "This is a day on which the truthful will benefit from their truth." Allah will announce: "This is the day when those whose policy was honesty will profit, will be successful." They will have gardens under which rivers flow. They shall abide therein forever — they don't have to worry about leaving this beautiful place of bliss. Allah is pleased with them, and they are pleased with Allah, and of course pleased with what they have been given. And their greatest pleasure is that Allah is pleased with them.

5. Surround Yourself with the Truthful

And lastly, all we need to do is one simple thing. Allah says:

"O you who believe, be conscious of Allah and be with those who are truthful." If we want to be truthful, then we surround ourselves — we are affected and impacted by our environment and by those who are around us. So if we want to be good, if we want to change our lives, then we begin to make that change in our environment and in those whom we take as friends.

This is also one of the most powerful ways to really change. Many of us struggle with certain things. If we want to really make that change — not only do we make that intention, but we make the intention to be around people who, when we slip, will pull us up; when we forget, will remind us; and who will encourage us to do good things instead of being around people who encourage us to do bad things.

Conclusion

In conclusion — again, this is a very basic, essential message. A message of being truthful. A message that we all know. All the ahādīth and āyāt I mentioned, we know them — but I think we all do understand and agree that this is something that we need to pay close attention to. And I hope we commit to ourselves that at least we will be more truthful. We will go home and tell our kids about the importance of being truthful, and tell them that not only does our society say that honesty is the best policy — Allah tells us that on the Day of Judgment He will call out:

So let us remind our families and ourselves as well, and be more truthful. May Allah allow us to be a community that goes from being known for a lack of integrity to having integrity — a people whose policy is truthfulness and integrity.

Du'ā'

Brothers and sisters, I have a few quick announcements. InshAllah, tonight we will have a Quran night, today being the first Friday of the month.