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«اِنَّ اَكْثَرَ خَطايَا ابْنِ آدَمَ فِي لِسانِهِ».
Most of man's mistakes are in his tongue.(43)
And it is narrated from the Prophet in another tradition:
«اُخْزُنْ لِسانَكَ اِلاّ مِنَ الْخَيْرِ فَاِنَّكَ بِذلِكَ تَغْلِبُ الشَّيْطانَ».
Keep your tongue save a good utterance and thereby you will overcome Satan.(44)
2- Silence invites man to thinking and reflection which are the sources of his spiritual life, and thus silent people are typically thinker, resourceful, and man of action. In contrast, talkative people are often frail and show less action.
It is narrated in a tradition from Prophet S.A.:
«اِذا رَأَيْتُمُ الْمُؤْمِنَ صَمُوتاً وَقُوراً فَادْنُوا مِنْهُ فَاِنَّهُ يُلْقِي الحِكْمَةَ».
When you find a believer silent and courtly, contact with him that he teaches you wisdom.(45)
And also it is narrated from Imam Ali A.S.:
«اِذا تَمَّ الْعَقْلُ نَقَصَ الْكَلامُ».
As intelligence increases, speech decreases.(46)
In addition to the fact that silence is the best means for reviving reflection power, above phrase may refer to this point that a plenty of mental powers are used for speaking. When these energies are saved, they will form a massive power by which understanding great realities is possible. Furthermore, silence is tranquilizer of soul and moderator of sentiments.
3- Chattiness as the opposite point of silence, makes man improvident, because it increases man's errors, decreases his shame, and breaking the barrier of shame as a result of excess of errors, it simplifies evil deeds for man as Imam Ali A.S. says:
«مَنْ كَثُرَ كَلامُهُ كَثُرَ خَطَأُهُ، وَ مَنْ كَثُرَ خَطَأُهُ قَلَّ حَياؤُهُ وَ مَنْ قَلَّ حَياؤُهُ قَلَّ وَرَعُهُ، وَ مَنْ قَلَّ وَرَعُهُ ماتَ قَلْبُهُ، وَ مَنْ ماتَ قَلْبُهُ دَخَلَ النّارَ».
He, who speaks more, commits more errors. He, who commits more errors, becomes shameless. He, who is shameless, would have less fear of Allah. He whose fear of Allah is less, his heart dies. He, whose heart dies, enters Hell.(47)
And perhaps on this account, silence is considered as one of the important sorbs.
«اَلْعِبادَةُ عَشَرَةُ اَجْزاء تِسْعَةٌ مِنْها فِي الصَّمْتِ».
Worship has ten portions, nine of which exist in silence.(48)
It should not be mistaken; silence is not like seclusion and dissociation which remove the object of sin. Rather, it is a sort of avoiding sin, and in cases that man finds a desire to some sins including slander, sin, when he selects continence and silence, he has acquired a virtue for his health.
It should be also mentioned that silence when speaking is necessary, is considered as one of the greatest faults, and is the sign of weakness, humbleness, disability, lack of spiritual bravery, and fear of else than God.
It is also noteworthy that as most of sins are performed by tongue, a large portion of services and good deeds, like God's remembrance, guiding people, training and education, bid to good, and forbid of wrong, warfare with utterance, too are performed by tongue.
4 - Honesty, the most manifest sign of personality
* Miraculous results of truthfulness
* Lie, source of all sins
* Lie is not compatible with belief
* Lie makes man improvident
* The liar does not trust even in himself
* Source of lie
* Way of treating lie
* Lie in exceptional cases
* What is equivocation?
* A new interpretation about equivocation
Undoubtedly, two attributes of truthfulness and honesty (truth and trust) are the most manifest signs of personality. Rather, we can not call a human the one who lacks these two, and both of them originate from a common source, because truthfulness is nothing else than trust in speech, as trust is nothing else than truth in action, and as we will see their social results are similar.
Haply for this respect, "truth in speech" and "trusteeship" are mentioned together in the sayings of Islamic great leaders, and even in ordinary speech, truthfulness and honesty are accompanied.
Value and importance of truthfulness
As it was referred, truthfulness and honesty are the manifest signs of man's personality as well as magnificence of his mind and purity of his soul.
Truthful people are usually brave, frank, sincere, disinterested, and free from wrong prejudices and excessive love and hatred, because truthfulness is not possible without them.
In contrast, liars are usually coward, hypocrite, greedy, fanatic, stubborn, and or involved in wrong love and hatred.
Truthful people are certainly principled. Less happens such people to be guileful, erratic, and hypocrite, because honesty is not in concord with any of these affairs. As it will be described in incentives of lying, this attribute originates from one of the above vices, and on this account, we can consider truthfulness as a key for detecting interior of individuals in different aspects, and so truth in speech is called as a means of evaluation of people in the narrations and traditions of Prophet's House A.S.:
Imam Sadegh A.S.:
«لا تَنْظُرُوا اِلى طُولِ رُكُوعِ الرَّجُلِ وَ سُجُودِهِ فَاِنَّ ذلِكَ شَيْءٌ قَدِ اعْتادَهُ فَلَوْ تَرَكَهُ اسْتَوْحَشَ لِذلِكَ، وَلكِنِ انْظُرُوا اِلى صِدْقِ حَدِيثِهِ وَ اَداءِ اَمانَتِهِ».
Do not regard one's long bowing and prostration, because it may be their habit, and if they leave it, are disturbed. Rather, look at their truthfulness and honesty.(49)
Holy Quran says:
(وَ لَتَعْرِفَنَّهُمْ فِي لَحْنِ الْقَوْلِ).
And thou shalt certainly know them in the twisting of their speech.(50)
Miraculous results of truthfulness
In social point of view, the greatest service that truth and trust can offer to men is attracting confidence and reliance. Of course, we know that all scientific, industrial and economic developments are the results of his life system that is social life.
But collaboration and consultation, which are the bases of social life, are only possible when individuals trust and rely on each other. Otherwise, people will have the problems of social life, disturbances, struggles, disputes and sabotages, without enjoying its advantages.
Obviously, the most important and effective means of attracting reliance and confidence is "truth and trust", and its most dangerous enemy is lie.
If economical firms lie only in introduction of one of their goods, people will suspect in their best products.
If the rulers lie, people will disregard their promises, invitations, and warnings, and they will lack powerful public support.
If lie becomes popular in scientific environments, scientists and scholars will not trust on the speeches, narrations, and judgements of each other, and thus everybody should personally suffer all required labors for a scientific research, and could not use the results of thousands years of others' life. And this type of lie is the ugliest and dirtiest one.
Lie, source of all sins
In several narrations, it is referred to this reality that trust and truth cause purity of action, and lie is the key of all types of sins.
For better understanding of effect of truthfulness and lie on the man's deeds and actions, first we refer to a number of narrations from Prophet's House A.S. in this regard, and then we will analyze it.
Imam Ali A.S. says:
«الصِّدْقُ يَهْدِي اِلَى الْبِرِّ وَ الْبِرُّ يَدْعُو اِلَى الْجَنَّةِ».
Truthfulness guides people to goodness, and goodness invites to paradise.(51)
Imam Sadegh A.S. says:
«اِذا صَدَقَ الْعَبْدُ قالَ اللهُ: صَدَقَ و بَرَّ، وَ اِذا كَذِبَ قالَ اللهُ كَذَبَ وَ فَجَرَ».
When a God's servant says the truth, God says: he said the truth and performed a good deed, and when he lies, He says: he lied and performed an evil deed!(52)
Imam Askari A.S. says:
جُعِلَتِ الْخَبائِثُ كُلُّها فِي بَيْت وَ جُعِلَ مِفْتاحُها اَلْكَذِبُ».
All vices are put in a room and its key is lie.(53)
It is easily inferred from this tradition that lie is the key of all vices and evils.
Now we study the effects of truthfulness and lie in man's deeds:
1- Lie is the source of hypocrisy, because truthfulness refers to harmony of tongue and heart, and lie is inharmony of these two, and hereof difference between man's interior and outward is started, and the liar gradually proceeds to full hypocrisy.
Holy Quran refers to this fact and says:
(فَاَعْقَبَهُمْ نِفاقاً فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ اِلى يَوْمِ يَلْقَوْنَهُ بِما اَخْلَفُوا اللهَ ما وَعَدُوهُ وَ بِما كانُوا يَكْذِبُونَ).
So, as a result, He puts hypocrisy into their hearts, until the day they meet Him, for that they failed God in that they promised Him and they were liars.(54)
2- Lie is the tool of most sins. Dishonest and guileful, robber and treacherous, short weighing and hoarder, tricky and perjurer individuals can not continue anymore and reach to a stalemate if they do not lie.
3- An envious person for envying, a proud person for ostentation and frippery, a subservient and flatterer person for achieving his goals, greedy and secularist individuals for attaining their objectives, usually resort to die. They debase the envied person in public view falsely, and glorify themselves falsely. They say thousands of flatteries falsely, and resort to lie for satiation of their greedy souls.
4- One who is bound to truthfulness, has no alternative save restraining himself from most of the sins, because he thinks that if he is asked about that issue, he shall say the truth, and if he says the truth, it will be disgraceful. So, he prefers to forget those deeds on the whole. Thus, being bounded to this attribute insures man against numerous sins.
5- Most of lies cause other lies or sins, because it is widely seen that liars say other lies for justifying their untrue subjects, and or perform other evil deeds for preventing disclosure of their lies.
It is clarified from what was mentioned above (considering the explanations mentioned in each part), that if a man is verily bounded to truthfulness and honesty, he has to leave most of sins because each of them somehow originates from lie. Rather, lie is the key of achieving them and a truthful man should recede from sin willingly or not.
Lie is not compatible with belief
It is deduced from different traditions that lie is not in concord with belief, and lying is the sign of a sort of unbelief.
These traditions have been inspired by Holy Quran where it says:
(اِنَّما يَفْتَرِي الْكَذِبَ الَّذِينَ لا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِآياتِ اللهِ وَ اُولئِكَ هُمُ الْكاذِبُونَ).
They only forge falsehood, who believe not in the signs of God, and those -–they are liars.(55)
"Forge falsehood" may refer to deliberate falsehood.
And now some of the narrations:
«سُئِلَ رَسُولُ اللهِ(صلى الله عليه وآله): يَكُونُ الْمُؤْمِنُ جَباناً؟ قالَ: نَعَمْ. قِيلَ: وَ يَكُونُ بَخِيلا؟ قالَ: نَعَمْ. قِيلَ: وَيَكُونُ كَذّاباً؟ قال: لا».
The Prophet S.A. was asked: Is it possible for a believer to be coward? He answered: yes. It was asked: Is it possible for him to be stingy? He answered: yes. It was asked: Is it possible for him to be liar? He answered: no.(56)
«قالَ اَمِيرُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ(عليه السلام): لا يَجِدُ عَبْدٌ طَعْمَ الاِْيمانِ حَتّى يَتْرُكَ الْكَذِبَ هَزْلَهُ وَجِدَّهُ».
Imam Ali A.S. said: A man does not taste the taste of belief, unless he refuses lie, either seriously or for humor.(57)
«عنه (عليه السلام): جانِبُوا الْكَذِبَ فَاِنَّهُ مُجانِبُ الاِْيمانِ».
Avoid lie, which is not in concord with belief.(58)
And it is concluded from these narrations that believers avoid lie, and belief and lie do never accompany each other.
This point refers to the fact that the liars do not easily accept invitation of the prophets based on self-comparison. Since they themselves lie in little affairs of life, they can not believe that prophets to be really truthful in such big affairs. They may be among the believers, but if we explore in depth of their hearts, we will find that it is not free from doubt and suspicion. Of course, this is true for those whose life is overshadowed by lie, and as interpreted in the tradition are liars.
The contrary is also true. That is to say the truthful people are often credulous, because they themselves are truthful and honest, and accept whatever they hear based on their superior nature, and so called they are "ear" unless they are notified.
Liars have a special pessimism and suspicion on everybody and everything. They assume everything false, untrue, or at least suspicious. How it is possible for such people to believe in all speeches of prophets without any doubt and suspicion. So we see in the history that hypocrite, deviated and liar individuals often attributed lying to divine prophets.
The issue of self-comparison is one of the mental conditions in man, which could serve as the key for solving a lot of problems. It is often observed that unusual movements of criminal, thief and treacherous individuals acquaint the others. Since they are aware of their own condition, they suppose the same about the others, and so try to conceal themselves, and such unusual movements attract the attention of others.
A liar supposes that if he does not perform his different duties, can justify his violation through false excuses. For such person, not being faithful to promise and covenant, not observing time, not performing assigned duties and such like is easy, because he glosses over the issue with a series of false pretexts and saves himself from any rebuke.
But in contrary, one who is bound to observing the principle of "truthfulness and honesty", is obliged to observe such affairs and so can not be improvident and careless.
The liars not only do not trust in the others and assume them as themselves, but also do not trust in themselves, because they are suspicious to the reality of everything, including the degree of their ability and power when facing with the problems and different events of life as well as their determination and will power in performing the works.
We read in aphorisms of Imam Ali A.S.:
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