REFRAIN FROM LYING!

Lying (deceit) has three forms:

1. You make a promise and do not keep it. For example, you say you will find out the price of something at the Jiydazor bazaar, but you do not do it. You say that on such-and-such a day you will go somewhere together, say, to Oqqamish, and then you never speak of it again and “forget.” A pitiful lie. Because these deeds of yours stick the brand of a deceiver on you.

2. You recount situations and events falsely: for example, you tell of things that never happened, you add to what did happen or you diminish it. You do this out of your own self-interest. A base kind of lying.

3. You befriend not the poor and the humble, but the rich and the wealthy. Your aim is to “milk” them and drink their milk. You play the part of a sincere friend to perfection. On this path you make use of knowledge and religion, and of respected people. This is the most disgraceful way of earning a living.

Do not think that people do not know this. Very many know it and sense it. Repent quickly, before you are disgraced. Be close to the wretched and the poor, to the repentant and the broken-hearted.

What makes this a lie is that you are presenting your “friendship,” which exists for money, for position and rank, as genuine.

There is no greater and more loathsome deceit than this. Divine justice does its work. Gather up your skirts while you still have your wits. Truly, a loathsome deception.

Check, now: is there any of this falsehood in you or in your “friend”?!

Be aware! Do not be a liar, and do not make friends with liars.

A liar is not of the ummah. A liar is detestable. A liar is lowly. A liar, standing on his lie, is spiritually naked, that is, a disgraced person.

May God protect us!