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13.09.2014 Feature Article

Stop Telling Lies; It’s A Sin That Is Destructive—Imam Toure

Stop Telling Lies; Its A Sin That Is Destructive—Imam Toure
13.09.2014 LISTEN

Ghanaians young and old men and women are required by God to be truthful in all they do. Telling white or black lies is prohibited in Islam. Unless they put a stop to telling lies, all those involved would incur the wrath of God Almighty. The only occasion when a lie is acceptable is when individuals or groups concoct stories to escape from the hands of enemy forces from attacking and killing them on their sovereign lands or homes.

Using time tested security strategy to escape from armed robbers, murderers and rapists is right. This statement came out when Mallam Ibrahim Toure, Imam of Ashongman Estates Mosque delivered his Jumma ('Hutba') sermon on Friday September 12. He declared that telling lies jokingly or seriously are all violations of the tenets of Islam and advised people to learn to utter truthful words at all times.

He pointed out that, unfortunately telling lies is fashionable and is perpetrated by men in authority and commoners as well as a way of seeking favors and sometimes running good people among them colleague workers down.

Some Imams, Priests, government appointees, journalists, policemen and women are known to be telling lies that keep people wondering what is happening to these men in our society. It is common to find some people speaking on phone deceiving people by saying they are located in Accra or Kumasi when in fact they are in Tema.

Apart from these people Most of those who engage in lies are tricksters who are trusted because they often appear noble as they appear comfortably affluent and well dressed.

Almost all such people do not fulfill promises they make to people the imam said adding that the religious people among them are the cause of broken marriages and homes depriving many people of their hard cash ,wives and properties through tricks using Biblical or 'Quranic' quotations.

He said some men enter into marriages through lies by deceiving women of their possessions such as houses huge bank accounts when they are poor and advised the women to be mindful of such tricksters by marrying moderate men who are truthful.

He advised people to note that there is a limit to the effect of the lies they tell saying that eventually every liar who persists in peddling lies would be found out and be disgraced

He begun the sermon by saying;
Asalaamu Alaikum,
My topic today is about a vice which is widespread in most societies. This vice is known as lying. The word lying is mentioned in the Quran more than 280 times in forty four (44) different forms.

Lying is a disease that is acquired but not inherited. A person may acquire this disease because of many internal and external factors among which are;

Weakness of personality, the interest in attracting people's attention and the wish to crack jokes using all manner of scenarios to entertain others.

Dear Muslims,
Allah gave us examples of early people in the history of mankind. Some of the early nations lied about their prophets and did not want to believe in their messages. Almost all of these nations were punished accordingly.

The liars seem to believe that people are naïve and simple minded. Quite often liars try to cover up their lies with more lies. Fortunately, people are smart enough to recognize lies and that they are trying to cover up ending up committing more mistakes, lies and sins.

For this reason, liars are frequently caught during interrogation.

Fellow Muslims, quite often people lie and they say it is a white lie. They think that a white lie is accepted in Islam. A lie is considered to be a lie and a person who tell lies whether white or black would be punished. A person has no right to lie to convince people to accept Islam. Whoever lies in his preaching of Islam is a liar. He has no escape route other than to repent and turn a new leaf.

The only three situations where a person has been given permission not to speak the truth are when they are on the battlefield fighting with their enemy forces, during reconciliation to enhance renewal of friendship between parties in disagreement and during reconciliation meeting between husband and wife for the sake of reducing friction.

We hope and pray that all of us will pledge to Allah to help us to stay away from telling lies.

Let us ask Allah (swt) for guidance and mercy. Amen

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
EANFOWORLD FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
ALHAJI A ABDULAI [email protected] /[email protected] 233 20 8844791 /

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