“Seek truthfulness even if it will bring you to ruin; in it is your real salvation.” Omar’s son, Sami, shared this hadith over dinner, stirring a familiar, sinking feeling within him.
Sleep eluded him. Tomorrow meant another wretched job for the mayor. The shed by the docks had become a symbol of dread. Lie upon lie, sin upon sin.
Iza, his wife, had begun questioning where the money was coming from. It had made him snap.
“I told you not to worry! Aren’t you happy there is money at all?”
Omar shifted uncomfortably in bed, recalling the retired officer, Jamshaid, and introducing him to the newcomer in the town as the most ‘trustful’ person around.
But that praise was wrong.
As the morning sun approached, the Adhan echoed. Omar sat up, drawing the blanket with him.
Another job. Another lie. Another sin.
Tears trickled down his face, wetting his beard.
Iza roused. “Omar, what’s wrong?”
“I have done something horrible, Iza.” He choked out. She sat up, seeing him bury his face in his hands, sobbing. She lit the lamp. “Omar?! What is it that you’ve done?”
He shook his head, shoulders shaking. On her persistence, he finally spoke. “The mayor, Iza… He needed my shed—the shed by the old docks. I tried… but he promised me good money.”
She turned pale. “For what?”
“Drugs!” He confessed. “He needed the shed… to store them.”
Iza suggested the obvious path. He ought to be truthful about the mayor’s corruption and his own actions to get this guilt off his shoulders. He’d been terrified. “If I confess, everyone will know. They will hate me. They will call me a liar. Then what?”
Two months later, Omar sat in the mayor’s seat. The day in the assembly was still fresh in his mind. “Confound not truth with falsehood, nor knowingly conceal the truth. (Qur’an 2:42)” His passionate speech had started with these words, followed by tears. The town hall had been drowned in shocked silence, followed by chaos.
Omar had come prepared to see his reputation ruined. The hadith Sami had shared and the Ayat by Iza had kept him strong. “If ruin lay at the end of this path, then so be it!” He had thought.
To this day, Omar narrates his story with passion. The town’s momentary disappointment had turned into forgiveness and support. Through a great struggle, they had replaced the mayor.
Omar had stuck to the truthfulness that brought him prosperity and relief despite the gnawing fear and crushing dilemma. They were a thriving family now, and he held his wife in the highest regard for urging him to be truthful.
Hence, one should always be truthful and mustn’t conceal truth, neither out of fear of uncertainty nor because of temptations. Follow the right path, even if ruin lies at the end.
