“Whoever’s truthfulness diminishes, his friends diminish.”
Al-Māwardī (d. 450 AH) said:
“Lying is the sum of every evil and the root of every blame, because of its vile outcomes and ruinous consequences.
It gives rise to tale-bearing, and tale-bearing produces hatred, and hatred turns into hostility—and with hostility there can be neither safety nor rest.
Hence it was said: ‘Whoever’s truthfulness diminishes, his friends diminish.’”
—Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Māwardī (d. 450 AH), Adab al-Dunyā wa-al-Dīn (Beirut: Dār Maktabat al-Ḥayāh, 1986), 261.
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