If a discerning person were to imagine the pain and heartbreak bound up with that attachment, he would hasten to sever it just as he rushes to cauterize the sources of corruption. Even so, he will still receive whatever portion of it is decreed for him—while his heart and his utmost concern remain fixed on the higher goal. Allah alone is the One whose help is sought.

Section
Beware of lying, for it corrupts your grasp of matters as they truly are and spoils the way you convey and teach them to others. The liar portrays what is nonexistent as though it were real, and what is real as though it were nonexistent—truth as falsehood, falsehood as truth, good as evil, and evil as good. As a consequence, his own perception and knowledge become distorted. He then implants that distortion in the mind of the listener who is taken in by him and relies on him, thereby corrupting that person’s understanding and knowledge as well.

The soul of the liar turns away from the reality that exists, gravitates toward non-existence, and prefers falsehood. Once his faculty of perception and knowledge—the wellspring of every deliberate act—is corrupted, those acts themselves become corrupt. The rule of lying spreads to them so that their emergence from him resembles the way lies issue from his tongue; hence he gains no benefit from either his speech or his deeds.

For this reason, lying is the foundation of wickedness, as the Prophet ﷺ said: “Lying leads to wickedness, and wickedness leads to the Fire.” ⦗1⦘

The first thing lying infiltrates is the tongue, which it ruins; then it spreads to