lying and concealment, just as He has endowed them with a natural disposition to eat, drink, and clothe themselves. By nature, a person chooses truthfulness when there is no overriding motive to lie, and prefers to report such momentous events rather than conceal them. People ask one another for news and are inclined to inquire and ask about what happens. Everyone has someone to whom he prefers to speak truthfully and openly rather than lie or conceal information.

Lying and concealment occur frequently among human beings in countless individual cases, just as adultery, murder, death from hunger and exposure, and similar things occur among them. Nonetheless, legitimacy is the norm in their lineage, and survival is the norm in their lives. The point here is that, with mass-transmitted reports, it is known that people have not colluded to lie; and with isolated reports, it is known that people have not colluded to conceal.

(The second line of evidence:

The community’s religion obliges its members to convey, make known, and explain the religion, and forbids them to conceal it. It also obliges them to speak truthfully and forbids them to lie. Their colluding to conceal what must be made clear is therefore like their colluding to lie. Both are among the most reprehensible things prohibited in the community’s religion. This provides a compelling incentive for truthfulness and openness.

Third:

What is known of the uprightness and piety of the community’s early generations, their great eagerness to convey and make known the religion, and their scrupulous avoidance of lying about the Messenger