four, he counts it as three, and so on.

Thus, this ḥadīth is a fundamental legal maxim: whatever you are uncertain about, leave it for something about which you have no doubt.

It also offers spiritual training, for it places a person in a state of calm rather than anxiety. Anyone whose heart is truly alive becomes uneasy when acting on something doubtful; he keeps asking himself, “Perhaps I did it… perhaps I left it.” Once he replaces doubt with certainty, that anxiety is gone.

The Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—said, “Truthfulness brings tranquillity,” and that is the point cited from this ḥadīth under the present heading, the Chapter of Truthfulness.

Truthfulness is tranquillity: its possessor never regrets and never says, “If only…,” for truthfulness is a means of salvation, and Allah rescues the truthful through their very truth. You always find the truthful person at ease; he does not grieve over what has happened or worry about what may come, because he has been truthful. “Whoever speaks the truth is saved.”

As for lying, the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—declared that it breeds misgivings. The first to be disturbed by a lie is the liar himself; he wonders, “Will they believe me or not?”

That is why, when the liar relates some news, he hastens to swear by Allah that he is telling the truth, hoping to ward off suspicion—though his statement is, by nature, suspicious.

Take the hypocrites, for instance: they swear by Allah that they never said such a thing, yet they remain beset by doubt. Allah the Exalted says, “They uttered a word of disbelief, disbelieved after accepting Islam, and planned what they could not attain” (al-Tawbah 9:74).