Telling lies to one another, disregarding the truth, leads to dire consequences, if we could only see and understand.

 

235. If all religions hold such a high regard for truthfulness in their teachings. Then, conversely the practice of telling lies to one another must, indeed, lead to dire consequences in the actions of mankind and in the world to come: All religions teach that truth and honesty is a must in any of the affairs of mankind. All progress in this world and the next depend on honesty as the stepping stone for all interactions with one another in this existence. Consequently, if truth holds such a high place in the teachings of God then dire consequences and punishments must lay in store for the individual on whose lips falsehood holds reins over the truth. Baha’i Faith: “Consider that the worst of qualities and most odious of attributes, which is the foundation of all evil, is lying. No worse or more blameworthy quality than this can be imagined to exist; it is the destroyer of all human perfections, and the cause of innumerable vices. There is no worse characteristic than this; it is the foundation of all evils.”

(Bahá’í Faith, Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’i World Faith – Abdu’l-Baha Section, p. 321)

 BABI RELIGION: “Thus shall He who speaks the Truth be made known, and he that speaks falsely shall be condemned to eternal misery and shame.”

(H. M. Balyuzi, The Bab – The Herald of the Days, p. 72)

 JUDAISM: Sirach 20: 24 “A lie is a foul blot in a man, yet it is continually in the mouth of the untaught. A thief is better than a man that is accustomed to lie: but they both shall have destruction to heritage. The disposition of a liar is dishonorable, and his shame is ever with him.” (Deuterocanonical Apocrypha,) Proverbs 6:16 “These six things doth The LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: 6:17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 6:18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, 6:19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.” Jonah 2:8 “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.”  Christianity: 2 Thessalonians 2:8 “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom The Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:” 2:9 “Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,” 2:10 “And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” Ephesians 4:25 “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.”

 ISLAM: Letter 48. “Remember that inequity and falsehood bring disgrace to a man in this world and in the Hereafter.”

        (Islam, Ali b. Abi Taalib, Letters from Nahjul Balaagh)

Islam: “The Prophet said, ‘Truthfulness leads to righteousness, and righteousness leads to Paradise. And a man keeps on telling the truth until he becomes a truthful person. Falsehood leads to Al-Fajur (i.e. wickedness, evil-doing), and Al-Fajur (wickedness) leads to the (Hell) Fire, and a man may keep on telling lies till he is written before Allah (God), a liar.”

(Islam, Hadith, Bukhari Vol 8, Book 73, # 116)

Islam: 99. “(In Falsehood will they be) until, when death comes to one of them, he says: ‘O my Lord! send me back (to life)’ — 100. ‘In order that I may work righteousness in the things I neglected.’ – ‘By no means! it is but a word he says, before them is a Partition till the Day they are raised up.” 101. “Then when the Trumpet is blown, there will be no more relationships between them that day, nor will one ask after another!” 102. “Then those whose balance (of good deeds) is heavy — they will attain salvation:” 103. “But those, whose balance is light, will be those who have lost their souls; in Hell will they abide.” 104. “The Fire will burn their faces, and they will therein grin, with their lips displaced.” 105. ‘Were not My Signs rehearsed to you, and ye did but treat them as falsehoods?”’

(The Qur’an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surah  23)

Islam: 221. “Shall I inform you, (O people!), on whom it is that the evil ones descend? 222. They descend on every lying, wicked person,”

(The Qur’an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surah  26)

Islam: 92. “And if he be of those who treat (truth) as Falsehood, who go wrong, For him is Entertainment with Boiling Water. And burning in Hell-fire. Verily, this is the Very Truth and Certainty.”

(The Qur’an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surah  56)

  ZOROASTRIANISM: 20. “Whosoever cometh over to the Righteous, far from him hereafter shall be long age of misery (and) darkness, ill-food, and crying of woe. To such an existence, ye followers of the Lie, shall your own Self bring you through your (own) action.”

(The Zend-Avesta, Avesta – Yasna 31)

 Zoroastrianism: 11. “But these that are of an evil dominion, of evil deeds, evil words, evil Self, and evil thought, Liars, the Souls go to meet them with evil food; in the House of the Lie they shall be meet inhabitants.” “the spirit of the Liar, cringing and cowering, shall fall down into destruction.”

(The Zend-Avesta, Avesta – Yasnas 49 and 53)

 HINDUISM: 6. “May all thy fateful toils which, seven by seven, threefold, lie spread out, ensnare him that speaks falsehood: him that speaks the truth they shall let go! 7. With a hundred snares, O Varuna, surround him, let the liar not go free from thee, O thou that observest men! The rogue shall sit, his belly hanging loose, like a cask without hoops, bursting all about! 8. With (the snare of) Varuna (Brahma, God) which is fastened lengthwise, and that which (is fastened) broadwise, with the indigenous and the foreign, with the divine and the human, 9. With all these snares do I fetter thee,”

(Hindu, Vedas, Atharva Veda)

 BUDDHISM: 13. “When a man has already violated one rule, when he is a liar and rejects the idea of a future world, there is no evil he is not capable of.”

(Buddhist, Dhammapada – Sayings of the Buddha 1 (tr. J. Richards))

 Buddhism: “A fortress is made out of the bones, plastered over with flesh and blood, and in it lives old age and death, pride and deceit.” “Mere talk or beauty of complexion does not make an envious, greedy, dishonest person become respectable.” “It is not just by fine speech or by flowerlike beauty that one is admirable, if one is envious, mean and deceitful, but when that sort of behaviour has been eliminated, rooted out and destroyed, that faultless sage is said to be admirable.”

(Buddhist, Dhammapada – Sayings of the Buddha 1 and 2 (tr. J. Richards))

 Buddhism: “He who always lies goes to Hell And he who denies what he has done. These two, the men of base actions, Share the same destiny in the world to come.”

(Buddhist, Dhammapada – Sayings of the Buddha 3 (tr. J. Richards))

 SABEANISM: “Let healing be theirs by virtue of the Word of Truth.” (Sabeanism, Ginza Rba- chapter 20)

Sabeanism: “Interpretations! of truth which are unchangeable Have blessed thee. Sons of salvation who sit in thy company Have blessed thee.” (Sabeanism, Ginza Rba- chapter 116)

 BABI RELIGION: “The hand of Omnipotence has, in this day, separated truth from falsehood and divided the light of guidance from the darkness of error.”

(Shoghi Effendi, The Dawn-Breakers, p. 544)

BAHA’I FAITH: “The individual must be educated to such a high degree that he would rather have his throat cut than tell a lie, and would think it easier to be slashed with a sword or pierced with a spear than to utter calumny or be carried away by wrath.”

(Bahá’í Faith, Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, p. 136)

Baha’i Faith: “Woe to every lying sinner, who heareth the verses of God recited to him, and then, as though he heard them not, persisteth in proud disdain! Apprise him of a painful punishment, O heedless people! Ye repeat what your fathers, in a bygone age, have said. Whatever fruits they have gathered from the tree of their faithlessness, the same shall ye gather also. Ere long shall ye be gathered unto your fathers, and with them shall ye dwell in hellish fire. An ill abode! the abode of the people of tyranny.”

(Bahá’í Faith, Baha’u’llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 206)