Almost a week ago, after paying for some books at a store in Ibadan Saheed Oladele left and got a reversal alert of N118, 000. Since the book store had no means of contacting him, he went back to the store to return the money.
The word “honesty” is, in fact, primarily a moral choice. Businesspeople do tell themselves that, in the long run, they will do well by doing good. Without values, without a basic preference for right over wrong, trust based on such self-delusion would crumble in the face of temptation.
Honesty incorporates the concepts of truth and reliability and it resides in all human thought, words, actions and relationships. It is more than just accuracy; it is more than just truthfulness, it denotes integrity or moral soundness. Islam commands truthfulness and forbids lying.
A short verse of the Quran says:
“Oh ye who believe! Eat not up each other’s property by unfair and dishonest means.”
(4:29)
Ibn Katheer, the renowned Quran scholar, explained the meaning of this verse. He said, “Being truthful and adhering to truthfulness, means you will be among the people of the truth and be saved from calamity and that it will make a way out for you from your problems”.
A true believer, one who is truly submitted to God, has many characteristics by which he can be identified. The most obvious of these noble characteristics are honesty of character and truthfulness of speech. Prophet Mohammad was a perfect example of honesty. Even before his Prophethood, he had earned the titles of Al Amin (the trustworthy one) and As Sadiq (the truthful).
The Prophet ﷺ said:
No one testifies that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah—honestly from the heart (sidq min qalbih)—but that Allah will forbid him from entering Hellfire. Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 1:37 #128.
A man blessed with a pure and honest heart, Saheed Oladele narrates his experience on social media dated November 12, 2021:
Saheed said, “today, I returned 118 000 Naira to the Booksellers at Jericho, Ibadan. I went there on Tuesday to check the latest books in my field. Fortunately, I saw a couple of books on neurolinguistics, applied linguistics, etc. I paid for them and left.
“On Wednesday at 1.02 pm, I got a reversal alert of the 118 000 naira I paid for the books. I was a little disturbed because they had no means of contacting me. However, a friend told me not to bother that the reversal would be corrected within 24 hours.”
“I waited and waited; no debit alert! I had to go this afternoon. The staff members were really happy. They said they had never experienced POS reversal,” he added.
