The Truth

"Ahmed and Sami are related and are very good friends who do everything together. They prepared for the annual school trip together. Ahmed prepared everything - clothes, sun-glasses, penknife, candies etc, and Sami checked the list to see if he had forgotten anything. Later Sami telephoned Ahmed to make doubly sure.

On the first day of the trip, everything went according to plan and the pupils and teachers enjoyed themselves. On the second night, Ahmed suggested to Sami that they should slip away to the nearest pub without asking permission. When they entered the pub, Sami sat quietly but Ahmed handed some money to an older girl with whom he struck up acquaintance and asked her to buy him alcoholic drinks. He even gave her a tip for helping him. Sami refused to drink and wanted to go back to the group. Ahmed insisted on staying and stopped Sami from leaving. He drank till he was intoxicated and then broke bottles and created such an uproar in the pub that he was thrown out. Only then did he agree to return to the group. The pub owner decided to seek him out and searched until he finally located the teachers who were in charge of the schoolchildren. The teachers made all the pupils stand in a row and the pub owner immediately identified Ahmed and Sami. Ahmed denied the whole incident. The teacher turned to Sami and said: "Sami, tell the truth, were you in the pub?" Sami was silent, struggling with himself, and the teacher asked again: "Sami, tell the truth!" Then Sami said: "Yes, I was with Ahmed and he drank alcohol and raised a riot. I love him but I'll tell the truth".

Ahmed shouted at him: "I'll get you for this, Sami. You'll be sorry". Sami was frightened. He knew that Ahmed's older brother could beat him up.
Then the teacher read Sami Verse 38 of Surah 2 in order to reassure him and restore his confidence. "Whosoever follows My guidance, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve"."

-Is it a friend's duty to tell the truth even if it painful?. Retrieved December 6, 2008, from quranet.com Web site: http://www.quranet.net/en-quranet/29-chapter-7/482-is-it-a-friends-duty-to-tell-the-truth-even-if-it-is-painful.html

Sometimes the truth can be painful. Still, it is the right thing to do. If you were to hide the truth, your conscience wouldn't be cleared and it would probably follow you for awhile. Even though the truth can get you into much trouble, it's best to tell it anyways because what if you lied and then someone found out later? That would put you in an even worse situation. Telling the truth is better, and it's following what Allah(swt) has told us.