Assalamu’alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh
Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim
1. Preface
Beloved, God-loving friends, psychologically, integrity is the foundation of prime mental health. A person who lives in deceit—such as selling goods with false labels—unconsciously creates “cognitive dissonance,” an inner conflict that triggers chronic stress. Scientifically, honesty releases calming hormones in the brain. Religion does not come to limit your success, but to maintain the synchronization between your inner self and your actions. If you cheat, you are destroying the structure of your own soul before you harm others.This is as Allah SWT warns in the Qur’an:
وَلَا تَأْكُلُوْٓا اَمْوَالَكُمْ بَيْنَكُمْ بِالْبَاطِلِ“
And do not consume one another’s wealth unjustly.” (QS. Al-Baqarah: 188)
The Messenger ﷺ also firmly drew the line separating faith from fraud in his saying:
مَنْ غَشَّنَا فَلَيْسَ مِنَّ
“Whoever deceives us is not one of us.” (HR. Muslim)
2. Explanation
True religion is not only about how long your prostration is or how often you attend Friday sermons, but it shines through when you are in the warehouse, when you write price tags, and when you promise specifications to buyers. If you dare ask a factory to label a locally made cloth as “Made in England,” at that very moment you are “driving” God out of your business. Imagine a father who has saved for years to fix his only old car—the tool he uses to earn a living. He comes to you and buys a spare part you claim is genuine at an exorbitant price, while you know it’s fake. When his car breaks down again on the road and he slumps in despair because his savings are gone for a lie, Allah, the All-Seeing, is recording every cent of that unlawful money as a witness that will crush you in the Hereafter.Honesty in trade is like the concrete foundation beneath a skyscraper. People outside only see the building’s grandeur—your wealth—but only an honest foundation can hold that building when the earthquake of trials comes. Fraud in labeling goods is like building a palace on quicksand; it looks luxurious on the surface, but slowly it will swallow its owner into disgrace. We can be funny sometimes; we’re diligent in wearing a kopiah and carrying prayer beads, but when a customer arrives, we suddenly become “magicians.” Chinese goods are conjured into Japanese, ordinary cloth is conjured into English silk. We feel clever because the buyer believes us, when in fact we are “conjuring” our own rewards into a pile of sins. Remember, the angels who record deeds cannot be bribed with discounts, and they know exactly the difference between genuine goods and those that are merely “genuine-ish.” Don’t let your passport say “Made in Paradise” when its contents turn out to be “Made in Hell”!
3. Lessons and Message
The great lesson for us is that the trading table is a real jihad for a believer. The moral message: never trade eternal blessing for fleeting, deceitful profit. Honesty may make your profit look small in human eyes, but it is abundant on Allah’s scale. Faith and fraud can never live harmoniously in the same heart.
4. Conclusion
Beloved brothers and sisters, know your Lord in the marketplace just as you know Him at the prayer niche. Do not betray the Shariah for momentary gain. Ask yourself every day: “Where is my religion when I transact?”
والله أعلم بالصواب
الحمد لله رب العالمين
Wassalamu’alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.
Oleh : Abu Sultan Al-Qadrie
