Bear Witness Even Against Yourself: Book of the Year
The Light of the Holy Quran, written by the Promised Messiah (as) is the Book of the Year. In it the Promised Messiah (as) has outlined the immense emphasis placed upon honesty by Islam, especially before the law: even if that means having to bear witness against oneself. The Promised Messiah (as) writes:
“Let it be clear that the Holy Qur’an has laid so much emphasis on truthfulness that I do not believe the Gospel contains even a tiny fraction of it. About twenty years ago I published an announcement in this regard, wherein I cited some Quranic verses and pledged to give the Christians and others a substantial amount of money as a reward if they could cite verses from the Gospel that have similar emphatic insistence on truthfulness. However, the Christian clergymen have remained so silent as if they are devoid of life.
The Holy Qur’an has equated falsehood to idolatry, as Allah says:
‘O ye who believe! be strict in observing justice and truthfulness; and being witnesses for the sake of Allah, even though it be against yourselves or against parents and kindred who suffer loss on account of these testimonies.’
Now—O ye who fail to fear God!—just open the Gospel and tell me where it lays such stress on truthfulness. Had there been any such admonition, why would Peter, the foremost among the Apostles, have lied, and why would he, by swearing a false oath and cursing Jesus the Messiah, disavow him saying he did not know him? The Companions, Allah be pleased with them, of the Holy Prophet, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, were constantly martyred merely for speaking the truth, and they never concealed Divine testimony even though the earth turned red with their blood.
On the other hand, it is proven from the Gospel that [Jesus] himself kept concealed the testimony that he was obligated to reveal. He could not even display the level of faith that was shown by the Companions of the Holy Prophet, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, during the time of the hardships in Makkah. I hope you will not deny this, but if you do dishonestly deny this, then I shall present to you all the instances. For the present I have written this only as specimen of the evidence…
The fact is that, no hadith sanctions telling a lie at all. On the contrary, the hadith has the words, ‘You should not abandon truth even if you are killed or burned.’…
When I envision Sayyidul-Mursalin [the Chief of the Messengers] while being all by himself during the Battle of Uhud, and proclaiming, in the face of drawn swords, that I am Muhammad (sa), I am the Prophet of God, I am the son of Abdul Muttalib, and on the other hand I envision your Jesus while trembling, admonishing his disciples not to tell anyone that he is Jesus the Christ—which ran contrary to reality even though this statement would not have led anyone to kill him—I am drowned in an ocean of bewilderment and ask: O my God! Even this person is called a Prophet when such is his standard of courage in the path of God?…
The Qur’an has cursed the liars. Furthermore, it states that liars are the companions of Satan, that liars are devoid of faith, and that satans descend upon the liars. And it does not just say ‘do not lie’, it also says that you should eschew even the company of liars, not take them as your friends and comrades—fear God and associate with the truthful. At one place it says that when you speak, your speech should be all truth, and should not be admixed with falsehood even jokingly.”
[See The Light of the Holy Quran, 100-107]