Why should we be honest?

It is said that Prophet Muham-mad(sm) waited until he quit eating sweets before he asked someone do the same. If anything, the example exalts the importance of how to practice what is preached. We learned of another example, an example of truthfulness when young George Washington confessed to his angry father that he had chopped the cherry tree. Two separate instances of two different values, which happened in two different times. But if you look at it, both are connected by a common sense of virtue. We must reconcile our words with action. Prophet Muhammad(sm) acted before he spoke, Washington spoke after he acted.

Honesty has many faces, and it has many forms. Integrity, trustworthiness, fairness, honour, sincerity, truthfulness and genuineness manifest the ingredients of the character of an honest man. The honest man does the right thing. He follows through so that he can be counted on to do what he says he will do. He will not take things he does not deserve, including award, praise, money, and credit for ideas. The honest man means what he says and does not say what he does not mean. He will not exaggerate or pretend to be someone he is not.

As a matter of fact, honesty is flower in its fragrance, light in its radiance, sky in its expanse, mountain in its height, river in its streams, all things which are true to others and true to themselves. The great American comedian Groucho Marx said, "There is one way to find out if a man is honest. Ask him. If he says 'Yes', you know he is a crook." It means honesty is about humility as well. An honest man will let others speak of his virtues, and try not to beat his own drum to get any attention or recognition for him.

So the honest man will not pay to appear on the three-fold cover of a third-rate magazine. The honest man will not lobby for awards, flaunt his talents to win prizes. He will not use his skills to hone his image and take his resume like a scavenger hunt.

Honesty is very tight indeed, it works so long as the person is confined within his limits. An honest mind shall exercise frugality; his work shall neither exceed his word nor fall short of it. Honesty is a high-wire act, a precarious balance of character and conscience when the end does not justify the means.

Honestly, honesty is about being who you are, not who you wish to be. People often package themselves in preposterous propositions, which have nothing to do with their inherent qualities. People exaggerate, people accelerate, people exceed, and people stretch facts to fit imagination. Honesty is when the talking man is as good as the doing man, when the excess between ideal and real is removed and man lives within the parameters of his own pathology.

But then why is it important for man to stick to his own boundaries? Why is it important for him to be honest? Beethoven once dismissed a housekeeper for telling a lie. When it was pointed out that the woman had lied because she thought it would benefit him, Beethoven replied, " Anyone who tells a lie has not a pure heart, and cannot make pure soup." Honesty is important because when people tell a lie, they make a soup of their own condition just like silhouettes dissolve in descending darkness. In so much as life is a mystery, dishonesty makes it even worse when people become mysterious within that mystery.

One day toward the end of his life, Diosdado Macapagal, the former President of the Philippines, reflected upon his political career. "I have sat at the sumptuous tables of power," he remarked, "but I have not run away with the silverware!" Dishonesty is about doing the unexpected, about doing the scandalous surprise, when people, who are trusted, turn out to be otherwise. Dishonesty is about putting new label on old bottle, or old label on new bottle. Dishonesty is about misleading and deception, about betrayal and corruption. Dishonesty is about pretending to be a worshipper in a temple and then escaping with the statue of the deity.

Dishonesty is also convenient like flexibility in shifting situation. Dishonest people will say anything and do anything, partake any course to arrive at their destination. Their means are as crooked as their ends, their minds turning and twisting like snakes going after prey. Dishonesty is about denial, a kind of blind eye turned at the moral scene. Dishonesty is about illusion in deluded minds, people creating their own moral standards to fit their own moral transgressions.

It is, therefore, more comfortable to be dishonest than to be honest, sort of a footloose approach to life with a fixed goal. The goal itself may not be wrong, immoral or untenable, but the dishonest man will achieve it by unfair means, by cheating others, breaking laws, by dint of adopting the shortcut way of getting to it. Dishonesty is every bit of the way man goes to hide behind his mask.

What is wrong with it? What is wrong with hiding, taking shelter in the mistaken identity of that mask? It is mischievous to begin with. It is immoral and opportunistic. It is like using different name, false identity, pretension to further one's own interest. It is like seducing a woman while she is intoxicated, or cheating in the exams. Even worse, it is like plagiarism when the work of another person is lifted and used as one's own.

Is dishonesty right because it works? Is it right to take bribe because it allows one to afford the luxuries of life? Is it right not to pay up bank loans, while using that money to build palatial houses and drive expensive cars? Is it right to steal from others so that your children can get good education? An honest man shall not do what he cannot explain, because honesty is all about being transparent.

Just imagine if what you saw in the mirror was not what you looked like! Imagine people coming to you and telling you about it all the time! You would be worried, looking for ways to find out who between the mirror and the people was right. Dishonesty creates tension, it creates doubt. People lose faith in each other, and at one point of time they no longer know what is right and what is wrong.

It is for this matter alone that honesty is the best policy. Honesty is safe, honesty is pure. Any departure from honesty means arrival at dishonesty. Honesty is order, dishonesty is chaos. Honesty is truth, dishonesty is falsehood. Honesty is beauty, dishonesty is horror. Honesty is strength, dishonesty is weakness. Honesty is real, dishonesty is artificial.

Where does it lead us? Should we be honest, or should we be dishonest? Should we be on the road to temperance, or should we be on the road to temptation? Should we be on the road to glory, or should we be on the road to glamour? Should we be guided or should we be followed?

That is what it is in the ultimate analysis. Dishonesty is a debauch way to deviate from dignity, a profligate pounce on the profound purity of one's personality. In the end, dishonesty is vile because it denies the man in his own entity. Reward or rebuke, that is enough reason to be honest. The alternative is not so pleasant, because a dishonest man is an insult to his own identity.

Mohammad Badrul Ahsan is a banker.