It was a sunny Saturday afternoon. My friend was taking his two little boys to play miniature golf. He walked up to the fellow at the ticket counter and said, “How much is the ticket to get in?”
The young man replied, “$3.00 for adults and $3.00 for any kid who is older than six years. We let them in free if they are six years or younger. How old are they?”
My friend replied, “One is three years and the other is seven, so I guess I owe you $6.00.”
The man at the ticket counter said, “Hey, Mister, did you just win the lottery or something? You could have saved yourself three bucks. You could have told me that the older one was six; I wouldn’t have known the difference.”
My friend replied, “Yes, that may be true, but the kids would have known the difference.”
In challenging times when ethics are more important than ever before, make sure we set a good example for everyone we work and live with, especially our young eyes and ears.
The Prophet (Sallallaahu Alahi Wasalaam) said: “Four traits whoever possesses them is a hypocrite and whoever possesses some of them has an element of hypocrisy until he leaves it:
1) The one who when he speaks he lies,
2) When he promises he breaks his promise,
3) When he disputes he transgresses and
4) When he makes an agreement he violates it.
The Messenger of Allah (Sallallaahu Alahi Wasalaam) also said: ‘Whoever says to a child, ‘Come here and take this,’ then does not give him something, this is counted as a lie.’ (Narrated by Abu Dawood, 4991)