Explanation of the words of Imam al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) regarding what he quoted: "

The Shaykh : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful:
The author (may Allah have mercy on him) established this chapter for truthfulness, saying: "The Chapter of Truthfulness", and he mentioned verses that have been discussed previously.
As for the hadiths, he said: "From Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him): that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

And adhere to truth, for truth leads to good deeds, and good deeds lead to paradise.

عليكم بالصدق فإن الصدق يهدي إلى البر ، وإن البر يهدي إلى الجنة

Sunan Abi Dawud 4989Sahih (Al-Albani)

": 'Adhere to truthfulness,' meaning: stick to truthfulness. Truthfulness is the correspondence of the report to reality, meaning that you inform about something and the report matches reality. An example of this is if you say to someone who asks you, 'What day is this?' and you say, 'Today is Wednesday,' this is truthfulness. If you said, 'Today is Tuesday,' it would be a lie. So truthfulness is the correspondence of the report to reality. It has been mentioned previously in the hadith of Ka'b ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) and his two companions what indicates the virtue of truthfulness, the goodness of its outcome, and that the truthful one is the one who has the good outcome, while the liar is the one whose deeds are in vain. For this reason, it is mentioned that some of the common people said: "If lying saves, then truthfulness saves more and more", and this is correct. Know that the report can be by the tongue and by the limbs. As for by the tongue, it is speech. As for by the limbs, it is action. But how can lying be by action? If a person does the opposite of what he conceals, then he has lied by his action. The hypocrite, for example, is a liar, because he shows to people that he is a believer who prays with people, fasts with people, and gives charity, but he is stingy, and perhaps he performs Hajj. So whoever sees his actions judges him to be righteous, but these actions do not indicate what is in his inner self, so they are a lie. For this reason, we say: truthfulness is by the tongue and by the limbs. Whenever the report matches reality, it is truthfulness, and it is by the tongue. And whenever the actions of the limbs match what is in the heart, it is truthfulness, and this is truthfulness by actions. Then the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when he commanded truthfulness, explained its outcome, saying: : Righteousness is abundance of good. And from it is one of the names of Allah, al-Barr (the Beneficent): meaning the One who is abundant in good and kindness, Mighty and Majestic. So righteousness means abundance of good, and it is one of the results of truthfulness. : So the one who has righteousness, we ask Allah to make us and you among them. This righteousness guides him to Paradise, and Paradise is the ultimate goal of every desire. If you asked any person, 'Why do you do good?' he would say: 'For Paradise.' Yes, for this reason, a person is commanded to ask Allah for Paradise and seek refuge in Him from the Fire: .
Then he said: , and in a narration: : 'Do you know who the truthful one (Siddiq) is?' The truthful one is in the second rank of the ranks of creation whom Allah has bestowed favor upon, as Allah the Exalted said: . So the man who seeks truthfulness is recorded with Allah as a truthful one (Siddiq). It is known that the rank of being a truthful one (Siddiq) is a great degree that is not attained except by exceptional people. It occurs in men and it occurs in women. Allah the Exalted said: . And the best of the truthful ones (Siddiqin) absolutely is the most truthful of them, which is Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him), Abdullah ibn Uthman ibn Abi Quhafa, who responded to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) when he called him to Islam, and he did not have any hesitation or pause. As soon as the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) called him to Islam, he embraced Islam, and he believed the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) when his people denied him. He believed him when he spoke about the Night Journey and the Ascension, and the people denied him and said: 'How can you, O Muhammad, go from Makkah to Bayt al-Maqdis and return in one night, and then say that you ascended to the sky? This is impossible!' Then they went to Abu Bakr and said to him: 'Do you not hear what your companion said?' He said: 'What did he say?' They said: 'He said such and such and such.' He said: 'If he said that, then he has told the truth.' So from that day, he was called al-Siddiq (the Truthful One) (may Allah be pleased with him). As for lying, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: : 'Beware of this' is a warning, meaning: beware of lying. And lying is informing with what contradicts reality, whether that is by speech or by action. So if someone asks you: 'What day is it?' and you say: 'Today is Thursday' or 'Tuesday,' this is a lie, because it does not match reality.
The hypocrite is a liar because his outward appearance indicates that he is a Muslim while he is a disbeliever, so he is a liar by his action. Wickedness (Fujur): is exiting from the obedience of Allah, because the person splits and exceeds his limit and exits from the obedience of Allah to His disobedience. And the greatest of wickedness is disbelief, and may Allah protect us from it. For the disbelievers are wicked, as He the Exalted said: , and He the Exalted said: , and He the Exalted said: , , We seek refuge in Allah from it. And in a wording: : And this, and may Allah protect us, lying is among the forbidden matters. Rather, some of the scholars said: "It is among the major sins, because the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) threatened that he will be recorded with Allah as a liar". And among the greatest of lying is what some people do today: they bring a statement that is a lie, knowing that it is a lie, but in order to make people laugh. And the warning regarding this has come in the hadith: : And this is a warning regarding a matter that has become easy for many people. So all lying is forbidden, all of it leads to wickedness, and nothing is excepted from it.
It was mentioned in the hadith that three things are excepted from that: in war, reconciliation between people, and a man's speech to his wife and her speech to him. But some of the people of knowledge said: that the meaning of lying in this hadith is euphemism (tawriyah) and not explicit lying. He said: and euphemism may be called lying, as in the hadith of Ibrahim, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): and he did not lie, but he used euphemism (tawriyah) in which he was truthful. And whether it is this or that, lying is not permissible except in these three, according to the opinion of many of the people of knowledge. And some scholars say: lying is not permissible absolutely, not in jest and not in seriousness, and not if it involves eating money or not. And the most severe of lying is that a person lies and swears an oath to eat the money of people by falsehood. For example, if he is sued for a right that is established against him, he denies it and says: 'By Allah, you have no right against me.' Or he claims what is not his and says: 'I have such and such with you,' and he is lying. So if he swears an oath on his claim and lies, then that is the oath that immerses (al-yamin al-ghamus) which immerses its owner in sin, then immerses him in the Fire, and may Allah protect us from it. And it was established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: . So the conclusion is that lying is forbidden, and it is not permissible for a person to lie, not in jest and not in seriousness, except in the three matters, with a disagreement among the scholars regarding the meaning mentioned in them. And Allah knows best.