Before starting, I want to tell you that I’m not a prophet because prophets don’t commit sin. Their repentance is an example for us that being the most beloved and chosen one by God, they still ask for forgiveness from the Almighty.
Just like you, I do am a sinner. But since I began observing what’s happening around me, I felt pity for some people who deliberately break the bond of trust. From a more vivid perspective, they lack integrity, and that’s an alarming situation in society.
I know a lot of people who are stern followers of their religion. They practice the religious duties on time and keep themselves aware of their responsibilities. Then comes another group of people who are honest with their work. Their professional ideology is sound. But where’s the issue? The issue arises when any of them loses the hold of integrity from their life.
What’s Integrity?
Integrity resonates with the blind trust. Let’s understand integrity together.
Suppose you work as a treasurer in a local community. The leader of the community brings you the cash of people from other community who runs fashion clothing stores and small workshops and tells you to take care of it, and there is no count of the cash yet. Now you are alone with the cash of the foreigners.
If you have the trait of integrity, you shall not look at that handsome amount with negative intentions. No matter how honest are you with your work, if you lack integrity, you will definitely take some cash because you know that no one knows what’s the total count is.
This doesn’t end here.
Another example of integrity is
What you say, you don’t do that.
Your words and your actions have some kind of opposition in between. They don’t follow each other. In typical practice, if you say that you won’t drink water immediately after dinner, you shouldn’t drink water then. That’s integrity too.
The problem I want to highlight is people commit to complete their duty in due time, but they don’t fulfil their commitment. Moreover, they go against their word when it comes to accountability. Remember that example of treasurer. If any of the members asks for his money and the whole calculation becomes a matter of dispute due to your lack of integrity, you will not find any courage to admit to your mistake because you did that deliberately.
Plus, forget that the leader of the community will trust you anymore. You will lose the reputable position of treasurer, and your respect in people’s eyes will turn into disgust. All that happens when you ignore integrity.
The Spiritual Perspective of Integrity
From the spiritual perspective, integrity should be followed in that way:
The Divine guidelines to live our lives are there since our birth. However, it looks like if we disobey His law, no one will hold us accountable. But that’s not the truth. The integrity I’m talking about here is being obedient to the commandments even if there is no one watching us. It covers two dimensions of holding to the rope of integrity; being honest with ourself, and being afraid that He is watching us, and He will ask us of all the wrongdoings we’ve done when there was no one to stop us.
People who lack integrity cross the limit of the Divine border often. In most cases, they are disobedient. Whatever they are told to do, they don’t do it. For example, if one is told to worship One God, he doesn’t do that. That’s disobedience.
But beyond that is something worse. Instead of not following the order, they go against it. And that’s a revolt, revolting against the Almighty! In continuance with the recent example, revolting against the Almighty means that person is worshipping someone else.
Impact of Integrity
Integrity has a deep response in our personal and societal life. In our homes, the trait of integrity strengthens our bond of relationship. Be it marital or parental. If there is integrity, there is happiness. And on a societal level, integrity will raise your standards, and people will make you their leader. Wherever you go, people will feel safe around you. You will become a strong source of trust in your community, and in the longer run, your reputation will remain even after you leave this world.
Therefore, make sure you do what you say. And if you think that integrity is only for the saints, then understand that integrity is a human trait. It’s a built-in function, and to practice it, you just have to be mindful of your competency and capability so that whenever you speak something, it reflects your actions.