Friday sermon: Cheating will be punished

Cheaters will be severely punished, this week's sermon reminds worshippers.
"How much fraud and how many scams exist? Allah has forbidden us from practising them all," says the sermon.
The Quran prohibits all forms of cheating and devotes an entire chapter to it. The chapter starts with the paragraphs: "Woe unto the defrauders: those who when they take the measure from mankind demand it full, but if they measure unto them or weigh for them, they cause them loss – do such men not consider that they will be raised again, unto an awful day, the day when all mankind stand before the lord of the worlds?"
The sermon explains the dire consequences of cheating and defrauding and the losses they incur on others.
The Prophet Mohammed excluded cheaters from the Islamic community. "Who cheats us is not one of us," he said.
"Guile and scam are in hell fire," he said in another hadith.
"Avoid cheating in your sales and purchases, our religion has pushed us to remain truthful in all our procedures," adds the sermon.
hdajani@thenational.ae