Keeping One’s Promise

By: Hussein Amini Poya

“… And those who preserve their trusts and their pledges….”  The Holy Qur’an, 23: 8

Keeping one’s word and being committed to one’s pledges are among norms of social conduct on which depend the well-being of the whole-society and the soundness of social relationships. And so, Islam places much emphasis on these virtues.  There are some people who promise to do what they are not able to. This is not proper behavior. One should just promise to do what he or she is able to do and that within certain limits, since things may not always happen as we expect them to.

 And now, we should try our best to stand by our word and do as we have promised. For example, if we tell our mother that we will return home by 4 P.M., we should try not to be late and be at home by that time. We need to make prior proper planning, of course, for being able to do so, and consider any probable obstacles including busy traffic in our planning to avoid annoying the others by not keeping our promise. Besides, being trustworthy and considerate is an outstanding sign of respect for the others which in turn, makes ourselves respectable to the others. And breaking one’s word shows carelessness and disorderliness in one’s life. The one who does not stand by his word, in fact harms his or her own prestige since the others will start losing trust in and so respect for him or her. Being careless about one’s word and promises is also a sign of lack of faith and of being careless about one’s duties to God, since faith includes being careful about our duties and pledges to our Creator -The One and Only God Who has ordered us to be trustworthy and Who in His Book (including in the above verse) has regarded preserving one’s trusts and pledges to be among the manners of the believers.