According to a hadith, an age will come when:  فَتُقْبَضُ الأمَانَة(Sahih al-Bukhari 6497) An age of decline will come. Degeneration will increase such that there would remain no honest person. Honesty and sincerity are the same. Honesty, sincerity and truthulness don’t exist any more. If there is a sincere person in this age, he would be very rare. Sincerity is called sanjeedgi in Urdu and ikhlas in Arabic. A person who has ikhlas is sincere. I believe in this age, if a person is truly sincere, then he is awliya allah (those who are close to God).

Why is sincerity so rare in this age? In the previous age, people had few interests. In my childhood, there were few things in which people took interest. Life was short. People had few ordinary things to own. Now there are innumerable items. People's interests have increased tremendously. It is interest that makes you insincere. It is interest that makes you dishonest.

Why? Because to protect one's interest, a person speaks manipulatively. He tries to save his image so that his interests are not harmed. He lies, speaks dishonestly and insincerely only to protect his interests. In the previous age, people had hardly anything to lose. There was no danger to lose anything, no danger about harming one's interests. People had no interests. They led simple lives. There was no reason to lie. In this age, people don’t lead simple lives. People have interests attached to so many things. A person wants to have a good image in society, a good image on stage, a good image in the media. There are so many interests. A person wants to safeguard all his interests: to have a good image in society and on stage, and to achieve fame. All these interests have increased by a thousand times now. This has made people hypocrites. They speak in a manipulative way. I can say that sincerity, in this age, is the ticket to Paradise. If a person is truly sincere, he will be deserving of Paradise.