FEAR NOT TRUTH
What grounds us in our truth claims?
A powerful determiner shaping our beliefs is our socialisation into various systems, which form the matrix driving our narratives.
Unfortunately, we may go through life never questioning these ideas, whether religious, social, educational, cultural or otherwise.
So, why the phobia? What do we fear? If we believe our beliefs to be correct, should we not be open to robustly testing their veracity?
Daniel Goleman, the author of Vital Lies, Simple Truths, discusses the phenomenon of deliberate blind spotting. Blind spotting is when the self filters and organises information to align with its biases. One strategy it employs is to distort or discount information that undermines the self’s underwritten beliefs, thereby protecting it from ideological meltdown.
Distraction is essential in misdirecting from truth to falsehood, which master magicians are adept at. Pharaoh’s sorcerers had PhDs in the art of illusion. But Moses, through God’s aid, exposed their fakery. The Quran relates the story and deals with the various responses to truth and falsehood.
Reject and Confront Falsehood: Moses was initially fearful during his showdown with the sorcerers. Their illusions seemed real and alarmed him at first, but through God’s reassurance and encouragement, Moses confronted their falsehood. [20:61-69]
Recognise and Submit to Truth: The sorcerers recognised that Moses won with truth, not trickery, and immediately submitted, even at the cost of death. [20:70 and 72-76]
Reject and Distort Truth: Pharaoh distorted reality by accusing Moses of witchcraft and being the sorcerers’ master. The truth was that Pharaoh was their master and drove them to practice sorcery. [20:71]
Pharaoh’s inversion of the truth is not only a blind spot but also a tactic in ideological warfare, which is so ubiquitous today.
Thus, combatting and exposing falsities, whether within or without, should be the occupation of every believer. So, too, is the acceptance of the truth when encountered.
There may be many approaches to unearthing the truth. However, the best method I know is: 1) Question everything, 2) Seek evidence (remember, an explanation is not proof) by reading a wide range of scholarly works on the subject, 3) Look for convergence, especially where departures are wildly different, 4) Consult others, primarily those who know the topic and those with an opposing viewpoint. A healthy and mature exercise is to tirelessly defend the opposing belief instead of trying to disprove it. Often, when our approach is to debunk, our zealotry obliges us to discard the theory at its first problem without thoroughly testing it, and 5) Reflect and deliberate on your new findings and test them against your beliefs.
God is the truth. So, if your goal is God, you have nothing to fear.
THE HOUR
While Christian Zionists, Dispensational Premillennialists and many Evangelicals are preoccupied with the creation of a Greater Israel to spur eschatological prophecy, regardless of the suffering of Palestinians, Muslims remain guided by the Prophet’s guidance about the Hour (Judgment Day).
When the man asked the Prophet (s) when the Hour will be, he (s) replied: —What have you prepared for it? [Bukhari 3688]
This question demonstrates the Prophet’s wisdom by guiding us to focus on the consequential and what we have agency over: faith and righteous actions instead of predictions.
It emphasises the importance of spiritual growth, personal responsibility, and becoming ever-ready to meet our Lord.
It is so absurd that most snigger at the claim that the Israeli army is the most moral in the world. It’s not like they have a Gallup poll to prove it.
What’s clear is that the Israeli assertion is rooted in a complex of superiority. The same complex that deems the lives of Palestinians considerably less than theirs.
This pathology plays out in so many areas of Israeli life: lopsided prisoner exchange deals—1 Israeli for 1,000 Palestinians, the accepted disproportionate killing of Palestinian civilians (300) vs resistance fighters (1), the discriminate laws that govern non-Jewish Israelis, fierce Israeli covetousness of Palestinian land, hence, Israel’s protracted and brutal occupation of Palestine, and the appropriation of Palestinian land by Israeli larceners (incorrectly known as Settlers) because they believe it is their inherent Divine right. Much of their superiority complex stems from the last example, that they are purportedly God’s chosen.
So, what does this mean for those who don’t believe in God or the Jewish and Christian scriptures?
‘The Jews and the Christians say, “We are the children of God and His beloved ones” Say, “Then why does He punish you for your sins? You are merely human beings, part of His creation: He forgives whoever He will and punishes whoever He will. Control of the heavens and earth and all that is between them belongs to Him: all journeys lead to Him.”‘ [5:18].
Yusuf Ali, renowned for his English translation of the Quran, comments on the above Quranic verse: ‘Unfortunately, “son” used in a physical sense, or “beloved” in an exclusive sense as if Allah loved only the Jews, make a mockery of religion. The refrain negatives the idea of sonship, and in this verse negatives the idea of an exclusive “Beloved”. In both cases, it means that Allah is independent of physical relationships or exclusive partiality.’
Later on, in the same chapter, Allah rounds off this argument with a warning to the Muslims: ‘You who believe, if any of you go back on your faith, God will soon replace you with people He loves and who love Him’ [5:54].
Here, Ali weighs in again with commentary: ‘Here is a warning to the Muslim body that they should not repeat the history of the Jews, and become so self-satisfied or arrogant as to depart from the spirit of Allah’s teaching. If they do, the loss will be their own. Allah’s bounty is not confined to one group or section of humanity. He can always raise up people who will follow the true spirit of Islam (submission to God).’
On this point, Islam is the only tradition from among the Abrahamic faiths aligned with secular humanists on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which justly recognises the ‘inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family.’
Until next week, InshaAllah
Zaahied Sallie
Author of The Beloved Prophet – An Illustrated Biography in Rhyme
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