December 18, 2010
Leadership: What Is It and How to Deal with It? [Part One]
Section: WRITINGS | 255 reads
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Traders of Truth
That is why those whose main preoccupation is to trade in human liberty – in whatever form – have been throughout history – and always will be – also manufacturers and merchandisers of falsehood.
Given the pursuit and the profession they are in, they need to be.
These are people who often sell truth in small doses, or in large quantities – depending on what they consider to be the best policy or strategy at a given time or on a given issue – but rarely in full measure.
Often, their main concern is, as the Qur’an puts it, with mixing truth with falsehood – and thus covering up the truth.
They, thus, create a new alloy that is often neither full truth nor complete falsehood – but a little bit of both.
They are dealers of mixed truths and often of manufactured facts.
The final result, however, is still the same: hiding truth from the people – from the eyes of those who need it most.
The often ill-informed, poorly motivated, naïve, nice, gullible, trusting masses of humanity everywhere, who often lack the means, the resources, the skills, the sophistication and the perseverance needed to go on a relentless hunt for truth.
And they are often quite skilled at it – these mass marketers of mixed truth and alloyed falsehood.
Truth taken in expedient measures and falsehood leavened with sprinkles of reality.
They need to be, given what they are after – the hearts and minds of people, which somehow lie in the way of all that they seek in this world such as wealth, power and land and its resources.
For, that is what the falsehood merchants of this world most lust after. Mixing falsehood with truth is for them the means of attaining their ignoble ends in this world.
Above all, domination and control over the minds and bodies of people – Annaas, as the noble Qur’an refers to human beings in a gender-inclusive way: the masses, the citizens, the voters, the subjects and others everywhere who are the rightful owners of this world and its resources with a title to the same from God Almighty.
It is these people, Annaas – the masses of humanity everywhere – who, in the mind of the makers and marketers of falsehood, need to be defeated; it is they who need to be controlled; and it is their consent, where necessary, that needs to secured – engineered or manufactured, as some have suggested.
No matter how – using, as it were, whatever means necessary.
It is these people – the broad masses of humanity (Annaas) or its relevant target segments in specific places and times – that need to be hoodwinked and fooled if access to wealth, power and land and its resources is to be secured by the greedy, selfish and unscrupulous elements in this world.
That is why those who are in the business of fooling people using mixed truths and manufactured facts are generally very good at what they do.
And they need to be, given the fact that they are out to fool a lot of people, for as long as they could, for as big a reward as they could secure.
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Truth Is Light
In reality, truth is light and falsehood is darkness.
And truth is life-giving.
And falsehood is disaster – and death.
For both the mind and the body – and for the spirit – for individuals as well as for groups and organizations; for societies as well as for cultures and civilizations.
That is because truth is designed by God as a cure for many a human ill – individual, social, societal, cultural, civilizational.
As the Bible puts it, truth is designed to set human beings free.
Falsehood, on the other hand, was the instrument that the devil used to enslave the human race. He used it to get Adam and his mate thrown out of their home in paradise by coaxing and manipulating them into eating of the forbidden tree.
The devil thus caused them to lose their carefree life; their freedom; and their dignity and honor in paradise – in the boundless space of God’s care, love, mercy, compassion and grace.
The devil lied to Adam and Eve to accomplish his goal of depriving them of their home in paradise.
For that is what the devil does – lie.
Because that is what the devil is – a liar, a deceiver, a dissembler and a manufacturer and marketer of falsehood.
And that is what the devil wants – take away from people their homes, lands, properties, possessions, livelihood, dignity, liberty, security and their very well being and true happiness. Right here in this world as well as in the next world.
And he uses unsubstantiated assertions, flawed logic, shoddy evidence as well as outright fabrications and concoctions – falsehood – to achieve his purposes.
Falsehood, thus, is a major weapon in the devil’s arsenal for war against Adam, his family and children.
It was falsehood that led to the fall of man – and woman – from paradise.
Consequently, paradise cannot be regained, to use Milton’s words, without a commitment to truth – the full truth and nothing but truth.
That means nothing will return the fallen human race to paradise – and cause it to regain God’s grace – right here in this world, or in the next world, except a relentless and uncompromising pursuit of truth.
Not truth laced with falsehood, not doctored data, not fudged facts, not dis- or misinformation, not obfuscation in the service of personal or political expediency, but truth – simple, clear, whole and complete truth – and nothing but truth.
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Truth Is God
What everyone needs to understand clearly is this: In the final analysis, truth is none other than God Almighty himself.
God is the ultimate truth – the ultimate reality, the irreducible fact beyond which there is nothing.
God Almighty is what the Qur’an calls Al-Haqq – The truth.
Annallaha Huwal Haqq, says the Qur’an in Soorah Al-Hajj, 22, Ayah 62.
Paraphrase:
Indeed Allah is The Truth (22:62).
And then, referring to the Day of Judgment, Allah says in Soorah Annoor, 24, Ayah 25:
Wa Ya’lamoona Annallaha Huwal
Haqqul Mubin.
Paraphrase:
On that day shall they know that it is
indeed God himself who is the clear
and open truth (24:25).
Thus, when we talk about truth and reality – error-free and illusion-free reality – it is God Almighty himself that we are really talking about.
The only true, eternal and independent state of being.
Kullu Shai-in Halikun Illa Wajhah
(Soorah Al-Qasas, 28, Ayah 88).
Paraphrase:
Everything else other than God
shall perish (28:88).
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Truth about Islam and Muslims
Among those that are in urgent need of truth today are Islam and Muslims.
And, of course, Christians and others – and the people of the world in general.
That is the nature of this world: its inhabitants need truth. They always have needed it.
And they always will.
Their life chances and outcomes right here in this world and after their death, in the next world, will be shaped by the role they allow truth to play in their lives.
That is why Allah sent his messengers and prophets to the people of this world – one after another.
Now that no new prophets or messengers are set to come, those who are holders of the torch given to them by the earlier prophets are left with the obligation of bringing truth to a falsehood-filled, truth-deprived world.
The people of the world need it today, as much as they have ever needed it before.
And they need truth from both Muslims and non-Muslims.
And they need truth about both Islam and Muslims and about the rest of the world.
They need truth about the nature of Islam and about the role of Islam and Muslims in today’s world.
Next Article: Leadership: What Is It and How to Deal with It? [Part Two]
Previous Article: I Too Have A Dream!
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