Auron ka hai Payaam aur, mera Payaam aur hai, / Ishq key dardmand ka tarz-e-kalaam aur hai! (Iqbal)
Hence Islam’s emphasis on truth, whether you call it Sidq, which in some ways you may consider to be small, everyday, even conversational and verifiable truth at a more human and worldly level. Or you call it Haqq, the big and all-inclusive transcendental truth that ultimately ends in God Almighty himself.
As the Qur’ān says, Annallaha huwal haqqul mubeen: God Almighty, he is indeed the clear and open truth!
What a statement! What an assertion! What an aayat! What a miracle! What an amazing proof that this Qur’ān is indeed from God Almighty!
Regardless of which one of the two expressions you use, Sidq or Haqq, truth is the panacea Islam proposes to heal the many ailments that plague humanity, including all that may be wrong with the Muslim situation. For example, Islam enjoins truth as the basis for all dealings among all human beings, whether that is among neighbours; among friends; or among members of a household including husband-wife and parent-child duos.
Islam also requires that Muslims make truth the foundation of all their dealings with their fellow-Muslims in general – from speech to behaviour: speak to them and deal with them truthfully and honestly. And do so all the time and with regard to everything.
So also Islam makes it clear that truth must form the basis of all dealings and interactions – personal, professional, social and business – between Muslims and non-Muslims.
Allahu Akbar, it is mind-boggling, this emphasis that Islam places on truth in every aspect of human life. And in many ways that is what sets Islam apart from many other systems of thought, belief and behaviour that are out there in this world.
Furthermore, Islam makes it clear that the only conversation or relationship between God and human beings that has any merit is one that is based on truth. That means it is a relationship in which one’s mind, body and soul are all in synch with one another and where all three are completely grounded in and buttressed by truth.
That means the only human cry God pays attention to is the one that comes from the depths of your heart, not the one that issues merely from your lips.
This alone is proof that Islam is a divine and not a man-made system. For, systems of thought and action pieced together by human beings would tend to place greater emphasis on the ritualistic and conformist aspect of a deed, things that human beings can watch, observe and monitor, whereas in Islam almost the entire emphasis is on the true nature of the feelings, motives and thoughts from which that deed springs.
“Innamal a’amaalu binniyyaat,” is the very first item in that most amazing compilation of Hadith – verbatim first-person accounts of the sayings and doings of Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam – compiled by the 9th Century scholar, Al-Bukhari, may Allah bless him.
And who but God can know what the hearts conceal? And what lies buried deep within the recesses of the human mind.
Man-made thought- and life-systems generally fear and shun truth, whether they are political, economic or so-called religious systems. To divine systems, on the other hand, truth is mother’s milk. Truth is the since qua non – the absolute requirement – of all systems with any claim to have a divine origin.
In fact, truth is so fundamental to human life and to reality in general that you separate truth from happenings in this world and from reality, what is left is garbage, rubbish, trash.
This holds true whether in science or in so-called religion. For, the basis of science is unending search for truth. So also, the foundation of anything claiming to have a divine origin or connection in any form or fashion must also be truth.
That is what sets the Qur’ān apart from all the other so-called religious claimants of any kind. It is something that conclusively proves, as much as it is possible for anything in this world to be given the status of absolute and unshakable “proof,” the fact that the Qur’ān is indeed from God: the Qur’ān’s preoccupation with “truth” or Haqq.
Can you believe it that the Qur’ān uses that expression “Truth” or Haqq well over 200 times?
Therefore, truth also is the only remedy for all human problems, including Muslim problems. For, some of these problems are so big and so entrenched that their roots run deep in the human and Muslim psyche through centuries of neglect.
That is precisely the reason why those who have no real connection with God fear truth the way they do. These individuals and groups include those who claim to profess various forms of so-called religion, but would not risk a truthful and sincere encounter with or evaluation of their beliefs and behaviours.
And it also includes hordes of modern-day politicians and media professionals. Even though many of them pay lip service to truth, their real relationship with truth is that of water and fire. Truth to them is often anathema, for, all too often the houses of cards they erect in their religious places as well as in their media such as newspapers, radio and television are a tissue of lies, distortion and fabrication.
It makes no difference whether the lies the media tell are deliberate or merely a product of expediency. What matters is that they are lies. And it explains at least in part why some of their facts, statements and commentary are directly antithetical to the Qur’ān.
The reason is because the Qur’ān, and by extension Islam and to a lesser extent even the Muslim story, are all based on truth. And media’s tall tales are all too often just that: tall tales with their home in falsehood of various kinds and degrees.
Whereas media people’s values, agendas and interests shape and drive their alienation from truth, God Almighty’s concern with the wellbeing of the entire human family emerges in the form of an overwhelming preoccupation of the Qur’ān with truth.
Thus does the Qur’ān seek to foster in this world a culture of truth for not only Muslims but also for the whole world. For only a culture of truth can save humanity from the peril it faces. And only truth can set Muslims free from their many ailments, which is essentially the statement attributed to Hazrat Jesus in the Bible: “…you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
This also shows why those who want to deny humanity, or significant sections thereof, freedom and liberty shall also deny them access to truth and why they themselves fear, abhor and shun truth in their own pronouncements and actions. For, truth means freedom for people, whereas falsehood is an elaborate methodology to keep humanity in bondage.
[Write to the author at Drsyedpasha@aol.com. Also visit www.IslamicSolutions.Com and Listen to Pasha Hour International.]