The Fact of the Matter

In school we are taught that fact is unassailable. We learn “fact”, make arguments about “fact” and disseminate “fact”.  

Geobbels, the Nazi’s minister of propaganda and culture said in a speech in 1933, “German art of the next decade will be heroic... it will be factual and completely free of sentimentality... or it will be nothing”. 

Indeed there is no greater proponent of fact than Islam. For in Islam, God is al-Haqq, the absolute truth and al-Baatin, the hidden as He encompasses all. 

In the Qur’an we find a verse that says that “truth smashes the brains out of falsehood” (S The Prophets). And we learn in the sayings of our Messenger (saw), that a Muslim can be many things from an alcoholic to a thief, but there is one thing that a Muslim cannot be and that is a liar. 

Maybe it is in the constancy of seeking to be true that we do destroy ourselves, and make ourselves over. 

However whilst Islam is so clear in its advocation of truth and fact, it also recognised that unabashed truth when it is directed towards another, or for a poor reason, can be our route to perdition. 

Another saying of the Messenger reminds us that two things can take you to hell, and those are what is between your teeth and what is between your legs. Whilst the Messenger also informed us of the severity of backbiting, “must you eat the flesh of your brother” and when the companions asked “what about when it is true”, the Messenger informed us that if false it is slander. (And consequently backbiting is when you tell a true thing that is hurtful to another behind their backs). 

Islam is nothing if not nuanced and intelligent. And Islam is social. 

The search for being true is an ultimate goal, “who are we each really?”

But in that search let not another suffer because we cannot see the trees for the forest. 

Goebbels spoke the language of fact to destroy and not to make, to hinder and not to help. 

And whilst “fact” is highly promoted. 

We as Muslims must remember in our social conversations that facts can hurt. That it is better to be silent on those occasions. 

And much more importantly that it is our values, and our humanity, that make us Muslims in the first. 

That we value truth, honesty and sacrifice in order to help another. And we know that the truth that we talk about here, is about ourselves and not another. 

And we know that facts can promote values which are inconsistent with our own, and in those cases our values take precedence. Because it is our values that make us who we want to be. 

And so we see a similar occurrence with the revelation sent to our Messenger (saw). Nearly always revealed after the fact of what happened, to teach us the best interpretation of those facts,  so that we might be instructed in what to value. 

So that we might know that values trump facts at every corner. Because it Is our values that teach us how to appreciate facts, and that facts do not inform our values. 

That facts are tools, and not ends in themselves. 

And it is this revelation that moulded our community into the best of communities to walk the Earth. 

And we also know that facts are often not always what they seem. 

Sometimes they are propaganda, at other times they are mixed in with false values and facts to give the semblance of truth. And we know that those are the worst of lies and falsehoods. 

Islam is nothing if not nuanced, intelligent and discerning. 

So be intelligent and discerning. 

*Knowledge is sought through study and contemplation*

Not lectures, nor talks, nor this above.