Truth.. What is it?

The truth is often something that is encouraged throughout cultures and religions, an arabic proverb says "survival is through truth", there are other similar proverbs like "truth is the key to success", what i find interesting is what politicians, scientists, philosophers and other great thinkers in history think of the word "truth". Something i hold a close attachment to, is a saying by Buddha where by he states: "Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true." I take this statement to heart, because i often feel that the word truth is misused and abused by people, people claim to know about the "truth" and impose their claims on others, but how true is their truth? What are the sources they have used to derive that truth? That is the key question. Betrand Russell has a great point when he says: "What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires -- desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way." This is infact the anthropological view, and i say this quite sadly.

There are two different aspects to truth, or should we say, to diversions, the truth can either be considered "good truth" which brings us joy, and enlightens us, or "bad truth" which brings us grief and saddens us. It is upon this concept that people choose whether or not to speak of the truth. We will now begin to discuss each of these diversions, beginning with "bad truth" because we do want to end this thread in "happily ever after".

Imam Ali (as) Ameer Al-Mumineen, the first holy and blessed successor to the prophet of Allah Muhammad (pbuh) said "The truth left me with no friend". If we were to take this statement and delve upon it, we would find that people often hate to be told the truth, they hate to accept reality and tend to cling to a web of lies, to a web of deceit, just to live the short term life in so-called "happiness" or what is claimed to be so. Benjamin Disraeli said "Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth." When i thought about this quote i remembered the times, when i had heard people say something about me, which i quite disliked hearing, i wanted to shut away the thought, horrified at my realization that it not only existed in my world, but it also was present in the world of thoughts of other people, namely those around me. When the person had acknowledged my reaction, he or she would shy away and apologise, at having "hurt my feelings", however as Disraeli says, it is only apologising for the truth. There are however statements i may disagree with, for example what Galileo says "All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them." But to what extent is the truth undertandable? Sometimes i find that the missing truth, is always better than the found truth, because what is not there, what you dont know about doesnt hurt you. Sometimes one is better off, not knowing the truth, because certain truths are rather destructive than constructive. Let us take for example a situation where lets say a Muslim cleric, who is known to be pious wakes up one day to be told that he was an illegitimate child! Now imagine what a shock that would be to him, and how it would affect his career. Or another exmaple (no i havent been watching too many mexican films) Lets say this woman works in a large firm, only one day she discovers that her boss in the firm she works for was responsible for her father death, while she had in this time in these years been working under his hands for him, for her fathers brutal murdrer. Would both of these characters in their situations have been better off not knowing the truth? What justice did the truth do for them?

My personal beleif has to be that we are undergoing a cosmic life of universal deceit, and so i would have to nod in agreement with George Orwell for saying: "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." People do not want to hear it! its simple! Your sister who has taken 2 hours to get dressed does not want to hear "Oh my you look terribly awful!" or "That shade of grey does not suit you" or "Do you actually think you look good wearing that thing? What happened to your mirror", people want to be deceived, they want to feel good, they want to be told that the look good, or are good, because thats what makes them go on, so how bad can it be to sacrifice a little truth to make people happier? Is this morally acceptable, giving that moral perfection enocurages one to be truthful?

Now on the other hand let us take a glimpse at what is considered to be "good truth". I have always been a person who admires the courage of those who come out and tell the truth, coming from a family where most are so blatenet with the truth, it has always been easy for me to speak what i think without hesitation. This however i have found easy to be within my family fold, but not quite so easy towards outsiders. I feel that many people around me lack this courage i speak of, i unfortunately witness it with many people, it is so easy to distinguish those who speak the truth and those who dont, you can look into their eyes, and you can tell. I would never point out that i disbeleive in a person, unless they forced me to, but when i see a person so adamant with the truth, i just let them be, for they are not deceiving no one but themselves.

How can one actually begin to tell the truth is the question? I would say that the easisest method is by being truthful about yourself, openly admitt the problems you have, no body is perfect no body is problem less, we all have faults, being able to openly speak about your faults and admitt them to people, shows that you also have the ability to tell the truth about others, fortunately Virgina Woolf seems to agree when she said: "If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people."Anything that you want to do, has to come from within, in order to have an understanding of life, you must have an understanding of yourself, which is why the three questions in life are: who am i? why am i here? what am i going to do? notice the i, i, i in all the questions, its about you, its about what you are and who you are. How can you expect to relate to other people if you cant even relate to yourself?

Many people who have spoken out about the truth in history have been silenced by death, their bodies have been engulfed by the majority who compromise of institutions holding beleifs or values that they feel are under threat due to this outspokenness of another. "Truth always rests with the minority, and the minority is always stronger than the majority, because the minority is generally formed by those who really have an opinion, while the strength of a majority is illusory, formed by the gangs who have no opinion—and who, therefore, in the next instant (when it is evident that the minority is the stronger) assume its opinion ... while Truth again reverts to a new minority."Soren Kierkegaard. This statement holds great value, for those who aim to speak what they think while not giving a care to being attacked. Such people will always go on to being successful in putting their thought across, even if it means establishing their thoughts after their death. As Noam Chomsky says "It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies." If certian intellectuals did not come out to speak the truth, then they would really not be intellectuals to start off with, in order for one to gain knowledge one must sacrifice, this sacrifice is exposure of hypocrisy, of lies and deceit.

So what is truth? And how have we defined it? is it just a sincere assertment to a certain subject? Truth for me, is something that the heart and the mind simultaneously recognise to be correct, it complies with reality and it sheds light to certain dark areas. It allows you to have the capability of understanding certain things, with truth comes knowledge. With knowledge comes enlightment, consequently the strength of mind.

Finally to finish off a rather long winding post i would like to quote William Sloane Coffin: "The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love."

Maryam