FAULTS OF THE FAULT HUNTERS IN THE NAME OF ALLAH MOST GRACIOUS MOST MERCIFUL “Do not find faults in yourselves and do not defame one another by using bad names.” (Quran 49:11) Ever since I vowed to be sincere with myself, to define myself with the mirror of my actions and to become a school within my own self, I began to realise that most of those faults which I accuse people of I am also guilty of. That faults as they appear are just a matter of degree and kind. I could not help generalizing because I was poised in observing that people with whom I relate with are not free from the same predicament. They criticize me or others before me of offences they also are guilty of. May the reader be appeased and in fact congratulated if he/she is an exception to the above claim. And may he/she take it in good faith if he/she is immersed in the same predicament as much as this guilty writer is. It is a question of who the cap fits and beatifies. And it is a noble and humble call to self-incursion for self-recognition, self-evaluation and self-improvement. Also, the phrase “most of those faults” in our claim above have been carefully selected and without apologies but in fact we have not used instead the phrase “all of those faults” simple because of the vent that has being created by the gift of infallibility with which each and every one of us has being honoured, as we shall soon explain God willing. The oldest and most important instinct in the human being is the instinct of self-love. All other instincts including the instincts of lust and that of anger, imagination and ambition are a reflection of the instinct of self-love. Whereas, a human being by his nature will not and in fact cannot engage in any act that goes contrary to his self-love, be it good or be it bad. It is the instinct of self-love that can make an individual to become altruistic and to want to give up his life together with all that he possesses so that others can live. It is also the same instinct of self-love that can make an individual to want to confiscate all the belongings of other people and send them out of existence so that he can live and happily. What we have said above concerning the self-love instinct should not be mistaken for selfishness, for self-love is an umbrella instinct which embraces all actions, good as well as bad. But selfishness is a negative expression of self-love. However, it is this selfishness that barricades us from seeing our own faults whereas magnifying the faults of others before our eyes. Another way of saying the same thing is that it is our egotism that makes us not to see our own faults but leads us to tend to look out and point out the faults of others, ironically, those same faults which we are guilty of. We are what we criticise. Our criticisms are often a reflection of ourselves. A part of us unknown! This tendency in us is that we view and judge the behaviours and personality of others by our “ideal”, that which we want ourselves to be. Every human being unwittingly has a conception of a best, a most good that him/herself can be, something we may call the “Ideal I”. But our current behaviours and personality, something we may call the “Factual I” are quite different from our “Ideal I”. Hence, the “Factual I” is constantly striving and gravitating towards becoming the “Ideal I”. However, most often than not, we get ahead of ourselves. Our expectations are that other people should behave exactly as that “Ideal I” of ours, keeping aside the fact that even us are only striving towards becoming that “Ideal I” personality. A happy realisation here is that the closer we get to our “Ideal I” the better immune we are to exaggerated opinion of ourselves and wrong criticisms of others. This re-introduces us to the concept of infallibility which we earlier promised to elaborate as we proceed. But perhaps it is time for us to suspend our rhetoric and adopt a revelational frame of reference without which all our rhetoric will remain weightless. We proceed to enter the house of wisdom and hear what those in whose words truth is evaluated have said with respect to our discussion. And how best should a respectable one enter a house if not through its gates? The gate to the City of Wisdom, Imam Ali (AS) says: “He who searches for people’s shortcomings should begin with himself.” The First Wisdom Rasulalah Muhammad Mustapha (SAWA) says: “Suffices one for a fault is that he sees people’s faults while being too blind to see his own.” The All Wise Allah (SWT) says in Hadith Qudsi: “I wonder at people who look for bad points in others, but are unaware of the same in themselves.” The All Wise Allah (SWT) says in the Quran: “And do not consider yourselves pure. He (Allah) knows who is righteous.” All of us are infallible. infallibility simply means lack of error or lake of sin. It is an honorable status that springs from self-struggle and conviction. But what do I mean when I say that we are all infallible after pointing all the accusing fingers at myself and the reader? Here is what we mean. There are two kinds of infallibility. Absolute infallibility and Relative infallibility. Absolute infallibility is the total absence of mistake and sin in ones life. No self-conscious and free-to-choose individual has or will attain this station except the chosen prophets of God and the Imams of guidance. Relative infallibility on the other hand means that one will not consciously commit certain mistakes or sins but the same person is guity of other sins and mistakes. This is the continum within which all of us operate. One may be so guided as not to commit the sin of fornication or gambing for instance but the same person maybe addicted to backbitting and lying. One may not eat pork or drink wine but the same person may be feeding to live from haram means. There are certain sins we feel so irritated with, like our own feases and cannot imagine ourselves commiting them. Yet there are other sins that feel so sweet and easily accessible that they draw the map of our character. Now here lies the vantage point of the most impotant statement. Our criticisms are justified only in those mistakes or sins which we have consicously overcame. Hence, it is a fault of self-deception and a falacy of self-ritiousness to criticise people of those sins and errors or their genre which we are not free of. This should bring us back to ourselves. Dear reader, lets visualise ourselves side by side our conducts towards others. How many times have we commited the fault of fault finding? How long must we live outside of ourselves thinking the thought that I’m good and they’re bad or “I must be right and they must be wrong”? It is ok to criticise for it has its own positive benefits. And it is ok to mentain the “Ideal I” scoring scheme. But before we look at the dots in other peoples’ eyes lets look at the beam in ours. Before every criticisms lets be quite and first internalize the faults. If we are equally or even less equally guilty of the same offence, then we must remain quite. But if we are free of the fault, then we mut offer criticisms with dignity and good intention not with arrogance and sacasm. This have the personal benefits of self-discovery, self improvement and higher degree of infallibility status, and the social benefits of understanding the perspectives of others, empathy and tollerance and also making up for the shortcomings of others. Respected one, we must not allow our ego to cow us away from fairness and dignity. For its survival instinct is to hide our faults under the canopy of the faults of others. And this could easily lead us to the heineous crimes of intollerance, arrogance, conciet and self-rightiousness which are in this order the last check points on the highway to self-dellusion. If we are at any point on this road lets make a quick u-turn, the clock is still ticking and change is always possible. As we part and go our separate ways, I leave you in the care of God, asking Him to send His blessings to Muhammad (SAWA) and the purified Household of Muhammad (AS). Abubilal Umar
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 04:00:01 +0000
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