Al-Huda
Foundation, NJ U. S. A
the Message Continues ... 8/117
Newsletter for May 2011
Article 1 - Article 2 - Article 3 - Article 4 - Article 5 - Article 6 - Article 7 - Article 8 - Article 9 - Article 10 - Article 11 - Article 12
According to Jesus, Bible and Quran - What is truth?
by Irshaad Hussain
Jesus said, "To this end was I
born, and for this came I into the world, to bear witness unto
the truth. Every one that is of the truth hears my voice. Pilate
then said unto him, What is truth?" (John 18:37-38)
Pilate's response is a fascinating one. "What is truth?", he
says, but he does not voice the question as a genuine query - it
is a rhetorical question, a statement describing reality as
Pilate observes it - there is no truth, there are only
constructed ideologies and practical necessities and people act
based upon these and function within the
social/economic/political realms generated by these constructs.
Right and wrong, truth and justice exist only within the
relativistic confines and context of these constructs.
Pilate's response is a quintessential modern response - in a
world of relativity, "what is truth?" In a world dominated by
pragmatic realities, ideological loyalties, and political
manipulation what, indeed, is truth?
Jesus answers Pilate's question with silence. And so perhaps it
is presumptuous for us to seek an answer, or to listen for
elucidation from within his quiescence. Yet this is a question
which is a very human one - and one that every age has struggled
with and sought to answer in different ways - some from the
vantage of faith, some from philosophical logic, some from the
rationalism of science, some from postmodern relativism, some
from an individualistic mix of different avenues - it is a
question which has been approached from every conceivable
direction. Pilate asks the question cynically, rhetorically -
seemingly not truly seeking an answer - and he receives only
silence. But perhaps, in the case of Jesus, even his silence can
become a potential exegesis, a speech of subtle elucidation - a
pointer, not to a single answer, but to a direction which may
take us to a mode of understanding.
Pilate's world is governed by ideological fealty to the empire
and a path governed by pragmatic decision making. His choices
hinge, not on any particular concern with distinguishing between
truth and untruth (he perhaps is unconcerned to even contemplate
what these might mean), but on the weighing of threats and
inconveniences to the empire, on the politics of dealing with
the constituents of the empire, and on his own personal
ambitions within this milieu. Pilate acts and reacts, as we all
tend to do, within the limits and parameters of the surrounding
society and his own ideological loyalties - juggling personal
ambitions and personal compunctions with the realities of his
time, and his place within the Roman hierarchy. There,
pragmatism and political and economic realism, not some
"abstract" truth, carries weight. For Pilate, as perhaps for
many of us, existing worldly "realities" overwhelm truth
rendering it irrelevant to immediate events.
Jesus' taciturn silence in response to Pilate's "What is truth?"
is indicative of the vast gulf that stretches between someone
like Jesus and someone like Pontius Pilate - a sign of the chasm
between two modes of understanding, one mode being rooted in the
mundane and the other rooted in deeper modalities - one mode
bespeaking the cynicism inherent in Pilate who the world had
bent to its connivance (and who in turn sought to further the
empire's influence by his own exercise of authority), the other
indicating the certainty of one who sees the world as only a
passing shimmer rippling across the surface of Reality. Between
these two viewpoints there is an unbounded void.
Pilate's independence is no independence - it is action tightly
bound within the confines of a limited and worldly set of
controls and inputs - the rules of the empire he serves, the
relationship with Herod and Tiberius, the local politics of the
province he governed - Pilate no doubt weighed all these inputs
and made decisions that best suited the current situation
according to his own internal ranking of the hierarchy of
importance of these inputs. This is human nature shaped and
governed by worldly circumstance, unmoored from higher
realities.
But Jesus speaks from an entirely different realm of inputs -
between his world and Pilate's the gulf is so vast that Jesus'
answer to "what is truth", can be nothing other than silence.
If truth is that which corresponds most fully to reality, then
the truth Jesus acts upon stems from the realities that extend
from the throne of God down to the earth of this world. These
constitute the foundational metaphysical verities which
encompass, penetrate, and underlie the worlds of the heavens and
the worlds of matter - not the fabricated constructs of human
power structures. Truth, in the sense that Jesus speaks of it,
is found along the vertical dimension of reality - that
dimension which cuts through a hierarchy of existence that
stretches from this world to God.
So Jesus acts upon a truth that goes so deep and that has
such a powerful grounding in the foundations of reality itself,
that every word he speaks and action he performs has a solidity
and deep resonance and spiritual potency arising from its
integral connection to the throne from which the reality of the
world emerges and from which it draws its subsistence.
"For man does not live by bread alone but from every word that
proceeds from God." (Matthew 4:4) God's words are the
engendering, shaping, and sustaining commands which hold the
world in existence, from instant to instant. These words are
truth - they are the essential substance that shapes reality.
The first truth and the foundation of all truth is God - "God is
the Truth (the Real)" (Qur'an 22:6). His right over His creation
is above all other rights.
And He has created in accordance with His nature "We created not
the heavens and the earth and what is between them but through
the Truth (the Real - Haqq); and the hour will most surely come,
so turn away (from the ignorant and heedless) with kindly
forgiveness." (Qur'an 15:85)
And He has placed within each creature's essence a truth and a
nature which can connect it with other truths. "Our Lord is He
who gave each thing its creation, then guided it...." (Qur'an
20:50)
Through this nature, truth can connect with truth - "Every one
that is of the truth hears my voice." (John 18:37)
By this connection and attraction, He (God) makes possible the
connection between the ones who bring the truth (the Prophets)
and the ones who accept the truth - "And he who brings the truth
and (he who) accepts it as the truth...." (Qur'an 39:33) Those
whose hearts are on the paths of the prophets, whose beings have
a resonant identity with them, whose spirits are seeking
congruence with theirs - they are the ones who accept the truth.
And He sends truth in the form of revelation, as guidance - "And
with truth have We revealed it, and with truth did it come...."
(Qur'an 17:105) This is why there is the potential for
revelation to enact an alchemical transformation in the one who
approaches its truth with their own intelligent and honest
sincerity.
And the truth overturns falsehood, revealing falsehood's
self-seeking and ephemeral nature - "We cast the truth against
the falsehood, so that it demolishes it, and lo! it vanishes
away...." (Qur'an 21:18)
In the Qur'an, truth is repeatedly connected with reality at its
deepest and most profound levels. So Jesus' being is integrally
connected to the realities which permeate and suffuse all
aspects of creation from the heavens to the earth and all that
is in-between. Jesus draws upon and manifests that truth in each
glance, in each word, and in each silence. He manifests the
truth in the most appropriate manner in each individual action,
in each separate time and place, to each person and group - he
gives to each aspect of creation he encounters, that which is
most appropriate to it. Sometimes he gives healing, sometimes an
awakening, sometimes harsh words (to the hypocrites) and
reprimands, sometimes specific guidance, sometimes silence, but
always, it is truth - conveyed in the most effective manner
since its root is firmly established in the full depth of
reality. He is a Word from God - cast into Mary's womb. "...O
Marium (Mary), surely Allah gives you good news of a Word from
Him, who is the Messiah (Christ), Isa (Jesus) son of Marium,
worthy of high honor in this world and the hereafter and is of
those who are in near proximity (to Allah)." (Qur'an 3:45)
God's word is the truth - so when Pilate asks, "what is truth",
the answer is manifest before him. At that juncture, the silence
of Jesus' presence was the most potent response.
The totality of absolute Truth is only possible within the
unique singularity and unknowable hidden essence of God - there
all contradictions and oppositions find their termination and
reconciliation. But here, in the world in which we presently
dwell, the Prophets drew upon their profound connection with the
unseen, they recognized the true nature of things, they
understood the vast substance of the ocean of reality upon whose
surface the ephemeral world floats unaware ("You are a mist that
appears for a little while and then vanishes...." (James 4:14))
They gave to each thing they encountered its rightful due,
drawing out from each its unique truth - the nature with which
it was created - since it is by standing on truth, by being true
to one's profound metaphysical nature that one acquires
substance, and gains a firm foothold in reality. And it is from
this acting on truth, from "...bearing witness to the truth."
(John, 18:37) that the felicitous bond with the ultimate Truth,
Al-Haqq, emerges. "God is the Truth (the Real - Al-Haqq)"
(Qur'an 22:6)
Irshaad Hussain is a contemporary Islamic thinker and author of Islam from Inside.
HOME - NEWSLETTERS - BOOKS - ARTICLES - CONTACT - FEEDBACK
DISCLAIMER:
All material published by Al-Huda.com / And the Message Continues is the sole responsibility of its author's).
The opinions and/or assertions contained therein do not necessarily reflect the editorial views of this site,
nor of Al-Huda and its officers.