I am, this April 13, 2025 seized with the need to write about the truth. I am not sure why, there is often more than one why, more than one explanation – often there are many, coexisting and inter related. One reason was the sudden realization that I am surrounded by liars. There is small comfort in knowing that many, if not most people are. I take great comfort in the knowledge that I am also surrounded by those who hold fast to the truth.
Chapter 103 of the Quran has the distinction of being the shortest. Quran 103 The Passage of Time,In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. I swear by the passage of time, that man is surely in a state of loss, except for those who believe and do good deeds and exhort one another to hold fast to the Truth, and who exhort one another to steadfastness.”
Another translation uses the word urge, in place of exhort. I decide to look up exhort, it seems a stronger term. I am proven correct, for this is the definition: strongly encourage or urge (someone) to do something. The synonyms that express this strength are: put pressure on, lean on, incite, implore, admonish.
Realize I have spoken of the truth previously in these blogs because something stuck: the fate of a liar, they end up believing in nothing, absolutely nothing. Someone recently told lies about me, to me, around me. That person told lies to other liars, people who did not know the truth from a lie. There were repercussions – I parted company with the liars. My reward was to be surrounded with goodness, mercy, sincerity, good fortune. Is it now my task to lean on, implore, admonish others to hold fast to the Truth? Some do not know the truth from a lie; of that I am convinced. It is a waste of breath. Not giving up altogether. The actions of the liars led me to the arms of two truth tellers. Perhaps not literally to their arms. Hahaha.
I feel a great measure of relief in writing about this. I do write for myself, not others. I do but I have many eavesdroppers, more viewers and views in KL than any city in the word. It is most ironic, several of the liars, and the lies were perpetuated in KL by residents of KL. I take great comfort again in the fact that one of the major truth tellers resides, and toils, in KL
Dutifully typed Truth in the search engine of my blog. It kept retrieving blogs with Truth is Stranger Than Fiction. Finally got the search down to the one word: Truth. Found further comfort in a July 24, 2024 blog. These two sentences were so instructive:
“The problem is this, If one is looking for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, it is difficult if not impossible to find these days. There is one source – utterly and totally reliable. It is the Quran. Don’t take my word for it, read it yourself. “
I took my own advice this April 13, 2025 and went to the Quran, looked for Truth In the index. Found Truth – Rejectors of, 77: 1-50; 98:1-6
It is difficult to explain in a few words or less. Best you do as I suggested in July 24, 2024. “There is only one source of the Truth, the Quran but don’t take my word for it, read it for yourself.”
It is enlightening to see what insights the secular world has to offer on the concept of truth, Weeks ago I accidentally found a treasure trove – Ayn Rand’s visions of truth, a rather unlikely perspective. Hope you find her gems as thought provoking as I did.
“Devotion to the truth is the hallmark of morality; there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking.”
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
“He is free to evade reality, he is free to unfocus his mind and stumble blindly down any road he pleases, but not free to avoid the abyss he refuses to see.”—Ayn Rand
“The truth is not for all men but only for those who seek it.”—Ayn Rand
“The man who refuses to judge, who neither agrees nor disagrees, who declares that there are no absolutes and believes that he escapes responsibility, is the man responsible for all the blood that is now spilled in the world. Reality is an absolute, existence is an absolute, a speck of dust is an absolute and so is a human life. Whether you live or die is an absolute. Whether you have a piece of bread or not, is an absolute. Whether you eat your bread or see it vanish into a looter’s stomach, is an absolute. —Ayn Rand
There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil. The man who is wrong still retains some respect for truth, if only by accepting the responsibility of choice. But the man in the middle is the knave who blanks out the truth in order to pretend that no choice or values exist, who is willing to sit out the course of any battle, willing to cash in on the blood of the innocent or to crawl on his belly to the guilty, who dispenses justice by condemning both the robber and the robbed to jail, who solves conflicts by ordering the thinker and the fool to meet each other halfway. In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit. In that transfusion of blood which drains the good to feed the evil, the compromise is the transmitting rubber tube.” —Ayn Rand
“People think that a liar gains a victory over his victim. What I’ve learned is that a lie is an act of self-abdication, because one surrenders one’s reality to the person to whom one lies, making that person one’s master, condemning oneself from then on to faking the sort of reality that person’s view requires to be faked…The man who lies to the world, is the world’s slave from then on…There are no white lies, there is only the blackest of destruction, and a white lie is the blackest of all.” —Ayn Rand
Remaining in the secular world, it was instructive reading the blog of July 24, 2024. . Some things have changed, some things remain the same. Unfortunately this remains the same: “humanity is in grave loss” Fazilitos’ Story of today reported that Israel had the temerity to bomb a Christian Hospital on Palm Sunday. Synonyms of temerity are audacity, effrontery, gall. More than that, I commented:
Me: Oh No!!!! The absolute evil of it all. I trust that Allah is the great planner but I am wondering what His plan could possibly be.
The words of a song came to mind last July, the song continues to be applicable to the word of today. From the July 2024 blog,
“Suddenly, out of nowhere, came fragments of a song, Turn, Turn, Turn. Could not get back to sleep, so I I hauled out my computer – went to Google and found the song. It is perfect – I now send it out to you. The song is Turn, Turn, Turn. Here are are lyrics.
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace, I swear its not too late
Wikipedia was most informative with all sorts of information about the songs origins and various recordings made over the years. “The Biblical text posits there being a time and place for all things: birth and death, killing and healing, sorrow and laughter, war and peace, and so on. The lines are open to myriad interpretations, but Seeger’s song presents them as a plea for world peace with the closing line: “a time for peace, I swear it’s not too late.” This line and the title phrase “Turn! Turn! Turn!” are the only parts of the lyric written by Seeger himself. “
Back to the reality of today. Nowadays in Penang, I am getting back in the saddle, so to speak. ‘Back in the saddle’ is an idiom used when describing something that is resumed after time away. If you are in the saddle, you are in power or in control of a situation. I suspended my life during Ramadan, then it was off to KL. Today I have an appointment with Cheng Boon Chang, the Chinese physician. My neck pain has returned, not as painful as before but still bothersome. I need a tune up. Will also explore a nonsurgical procedure for my left knee.
A couple of months ago Shamir ordered 300 blog business cards for my distribution. I handed them out like candy. A new supply of 500 now sits on my dining room table, ready for more and greater distribution. A photo will follow.
I am also getting back in the swing of things, feeding my mind, (Back in the swing of things is to start to understand, enjoy, and be active in something.) . Faithful readers will recall my trip to two KL bookstores. Fazil recommended two books by Reza Aslan, the book stores had neither but did have one book by Aslan, God: A Human History of Religion. I purchased the book, now reading it intently. Fascinating. I have been studying religions academically since my retirement in 2004, therefore not a novice. But there is so much I do not know. An entirely different perspective. It is slow reading, not like fiction where I can speed read. Already read two chapters.
Photo of the vast collection of my blog business cards as well as photos from the Masjid Wilayah Perkekutuan, spoken of in my April 12, 2025 blog. One of me and Elina. Then photos of the masjid’s collection of truth, the Quran in many languages.
