Proof and Personality

Proof and Personality

1985 7 July 16 Proof and Personality (372) The Qur’an has gone into the story of Moses and Pharaoh in several places, and in considerable detail. It has described what happened when the Pharaoh summoned the Egyptian magicians to take Moses on. The magicians threw their wands and ropes into the arena. By magic, they appeared as snakes, writhing on the ground. God then commanded Moses to cast his staff. It turned into a serpent, far larger than any other, which devoured all that they had contrived. The magicians’ instruments reverted to their original form.

On seeing this, the magicians realized that Moses was not dealing in magic – he was dealing in divine truths. Moses’ miraculous display gave them a glimpse of the face of the Lord. They believed there and then. The Pharaoh was humiliated. Furious, he pronounced on them the severest punishment in the land – that their hands and feet should be amputated from opposite sides, and that they should then be tied to the trunks of palm trees and crucified. When the magicians heard the sentence they replied:

“ .… . ‘We cannot prefer you to the clear signs which have come to us .....”’

(Qur’an, 20:72)

On the one side the magicians were confronted with an awesome personality, on the other with clear proofs. As befits a truthful human being they left the former and took the latter. They preferred truth to power, proofs to personality.

When one is confronted with a sign which proves conclusively the truth of something, then there is only one thing to do. One must put his proof first and forsake people who oppose it. When signs of truth are made manifest in this manner, then it is as if God Himself has come out into the open. One who puts personalities before them has put mortals before the Eternal God. Such a person has no place in the, world of God, for he has offered allegiance to one who is not his true master; he had made a god of one who is not really God. One who forsakes the true God, and attaches himself to false one, can never prosper in this world of God.

A good heart is better than all the heads in the world.

–Bulwer Lytton