The Strength of Truth

The Strength of Truth

1986 1 January 9-10 The Strength of Truth (771) Ibn Hisham has related in his biography of the Prophet of Islam that the first person after the Prophet himself who recited the Quran aloud in Mecca was Abdullah ibn Masood. One day the Companions of the Prophet assembled. “The Quraysh have not heard the Quran recited out loud,” they said to one another. “Is there anyone who can recite it to them?”

“I will do so,” Ibn Masood said.

Abdullah ibn Masood was a thin, weakly person. He had no tribe of his own in Mecca to protect him. He was just a shepherd, and was known by the name ‘Ibn Umm-e-Abd’. His friends feared for him. They said that someone who belonged to a tribe of Mecca who could protect him from the Quraysh should perform this task. But Abdullah ibn Masood was adamant.

“Let me go,” he said. “God will help me.”

So Abdullah ibn Masood set off and arrived at the place where the Quraysh were assembled. He stood up in the midst of them, took God’s name and started to recite Surah AI-Rahman. The Quraysh asked one another what it was that Ibn Umm-e-Abd was reciting. Someone told them that it was a part of the Book that had been revealed to Mohammad. When they heard this they got up and started to beat Ibn Masood on the face. But he kept on reciting. When he returned to his companions, he had scars on his face where he had been hit.

“That is what we were afraid of,” they said to him.

“You know,” Ibn Masood said, “God’s enemies have never seemed as weak to me as they seemed today. If you want, I will go back tomorrow and recite the Quran to them again.”

Where did a weak and helpless person like Ibn Masood get the strength to go, without any material protection, to his enemies and recite to them what they least wanted to hear? The secret of this strength was belief in truth. Abdullah ibn Masood had total conviction that he was in the right and the Quraysh were in the wrong. When they started hitting him, his conviction was reinforced. It showed him that they could not answer him in a reasonable way. Their use of force only proved their lack of a rational argument. He had the power of truth with him, and there is no greater power than the power of truth.

This world is a place of affliction. To be brave in this world does not mean that one will not suffer; everyone is destined to suffer in this world. Bravery lies in having a conviction which makes suffering seem insignificant in comparison with one’s purpose in life. In this world of pain, difficulties can be borne by one who has found something greater than them.”

A believer possesses this strength in the most total form. He has a reality, which he does not doubt the greatness and truth of, to hold on to. Added to this he is certain that every sacrifice he makes in this path only serves to increase his success in the next world. This faith makes it a joy for him to proclaim the truth, for he knows that eternal happiness will emanate from his action. When his opponent use force against him, his conviction is increased, for it proves that he is absolutely in the right and his opponents absolutely in the wrong. To use force is to admit the falseness of one’s case. The preacher of Islam knows when his opponents persecute him that they are defeated in terms of reason, for whoever has reason on his side will never resort to force.

Truth is a supreme discovery, that occurs in the depths of a person’s soul. This means that the strength which is derived from truth comes from within. All other forces are external; they come from outside a person. They are, therefore, limited. Sooner or later they will come to an end. At times of crises these forces are too busy trying to save themselves to be able to protect man. Not so, however, with truth. It is the only strength which has unlimited resources. When one has found truth, it never deserts one; it remains attached to one’s soul. One can always depend on the strength of truth, even when one outwardly appears to be helpless.

The truth which a believer has with him is God himself. A believer discovers God as the greatest reality. When he has found the greatest being, why should he fear trivialities. When one has discovered reality, there is nothing left to be found.