Avoiding Misunderstandings

Avoiding Misunderstandings

1986 5 May 12 Avoiding Misunderstandings (386) Towards the end of his commentary on the Surah of the Quran entitle “The Night Journey” or “The Children of Israel”, Ibn Kathir has related the following incident:

“An idolator heard the Prophet supplicating God by His names Rahman (The Beneficent) and Rahim (The Merciful). ‘I thought that he called on only one God,’ the man commented. ‘Yet, here he is, calling on two.’

From this straightforward incident one can see how many doubts and suspicions stem from a mere lack of understanding. God is One in His essence, but He has multiple names or attributes. The Prophet Mohammad, may peace be upon him, used to call upon his Lord by these names. He was supplicating One God, but using several different names to do so. The Arab idolator considered multiplicity of attributes to be an indication of multiplicity of being. He thought that the Prophet was calling on several gods, whereas in fact he was calling on just One God. His lack of understanding led him to think of a monotheist as a polytheist, like himself.

Man is a tremendously complex being. His life has innumerable, interrelated aspects. That is why it is extremely difficult to form a correct opinion about someone. There is at least a fifty-fifty chance of coming to the wrong conclusion. For this reason one should be very careful in forming opinions about others. It does not matter if one is hasty in forming a good opinion about someone. One has to be meticulously careful, though, in forming bad opinions. First one must look at every aspect of the situation, and then come to a reasoned and sober conclusion on the basis of all the available information.

Whenever a person forms an opinion, he does so within the arena of his own knowledge. The bounds of reality, however, are much more extensive than the bounds of any single person’s knowledge. One might easily consider an opinion correct then within the context of the limited information available to one, while, in the context of wider realities, that opinion may prove to be quite wrong. For this reason, one should be highly generous in forming good opinions, and equally sparing in jumping to bad conclusions. This is both the common-sense and the God-fearing way of making a just evaluation of one’s fellow men.