The Mirror of the Mind

The Mirror of the Mind

1987 12 December 21 The Mirror of the Mind (238) The Prophet Mohammad (may peace be upon him) taught the truth, and nothing but the truth. Yet, in his early days in Mecca, when he visited Taif, he found that the people there were unwilling to accept the truths he brought to them. Their reasoning in this was of the shallowest. They felt that great truths could not be at the behest of someone who appeared so insignificant and so low in rank as the Prophet. The Jews likewise reviled him out of their own mistaken sense of superiority. The Emperor Heraclius, on the other hand, did recognize the truth of Islam, yet he rejected it because he did not want to suffer isolation from his people. Similarly, Abu Jahl fiercely opposed the Prophet because concern for his own power and position came between himself and the truth.

We tend to consider the human mind a mirror of reality. But is it really so? The reflections thrown back by it, are so often distorted by pride, conceit, attachment to the material things of life, and by preconceived ideas which no amount of reasoning can correct. But surely, when we have to grapple with the truth, we should so burnish the mirror of the mind that the image it reflects is untarnished by any such base motivations. When reality is placed before this mirror, its every detail should be reproduced in totality with the most scrupulous and persevering exactitude.