TRANSPARENCY, SINCERITY, AND CREDIBILITY: THE CRITERIA FOR THE TRUTH AND THE TRUE RELIGION
In the everlasting battle, competition, or struggle among people for domination, affirmation, and [the claimed] salvation, each group claims the truth, strives to master the argumentation for the truth, and devises the best proofs and evidence in order to support its position, objectively and subjectively. Hence, it becomes very hard for people to identify the truth, including the true religion, and quite often this become a vindication for giving up altogether the search for the truth – “they are all the same; there is no absolute truth” as they say.
Quite often this topic has triggered myself to think deeply about some objective criteria about the truth, whether we call it the absolute truth, scientific truth, or the true religion. The truth must be easy to identify it. Technically, people shouldn’t need education or access to special knowledge in order to understand the truth.
In addition, the truth shouldn’t hinge on coincidence, subjectivity, fate, color, race, or personal interest. The truth exists regardless of all these.
The truth is the opposite of falsehood. It is also the opposite of lying, deception, fabrication, misrepresentation, distortion, forgery, myth, slander, perjury, inaccuracy, and disinformation.
The truth is the condition of something as it is: regardless of what we think of it; regardless of our personal views.
If, for example, the Paradise is the truth and God wants to lead us to it, His guidance must be transparent, clear, based on credibility, and His prophets and messengers must enjoy the best character – they must never lie, they must never deceive, and they must be credible.
Someone who is upon the real truth: they have no need to lie, no need to hide something, no need to deceive.
The truth is very simple: transparent, clear, and held by people with credibility.
To my surprise, I have unmistakably identified that someone who is upon the truth, he or she does not need to lie. Hence, the people of the truth never lie.
On the other hand, false religions, people who don’t believe in God, people who don’t follow Islam – the only true religion, Secularists, communists, atheists, or pseudo-scientists, they all have something in common: they are dishonest, liars, propagandists, and immoral even though this varies from person to person unless they are active searchers of the truth, which is to say, their ethical condition is different from the rest.
The Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) has said, “Truthfulness leads to righteousness, and righteousness leads to Paradise. A man continues telling the truth until he becomes a truthful person. Falsehood leads to Al-FajΕ«r (i.e. wickedness), and Al-FajΕ«r leads to the Hellfire, and a man continues telling lies until he is written at Allah as a liar.”
Preventing people from the Truth, or Paradise, for example, can be achieved only by lies and deception.
Sabri Lushi
May 2025
