Shamsudheen Fareed, a
Salafi preacher in Kerala, has decided that Onam, Christmas and other such
celebrations are haram. A lot more
things are haram in his version of Islam.
Movies are haram. Even trimming
the beard is!
When a person convinces
himself that he possesses the ultimate truths, he is destined to live in a
bundle of delusions. Simply because
there are no ultimate truths. Except in science
and other rigid systems. Even in those
systems, truths are amenable to corrections.
An Einstein corrected a Newton.
Einstein’s theories are also not ultimate truths. When it comes to human life and affairs,
truths are never ultimate. We keep
learning and understanding them in our own way.
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Joseph Conrad’s celebrated
character, Kurtz (Heart of Darkness),
is a good example of someone who deluded himself with his own ultimate
truths. He thought he possessed the
ultimate truths and he wanted to civilize the native Africans by giving them
those truths. The result was torture and
slavery. He enslaved the people. He terrorised them. He became a god for them. A monster, that was what he was in
reality. But for a terrorised people
there is little difference between a god and a monster.
Kurtz isolates himself
from society. He places himself above
the society because he has deluded himself into believing that he is superior
to all the society. He has certain
truths. The others don’t have them. Hence the others are harami.
What many religious
organisations are doing today in the name of jihad and divine reign are no
different from what Kurtz did. They are
placing themselves above human societies.
They are the judges of societies.
They become the moral arbiters of other people. Yes, there is one difference. Kurtz didn’t even fall back on his god; the
terrorists make use of god. But gods are
elusive creatures. They assume the shapes
and colours given to them by their inventors or interpreters. Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses illustrates the malady that underlies those
inventors and interpreters. It is quite
impossible for any man to don the mantle of God and maintain sanity too. Kurtz became a god to the savages. He was mad, in fact, in the judgment of the
other white people who knew him.
All the while he thinks of
himself as the moral authority in the jungle, Kurtz is actually a criminal and
a hypocrite. He is a homicidal maniac
who has decided that other people are harami.
The pursuit of absolute
truths necessarily creates such delusions. Many literary writers have pursued similar
themes. I took Kurtz as a
prototype.
Raskolnikov came to me as well while reading the description. Satanic verses showed a different personality to a business minded prophet and I salute the guts of the author to write a book on it in spite of knowing the obvious repercussions.
ReplyDeleteRaskolnikov also placed himself above society and morality. But he had goodness within and hence redeemed himself. Inner goodness makes the difference.
DeleteRushdie was questioning his religion (indirectly others too) genuinely. Unfortunately his voice was lost in the wilderness of gross ignorance and silly politics.
Delusional - the correct word you have used. Such people are the actual ignorant lot.
ReplyDeleteVery costly ignorance, Roohi. The world is paying a high price for it.
DeleteGlad to have you back after a long while. Hope you and the little one are doing fantastico!
thinking your truth as the ultimate truth is where the problem starts and you closes your mind to listen to somebody's else truth to take the right decision
ReplyDeletePrecisely. If only people realise that truths are very relative affairs, half of the problems would be solved.
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