It is necessary to clarify how to obtain correct information.

Experience has shown humanity that there are only two forms of correct knowledge. The first is through the sense organs, and the second is by reaching the degree of tawatur[18].

The first is the method of correct knowledge that is accepted with the approval of the sense organs, such as the example of a pencil appearing black, the hearing of sound, or the heat and coldness understood by touch.

The second is that the information that we cannot reach with our sense organs, which reaches us by word or deed, comes to us by multiplying through the channel of a community that cannot possibly lie.

Let us give an example to explain the second method of reaching true knowledge. If a person asks himself, “Did people like Pharaoh and Moses (a.s.) really live?”, since he cannot clarify and give his answer with his senses, he will only reach the truth through the news spread from a community on which there is no possibility of a false agreement.

The information that he will accept as true in his research will be the information agreed upon by a crowd so large that there is no possibility of lying. This is the second method of reaching correct knowledge. Pharaoh and Moses (a.s.) lived.

While people can reach the right knowledge in two ways and this access can occur in every person, I think it will be necessary to examine why some truths are not stood behind. Because knowing these reasons will only shed light on the purpose. Otherwise, how can we draw a correct path for ourselves if we accept that we do not stand behind the right information but do not investigate the reasons for this?

As mentioned in the introduction, this is one of the situations in which you should question yourself.

Do we really stand behind what we know?

Can we live what we supposedly stand behind, say this is my truth, and live our lives with our truths digested into our hearts?

Everyone should draw a share from this situation and, God willing, endeavour to stand behind what they believe with the aim of reaching the absolute truth. After clarifying these issues, it will be very easy for us to understand what we have come for, what we serve and where we are going.

Actually, it is a very strange thing, isn’t it?

You know and accept it as correct knowledge, but you do not fulfil the requirements of that knowledge. Even more than that, you can criticise those who do not apply those truths to their lives. I know but I don’t do it… It is like “I am not me”. It’s really astonishing!

While searching for the right information based on behaviours that are no longer considered shameful because they have become legitimate, we are faced with the existence of a class that does not apply what they know.

For example, what kind of correct knowledge is it to say “I believe in Allah (swt)” while disobeying Allah’s commands. O Allah, I know you say, “Pray,” but I don’t. Inshallah you forgive me.

There is another version. Some people, even if they intend to pray, may abandon it because of the possibility of being the target of criticism from those around them, but they do not stop bragging about their drinking, adultery and theft. Now, are we going to accept the one who believes and abandons the prayer or the one who brags about it as true knowledge…

Examples can be multiplied so much in this sense that a library full of books could be created, not just this book. For example, one of the situations that are not stood behind is related to the phenomenon of motherhood[19], where a lifetime spent programmed to dote on her child, when the slightest request is rejected, she becomes the addressee of a filial authority that can break the branch of this compassion tree that feeds and grows her, considering it as never lived.

Love is integrated with service to the loved one, interest and care, and is also proved by showing existence to the other party. Now, how can we call the mother’s love in this son true knowledge?

I really have very mixed feelings. I don’t know if you can share my astonishment… It is as if there is another being, invisible to the eye… Another being that can take control of a person when he does not determine his own acceptances and rejections…[20]

Unfortunately, man is very ungrateful. It is often seen in many people who lead their lives in this way that they are ungrateful not only to their mothers. Even because of very small mistakes made to them, they can delete the people they call “my friend”, “my buddy”, “my spouse”, “my neighbour”, with whom they share their secrets, for their momentary interests…

In the first place, people who live in this way are ungrateful to their creator. And when sincerely considered, these are not the masses to be underestimated in number. On the contrary, they constitute the vast majority of society.

I hope you are not still looking at what is described with the psychology of “except me”… Look at it with the question “am I like this too?” and the answer, God willing, will be “no, I am not”. As a matter of fact, this book was not written with the aim of presenting information focused on criticising others, but with the aim of regulating and measuring our lives with a critical approach towards ourselves.

I don’t know what to say to a person who does not do what needs to be done, but still defends what should be done (correct information), knows and states what is the best, and who denigrates people who do not comply with this, by showing examples, and makes a premium for himself…

You know, there is a phrase called tragicomic[21], and I think this is the exact description of our current situation.

If we say, “We are a community of living beings who do not hesitate to criticise someone else when they see and hear that someone else has not done something even though they have not done it themselves”, I think we would not be wrong in describing human beings.

Why am I telling you all this…

When considered, this situation is one of the main factors in the collapse of societies. Because when everyone starts to be like this, no one trusts anyone. In a life built on individuality, immorality comes to the fore with the slavery of the ego. What follows is a diseased, insecure, aimless life.[22] In fact, there is an accepted purpose, but this purpose is a purpose that should be a means. When we see the tool that serves the purpose as the purpose, this inappropriate behaviour in the vital field increases immorality at full speed. Of course, those with common sense call this “immorality”. Otherwise, throughout the history of mankind, the vast majority have called freedom in the name of immorality.

For this reason, Islam, after accepting the knowledge as true, imposes the condition for the person to act with the results of that knowledge. There is no such social solution in any ideology, no situation that organises and resolves the rights and purpose of human beings in this way.

No form of government makes what a person accepts as the correct knowledge in his beliefs conditional on doing deeds with that knowledge. In other words, the obligation to be obliged[23] with what they know to be true does not exist anywhere except in Islam, and such a condition is not sought. Those who practice hypocrisy with the slogan “Peace in Islam” are not the slightest bit different from these people who are ignorant.

A Muslim is one who lives in two worlds.

For Muslims, saying, “I believe in Allah” is a beginning, and every action they take in life is an obligation to consider their accountability in the Hereafter and act accordingly. Allah’s rope, which we must hold fast, is unique in that it is an individual or social organiser.

What do you think will happen if, after accepting Islam, one lives like the followers of other ideologies?

Observing the way of life of the majority of people in the present century and the dire consequences of this would be enough to answer this question.

Our home environments have grown very big, but our understanding of family has shrunk like the fingers of one hand. Jealousy, envy and backbiting within the family have become our sine qua non. We have a lot of money, but we do not have a solid family. Since the existence of wealth is taken as the basis of the one-world life, we do not like anyone. Brother does not want brother, relative does not want relative, and they started to dig each other’s wells. We do not want our relatives to die, but we do not want them to earn more than us. Medicines, diagnoses, technological treatments have increased, but our diseases have increased more than these. Lies have increased as if they were not haram, but liars who hate lies have increased more. We know a lot of information about the internet, but we are not even aware of what many of our neighbours or relatives are going through. Visiting the sick has become a chore and attending funerals has become an obligation. There is almost no one who is patient and not prejudiced.

We have become people who experience communication problems at the highest level. There are millions of people who cannot understand what is being said even within the family. Our biggest problem has been our own children. We have become people who carry out their bilateral relations only by phone or by goodbye, let alone passing the word or transferring our experiences. After the Jews were associated with honesty (commercially) and Christians with tolerance, those who say “I am a Muslim” have become associated with immorality. Yes, these are bitter but true. These are the worldly benefits of living like the members of other ideologies after accepting Islam. And there are many more like these.

There are millions of Muslims who behave as if everything is mubah[24] after accepting Islam. In fact, there are such interesting groups among them that they neither renounce Islam nor what Islam says not to do. All crimes such as rape, violence, theft, dishonesty, blood feud, murder, lies, etc. are committed by people who claim to follow Islam. As such, this situation we are in instils in ignorant people the love of the disbeliever. They say, “May Allah be pleased with the disbeliever” for the goods he produces, but they do not say, “Will Allah be pleased with the disbeliever?” Have you ever thought where is the basic problem, what is the deficiency underlying all these and similar events?

Things do not work by vilifying and offending anyone. Problems do not find solutions. We need to go back to ourselves as soon as possible and start doing what we know. Otherwise, it is obvious what the society formed by people who do not stand behind what they know to be true has turned life into…

This issue is more than a social one; it is rapidly becoming a global one. In the name of freedom, the lives of almost a majority of the world’s people have become immoral and this has led to increasing insecurity and social crises. First of all, Muslims must learn and live the religion they believe in. A small society formed in a viable area will bring together societies that are in great crisis. On the other hand, unfortunately, some conscious Muslims see this bad situation of the society and despair. It is not befitting a believer to be hopeless. The believer lives his life between fear and hope. We do not belong to this world. First of all we should know this. We will act with what we know and then we will aim to carry our deeds to the livable area in the name of sociality. In addition to the fact that people who do not act with what they know do not have the right to criticise individuals or societies, these people who do not act with what they know are the people who support the society they criticise with their inaction. A prejudiced life is similar to the situation of a prisoner who is subjected to punishment without even feeling the need to be judged. This is to consider oneself sufficient. It is the lack of a sense of neediness and the belief that “I know”. All these are sufficient reasons for a person to condemn himself to his ego without questioning. There is a formula given to us by the Qur’an to create a beautiful society and to be a conscious individual without wasting time on information that will not be useful to us in this world and in the hereafter. This is to continue to do righteous deeds with what we know, expecting the reward of actions only from Allah, and not to stop recommending the truth and patience while doing righteous deeds. This formula is the content of Surah Asr. The Ashâb-i kiram would not leave each other without reciting this surah. Because in the recommendation of the right, there is the recommendation of good, truth, tawheed, happiness and peace; In the recommendation of patience, there is continuity in worship, not obeying the tricks of the nafs and enduring the calamities that come. Imam Shafi’i says the following about this surah: “If there were no other surah in the Qur’an, even this short surah would be enough to ensure the happiness of people in this world and the Hereafter.”

[18] The spreading of a word that cannot possibly be false from trustworthy people who are unanimous by word of mouth

[19] A phenomenon is the repetition of an event by changing its form and becoming established in social life.

[20] In Islam, the name of this being is Iblis-Shaytan-Taghut

[21] What’s funny enough to be sad

[22] See, World in the 21st century

[23] Obligated person, obligated person

[24] What you are free to do or not to do