Doing Good and Having Patience

April 1, 2009, 8:29 am by dc-agape.

Surah 103: Al-‘Așr: The Time

By the Time -

Surely man is in loss,

Except those who believe and do good, and exhort one another to Truth, and exhort one another to patience. 

I have included the translation of the Holy Qur’an by M Muhammad Ali to the beginning of these posts. 

I, as do most Ethical Humanist and Atheist, agree that doing good and encouraging others to do the same is well worth the effort.  But I do have two problems with this surāh.  First, the Prophet uses the blanket of “believe”.  This is not so bad.  Second he uses the capitalized word “Truth”.  As if there is only one truth. 

Let me start on the word believe.  The first question comes: believe what?  Believe doing good and having patience?  Or believe that “Jesus is Lord” and the only way to be saved?  Or believing that women are just for bearing offspring?  Or believing that only the Arian race is pure?  From an Atheist perspective, an all powerful being that is all perfect should really be able to be just a little more specific in his transmissions to us mere morals.

Second is that word “Truth”.  The truth is not always what it seems to be (Happy Publishing).  In fact the Truth is stranger than Fiction (Mark Twain).  As with the word believe, the word Truth has many meanings.  Is Buddhism the Truth?  Is Gnosis Christianity the Truth?  What is Islam is not the Truth?  What if Atheists actually have the Truth?  As with Pascal’s Wager (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy), if there is only one Truth the chances of picking it out of the multiple choices are very slim.  Is there more Truth than what science can prove?  Without sufficient proof what is the Truth?  It is certainly know how history can be re-written by the victor, so how is any written material sufficient evidence?    What about accuracy, precision, and reproducibility? 

The concept of doing good and encouraging others to do the same is excellent advice.  Did it take a supernatural being to realize this little tidbit?  Was humankind so evil in the  600’s  CE that we did not know this already?  I have a difficult time believing either of these questions had the answer of yes.  Patience is also a worthy goal.  It certainly gets people through the difficult time.  Again, are humans so dimwitted as to need a supernatural being to tell them this?  I certainly hope not.

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