Tom Facchine – Identity vs. The Truth

			One of the themes that a lot brings up a lot in the Koran is identity versus the truth, identity
versus the truth, because they don't always match up. What's like, if we could say the cardinal sin
of Benny strat you is that they trade the truth for their identity, right? They imagine that because
of their identity as who they are, they're not going to be punished in the afterlife. They are God's
chosen people, no matter what they do, they're good. They're saved, they will save people, right?
Whereas the last one with Allah says all over the Quran say no, it doesn't work like that. It's a
covenant. It's an agreement. And that means that you have certain conditions you have to fulfill,
		

			and then Allah will fulfill his conditions. And he says this, even though he brought him in sort of
a bucket, all right, where Ibrahim makes a DUA to make not just him any man, but all his
descendants. And what does the law say? He says that my covenant doesn't include the evildoers,
which is basically implying that some of the people descended from you, Ibrahim are gonna do wrong,
and my covenant is not it's not a guarantee for them, they have to earn it right. And what do we
have today, we have people that are trying to rally around identity even in the Muslim community,
they tried to rally around different identities as opposed to what's true. There's another example
		

			that this happens in the Quran, which is a story of Musa he salah, right? What's the kind of mistake
that Musa makes, right? He, he accidentally kills somebody? Why does he do it? What happens because
someone from his tribe calls out and said, Hey, come help me. I'm under attack. And he appeals to
Musa through the identity, not through the truth, right? Not that this person is oppressing me, he's
like, No, you're part of my tribe, you're part of my group. So come to my aid. And then Musa comes
to his aid. And he strikes the guy, the other guy who's not from their identity, not from their
group, and he accidentally kills them. And he regrets and then what does he find out tomorrow, he
		

			finds out that the person with the same identity as him was wrong, the person that shared the same
identity him he was the troublemaker, he was the person who was opposed to the truth. And so now we
as Muslims, and we live in a time in North America with all these identity politics, we want to
rally people around identities and not the truth, right? All women together, or our skin color, or
our whatever else, it is something usually it's something that we can't choose for ourselves, or
lineage or heritage. And we want to rally people around that even if you're wrong, even if somebody
else is wrong. And somebody who is in the wrong will sometimes try to appeal to this to paper over
		

			the fact that they're really wrong. And they're not on the truth, right? Someone makes a mistake.
It's like, Oh, are you attacking me? Because I'm a woman? Are you attacking me because of the color
of my skin? right not to say those things don't happen. But again, this is a something that
trivializes these issues, we need to be able to take those issues seriously, we saw this with the
metoo movement, right? Me too, was very significant culturally, because it finally started holding
people accountable for the things that they were doing sexually harassing, and abusing women. Very
important, extremely important. But then what happened is that some people jumped onto the bandwagon
		

			for things that had nothing to do with it. And they were appealing to the identity. Well, if you're
a woman, you have to believe me. And then we saw that there were sometimes people again, back to the
example of zuleikha, who are using these sorts of things, to as personal vendettas, to punish people
in their lives. So we have to be careful, Muslims have to be dedicated to the truth. First and
foremost, we have to care about the truth, before identity before this part of your identity or that
identity, you have to be based on the truth, right? We don't necessarily assume that someone who has
the same identity as me is right or intends Well, or there's somebody who has a different identity
		

			than me that is just like wrong, categorically. What does the law say on the Quran when it comes to
setup, right? So that was worshipping the sun and she makes a kind of an offhanded comment when
she's, you know, the whole letter withstood Imam. And, you know, she's asking her advisors, should
we go to war, and her advisors are like, will do whatever you say to do. And then she makes a
comment she reflects, she says, Well, when people go to war, all of the best of them, right, the
best people they're slain. And so this is something that is a loss for all of us for all of
humankind, and a loss as well. kinetically if hadn't he affirms the statement and the comment that
		

			she made that she affirms her observation is true. He didn't blast her just because of her identity.
While this is some dirty idolatry and we can't listen to her know what she said was true, right?
Muslims have to be concerned about the truth first and foremost before issues of identity