In today’s world, we can all say very confidently that we can always get access to or put our hands on any information that we are allowed to have access to without going through too much effort.  The era of “www” and “IOT (Internet of Things)” combined with the access to all kinds of “imaginable and beyond” information through “Google”, just makes it seem like putting your hands on any type of information is a simple, seamless and effortless process.  The Google, the SIRI, the Alexa; they have all become a part and parcel of pretty much everyone’s lives.  It is surprising how comfortable people have got with using these devices and apps that require everyone to essentially provide them access to their daily life and every minute detail in it.  While this is scary, there are examples where, providing access to every little detail in and around us helps us catch the bad eggs in this world.  At the same time, being able to record and have every little detail of everything can be misused by the person holding access to that information.  This nicely segways us to the topic that I want to discuss a bit today which is facts vs truth vs honesty!

According to Merriam-Webster, these 3 elements are defined as follows:

• Fact:  A fact is something that truly exists or happens; it is something that has actual existence.  Fact is a true piece of information. 
• Truth:  A truth is a judgement, disposition, statement or idea that is true or is accepted as true. 
• Honesty:  Honesty is the quality of being fair and truthful.

Now that we know what each of these are, let’s try and understand how they intersect with our daily lives.  Let us take an example of some of the famous social media platforms like Instagram or Facebook.  Everyone knows by now that both platforms provide an opportunity for one to create their own public profile and choose who they can invite into their connections and how they increase their own following or who they choose to follow and keep a tab daily.  As you create your profile, as long as you follow the social media guidelines outlined by these platforms, you have control over what you post, what you share, etc.  Given the international reach of these platforms, we know the users on each are widespread across the globe and the popularity and ease of use of these platforms has attracted people of all different ages and at all walks of their life.  That said, let’s take a peek into how these platforms help get a clear picture of the above elements. 

Let us suppose you had been meaning to schedule a trip to your favorite destination for quite a while.  You had been chatting with your private group and may even have posted couple things for public to see and have access to in relation to your favorite destination.  After fathoming about it for some time, you actually get the opportunity to take a trip and make your dream come true!  You are all excited and it is sort of unimaginable to you that this is a happening and you are taking the vacation to your dream destination.  Since this is the first time, you want everyone in your group, your family and may be even an acquaintance to know that you are going on vacation to your dream destination.  It is natural human emotion to want to share with everyone when they see their dreams come true! 

You take a trip; have the best time and you return home with lots of pictures and memories!  As everyone in your network knew about your trip, they start asking you about it.  In excitement you share everything, and you also start posting pictures of all the places you visited while at that destination.  You get lots of great attention, and you and your trip are like the “talk of the town”.  Couple days later, you see that someone from your group took a vacation to their dream destination which seemed to be an even grandeur, even more fun and even more exciting than yours – at least that is what you assume looking at the pictures they posted.  How do you react to this situation?  Out of curiosity, you reach out to your friend and compliment them about the pictures they posted and ask how their trip was, and express that you never knew about it.  They share with you that while they appreciate your compliments, those pictures were actually photo shopped.  They were trying out a new app that someone shared with them and wanted to gauge a reaction from their group on how good the app was. 

Let’s analyze this situation.  The FACT was you saw the pictures posted on the website which glorify all the things you assumed were better than your dream destination trip.  Depending on how much you were attached to the whole idea of “trip to your dream destination” for your own true happiness or for the attention it would bring to you, you may or may not have been bothered or disturbed seeing those pictures posted.  However, the TRUTH of the matter was very different than what was posted and what you assumed.  And your friend was HONEST to come forward and say it like it was.

My question to you:  How many times have you encountered these types of situations where what you saw (THE FACT) wasn’t necessarily THE TRUTH?  Or what you saw (THE FACT) was what THE TRUTH was, but people were not brave enough to accept it?

In today’s world, access to information is at our fingertips.  We have been given the ability to differentiate true from false, right from wrong and good from bad by using “reasoning”.  Why then do people not use this faculty and arrive at the right conclusion and face the truth with courage? 

Of the 3 elements, HONESTY is of the highest virtue.  There can and will always be FACTS available that help support the TRUTH.  The real deal then becomes, will people accept the facts and the truth and be honest about it, or will they twist the facts, to twist the truth and be dishonest.  Will people always get emotionally drained trying to adjust to fake realities that are easily created on these social media platforms, or would people rather stick to their honor and be courageous in accepting and stating the facts and truth as they are.  We already see what kinds of challenges today’s generations are facing just because they need to fake their realities on these platforms and try their best and fit in.  Why then don’t we muster the courage to THINK RIGHT, SPEAK RIGHT AND DO RIGHT!

We must also remember that “TRUTH” that is based on existential facts is the right truth.  If one creates manipulated evidence, to create their own version of truth, which is not in alignment with the real truth, it will not benefit anyone!  One’s opinion does not form the truth; it may form a perspective that they may consider to be true in their eyes; it does not change existential truth!

Our Holy Quran tells us the story of Prophet Yusuf AS wherein his brothers throw him into the well and then make-up some evidence which they present as truth to their father Yaqoob AS.  Yaqoob AS, being the man of wisdom sees through this manipulated evidence and false truth.  After many years, the real truth came out and the brothers honestly confessed to their wrongdoing. 

I’ll close this post with 2 of my favorite quotes that go as follows:

Truth exists!  Only falsehood has to be invented!

Truth will always be truth, regardless of lack of understanding, disbelief or ignorance!