Edited: Israr Hasan
Date: Oct. 10, 2015
Why the subject of Hypocrisy came to my mind is
not difficult to find. I figure many of
my readers will find my experiences matching their own.
Hypocrisy is one of the essential evils of our
life; especially in the subcontinent of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the
three countries where I have spent some parts of my life so far. Apart from the life-style, I experienced in
Saudi Arabia and now in Florida, USA, I find glaring differences in the use of
hypocrisy in these two countries at one end and the countries of the
sub-continent, mentioned above, at the other end.
It all started in my childhood while I was
playing or doing some work with my elders in home and outside home. Most of them commonly used to do things or
spoken words which were not true to my child’s mind. Gradually, I too developed
a habit to speak lie without any reason. Some time it became difficult for me
what to hide and what not to hide. In later part of my life, I found hypocrisy
rampant not only in my private life at home and outside home, but also in schools,
colleges, and workplaces. And I gradually developed it as a second habit of my
lifestyle.
My family background was not religious in the
beginning. I remember going to mosque with my father only on Fridays and two
Eid prayers; but it gradually slipped to religious environ when my eldest
brother and mother joined a sufi circle of Warisi denomination from Dewasharif
(India), and when local imams and religious leaders’ visitation frequented our
house. I think I was in my teen of 13-14 years of age, when I developed to read
secretly romantic and adventure books and novels hidden in my school courses
books. Slowly and gradually I developed habit for witnessing romantic films in
a local cinema house. In my way back home I used to buy some sweets for home as
a ‘tabarruk’ from Milad ceremony that I pretended to attend. I used to steal money to fulfill my petty
desires from home grocery shopping and from the cash register of the shoe shop
which I used to attend 2-3 hours daily in the afternoon when my elder brother
took lunch break to go home. I remember to have developed such petty dramas to
fulfill my innocent desires against the norm of the society. Had I not been conscious of it in my adult life,
it could ruin me.
I have
personal experience of so many tales of hypocrisy including mine from my childhood
to adult age. I am no judge to decide the ethics and morality of this human
trait, as I’m a victim of it myself. I
can only say that hypocrisy is not an innate human nature. It is a psychological product of social
environment and it is common to rich and poor alike—some avoidable and some
unavoidable.
Hypocrisy consists in our quest for such place
in the hearts of people that we obtain influence and respect. The love of influence is one the desires
given rein to, and through it many people go to destruction. Yet people, if judged objectively, they would
realize that it is only their hypocrisy which is the motive of most of their
intellectual pursuits and acts of worship, not to mention their customary
activities; and this renders their acts of no avail. Hence, we find in an Islamic prophetic
tradition: “On the day of resurrection orders will be given to take a certain
martyr to the Hell Fire, and he will say, “O Lord, I was martyred fighting in
Thy path”, and God most high will say him, ‘You wanted it to be said so and so
is brave; that has been said, and that is your reward.’
Hypocrisy has long been of
interest to psychologists. They attribute it to those who are not aware of the dark side of their nature. Recent studies have focused on mental characteristics and
mechanisms to better understand hypocrisy.
Niccolò Machiavelli noted that "the mass of mankind accept what seems as what is; they are often touched more nearly
by appearances than by realities. Natural selection works by the principle of survival of the fittest, and several researchers have shown that humans evolved
to play the game of life in a Machiavellian way. The best way to cultivate a reputation
for fairness is to really be fair. But since it is much harder to be fair than to seem fair, and since laziness is built deep
into human nature, humans more often choose appearance over reality.
Self-deception: Moreover, humans
tend to think highly of themselves, highlighting strengths and achievements,
and overlooking weaknesses and failures. Power and privilege magnify such
distortions. This is particularly true of Americans and Europeans: when asked
to rate themselves on virtues, skills, or other desirable traits, like ethics,
intelligence, and driving ability, a large majority say they are above average. This effect is weaker in Asian
countries and in other cultures which value the community more highly than
individuality.
Self-ignorance: Robert Wright wrote that "Human beings are a species splendid in their
array of moral equipment, tragic in their propensity to misuse it, and pathetic
in their constitutional ignorance of the misuse.” Humans are very good at challenging the beliefs of other people,
but when it comes to their own beliefs, they tend to protect them. A consistent finding of psychological research is that humans
are fairly accurate in their perceptions of others, but generally inaccurate in
their perceptions of themselves. Humans tend to judge others by
their behavior, but think they have special information about themselves – that
they know what they are inside – and thus effortlessly find ways to explain
away selfish acts, and maintain the illusion that they are better than others.
Encyclopedia Wikipedia describes,
“Hypocrisy is the claim or
pretense of holding beliefs, feelings, standards, qualities, opinions,
behaviors, virtues, motivations, or other characteristics that some do not
actually hold. Hypocrisy is not simply failing to practice those virtues that
one preaches. An alcoholic's
pleas for temperance, for example, would not be considered an act of
hypocrisy as long as the alcoholic made no pretense of sobriety.
Tell me a single word that could serve as a
guide to conduct for one’s entire life, asked someone to Confucius. Confucius
replied: “Is not ‘reciprocity’ such a word? What you do
not want done to yourself, do not do to others.” Confucius did not explain why he chose
righteousness rather than personal profit. This question was taken up more than
100 years after his death by his follower Mengzi (c.
372–c. 289 BC), who asserted that humans are naturally inclined to do
what is humane and right. Evil is not part of human nature but is the result of
poor upbringing or lack of education. But Confucius had another distinguished
follower, Xunzi (Hsün-tzu; c. 300–c. 230 BC),
who said that humans naturally seek profit for themselves and envy others. The
rules of morality are designed to avoid the strife that would otherwise follow
from acting according to this nature. The Confucian school was united in its
ideal of the superior man but divided over whether such an ideal was to be
obtained by controlling people's natural desires or allowing them to be
fulfilled.
Hypocrisy in Islam.
In Islam, a munāfiq is a hypocrite who outwardly practices Islam while inwardly conceals his/her
disbelief (kufr). The hypocrisy itself is called nifāq in Arabic. The Quran has hundreds of ayat (verses)
discussing munafiqun referring to them as more dangerous to Muslims than the worst non-Muslim enemies of Islam.
For example, a complete Sura 63, Al-Munafiqun is addressed to
hypocrites, in addition to the following Quranic verses: 4:61, 9:67, 8:49, 4:140, 9:64, and 4:88.
According to Sahih
al-Bukhari, narrated Abu
Hurairah (ra) that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said: "The
signs of a hypocrite are three: Whenever he speaks, he tells a lie; Whenever he
promises, he always breaks it; if you trust him, he proves to be dishonest.
(i.e. if you keep something as a trust with him, he will not return it.). Sahih al-Bukhari, 1:2:33.
Hypocrisy in the Bible.
Matt. 7:3;
first attacking the hypocrisy of those who criticize others while
ignoring their own much larger flaws.
Chapter Matt. 23; The whole chapter relates to the Pharisees. It is
also known as the "Seven
Woes" or Woes of the Pharisees. Jesus harshly accuses in it the Pharisees of hypocrisy.
Luke 12:1-3;
Beware of Hypocrisy.
In addition, we
see Matt. 10:26-27; Luke 12:4-7 and Matt. 10:28-31.
Socio-political observers have immense
instances of hypocrisy in political life and religious life. I have observed and tried to understand
analytically a series of emotionally charged public events from religious
movements of Sunni Islam against Shia, Ahmadi and many religious minorities.
Similarly, hypocrisy in body politics of Pakistan is rampant in each and every
cadre of ruling and non-ruling persons. Be it a relationship of civil and
military, law-makers and law-abiding citizens, ulema and their respective
followers, city police and city-dwellers; the list goes on and on, all their
relationships are governed on each other’s hypocrisy.
-O-
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