Biases; rejection, isolation or acceptance?
A natural sense of justice demands that there should be some measure or method to deal with our biases. We all have biases and are never rid of them. Old biases only shape into new ones or are moulded into new ones with learning and growth.
Usually biases are considered as something opposing justice or equity but if we take a step back and look at the bigger picture it is these very partialities that define us and our existence. Sometimes these biases grow so much that they begin to impede the rights of others, this is why it is very important to have a criterion or a methodology to deal with them.
Islam offers us the most realistic and practical criterion. None other is as easily applicable. The Quran is literally the Furqan as Allah ji himself states in the Quran. It takes our biases and moulds them without complete rejection. It puts us on a journey.
This is what justice and equity is actually about in this world. A journey of self realisation. Individual and collective.
The tragedy is that the modern comprehension of the word ‘justice’ is totally devoid of this meaning. It isolates the very act of justice from the process. Labelling all biases wrong or useless is not conducive to the growth of human intellect. Some are by all means better according to the Furqaan and should be held on to but with a renewed sense of justice and responsibility.
One such is to have love for the believers in Tawheed and repulsion for disbelief, not due to the person but due to the disbelief in one God. It is the disbelief or belief which according to the Furqaan makes up a person. To respect disbelief is to degrade human intellect and worth. Any contribution that stems from disbelief will never be truly conducive to humanity according to the Furqaan. It is a very difficult time to accept belief as that too according to modern definitions is a bias. It is a very difficult time to refer to the Quran as a criterion as now a simple preference or partiality is also either racist, discriminatory or ‘biased’.
If such is the case then I accept and admit to my bias and wonder whether we can live together peacefully with our biases callng to the good and stopping from the bad?
Can we agree to adhere to the criterion;the Furqaan , or will our bias to not use it get the better of us?
A natural sense of justice demands that there should be some measure or method to deal with our biases. We all have biases and are never rid of them. Old biases only shape into new ones or are moulded into new ones with learning and growth.
Usually biases are considered as something opposing justice or equity but if we take a step back and look at the bigger picture it is these very partialities that define us and our existence. Sometimes these biases grow so much that they begin to impede the rights of others, this is why it is very important to have a criterion or a methodology to deal with them.
Islam offers us the most realistic and practical criterion. None other is as easily applicable. The Quran is literally the Furqan as Allah ji himself states in the Quran. It takes our biases and moulds them without complete rejection. It puts us on a journey.
This is what justice and equity is actually about in this world. A journey of self realisation. Individual and collective.
The tragedy is that the modern comprehension of the word ‘justice’ is totally devoid of this meaning. It isolates the very act of justice from the process. Labelling all biases wrong or useless is not conducive to the growth of human intellect. Some are by all means better according to the Furqaan and should be held on to but with a renewed sense of justice and responsibility.
One such is to have love for the believers in Tawheed and repulsion for disbelief, not due to the person but due to the disbelief in one God. It is the disbelief or belief which according to the Furqaan makes up a person. To respect disbelief is to degrade human intellect and worth. Any contribution that stems from disbelief will never be truly conducive to humanity according to the Furqaan. It is a very difficult time to accept belief as that too according to modern definitions is a bias. It is a very difficult time to refer to the Quran as a criterion as now a simple preference or partiality is also either racist, discriminatory or ‘biased’.
If such is the case then I accept and admit to my bias and wonder whether we can live together peacefully with our biases callng to the good and stopping from the bad?
Can we agree to adhere to the criterion;the Furqaan , or will our bias to not use it get the better of us?
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