Use the Right Criterion
to Judge Matters
The criterion to judge matters is not whether one is stern or gentle, but to see if one is God-fearing, well-intentioned and has the ability to discriminate between truth and untruth.
Most intellectual deviations result from the fact that the criterion for action is not clear in peoples’ minds. It often happens that a person thinks he is on the right path, but the criterion by which he judges the matter is often wrong. If he were to judge the matter by right criterion, he would know that his thinking was 100 per cent wrong.
For instance, when the first Caliph, Abu Bakr, appointed Umar Farooq as the second caliph, or the leader of the believers, then most of the companions failed to come to an agreement on this. Their stand was that Umar was a stern disciplinarian and such a person should not be appointed as the leader of the believers. Abu Bakr called Uthman and asked him to tell his opinion on this matter. Uthman replied that it was right that “he was stern in character but his inner self was better than his outer self.” (Tarikh al-Tabari, vol. 3, p. 428)
From this we learn that those who opposed the leadership of Umar Farooq were applying a wrong criterion in support of their opinion. For a believer, whether he was stern and severe or gentle was not the issue. The real criterion was that he should be well-intentioned; he should be God-fearing and should have the power of insight. He should have the ability to discriminate between truth and untruth.
If we look at the matter in terms of the right criterion, we will find that the appointment of Umar Farooq to the caliphate was 100 per cent right, because the most important quality of a caliph was being farsighted and he had this quality par excellence. On the contrary, if this matter is judged by a wrong criterion, it could be said that the selection of Umar Farooq for caliphate was not right, because he was of a very harsh temperament. But this criterion is not right in itself. The ability that is required must be in accordance with the task to be performed.
