The Holy Last Messenger of Allah Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him) is recognized by historians as the greatest leader in human history due to his unprecedented religious and secular achievements; but more so for his exemplary, pristine character, his sense of selflessness and his spirit of sacrifice. He is the model of leadership.
One of the most important characteristics of a leader of the people is having their trust; trust is translated to truthfulness and honesty. Those who follow and carry on the legacy of a man, especially one in the position of leadership, must be able to depend upon his word. He must be believed and trusted in his dealings with his community, his nation, and the world.
In Islam, Muslims are taught that your word is your bond and your promise is an oath. Thus, we come to the present – in the U.S. We have leadership who honors neither truth nor honesty.
Donald Trump plays with the lives of Americans as if our lives as if they were his property to manipulate at will. Each day begins with uncertainty as to what will he say or do next. He has yet to come out of the mode of “reality show” to function in the real world as ‘the leader of the free world’.
Trump has practically recreated the industry of “fact checking”, because he cannot differentiate between fact and fiction regarding his achievements – the world is as he says or sees it is, not as it actually exists in reality. If he dislikes something that is said in the media, he labels it “fake news”; yet, he often lies or causes those around him to lie.
This is not new for him, as we are finding out. In his part-memoir book, The Art of the Deal, he wrote, “I play to people’s fantasies. People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do. That’s why a little hyperbole never hurts. People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. I call it truthful hyperbole.” (pg. 58) This is the philosophy of how he dealt as a businessman, but it does not work as the president. Well, maybe with his base supporters. (You get the leadership you deserve and they voted for him and continue to support him with rose-colored glasses.) How many times does he bring up the ‘alternate fact’ that his inaugural crowd outnumbered President Obama’s? Never did, never happened – only in his mind. But listen to his speeches, where he often uses ‘greatest’, ‘biggest’, ‘best’, ‘most’ and so on; often delusional.
Then there are his outright lies about almost anything. “When Politico attempted to measure how many lies Trump told over the course of 4.6 hours of speeches, they found that he lied, on average, once every five minutes! When the Huffington Post catalogued his lies over the course of just one town hall event, they came up with 71 lies.” (Lyin’ Donald: 101 Of Trump’s Greatest Lies, Daily Wire)
“Many Americans have become accustomed to President Trump’s lies. But as regular as they have become, the country should not allow itself to become numb to them.” (President Trump’s Lies, the Definitive List, NYTimes) Example: he has claimed his net worth to be $1 to $6 billion, yet, he won’t show his tax returns. However, the closest true estimate of his net worth is less than the $1 billion. (Ian Tuttle, National Review)
What is our bottom line? America deserves better. If we survive the next four years of this presidency, we, the believing peoples of this nation, must work together to insure that we don’t have to suffer through another term of trumpism. We need to clear the liars from the White House and Congress – after all, we are the majority (as the popular vote indicated) and our wishes must be met. Allah willing.
