This is something I’ve observed and found to be true: Truth is a salve.
Also: We comfort each other with the truth.
Think of times, if there have been such moments, where you have comforted another or been comforted by another’s words. What are the words or phrases that are used?
‘She doesn’t realize what she’s losing, it’s her loss’
‘We all fall once in a while, you’re going to come back stronger from this’
‘You’re not alone’
‘As hard as this is, this will pass’
All of these phrases are true.
Now try and think of times where you’ve heard someone try and comfort another with something false. You’d be hard pressed to find any examples. If you do think of something, note how hollow it sounds, note how it doesn’t land because, definitionally, it doesn’t mean anything. The speaker and the hearer both know it’s meaningless and it doesn’t have any effect on an emotional wound. Some possible ones I can think of right now;
‘You don’t look fat in this at all’
‘She’s not even that great’
‘You’re going to be just fine’
Just like there are wounds to your physical being and there are salves that are used to manage them, different salves for different types of wounds; its the same with internal, emotional, unseen wounds to the heart.
In physical wounds, there are salves and then there are things, many many of them, which are harmful and can wound. It is up to the healer to know what kind of salve is to be used for what kind of wound. When an antibiotic is required, or an anti-inflammatory, or a combination etc. Similarly, in the unseen wounds to the spiritual heart, some things are salves and some things wound. The truth and the routing of the truth are salves and lies wound. The routing of the truth is beauty, goodness, love, closeness, gentleness, sacrifice, service, compassion, knowledge, light, humor; these are all salves to inner wounds. It is up to the healer to know which salve to use for which wound.
How do we explain the phrase ‘painful truth’, if truth is a salve? Just like someone can take the wrong medicine for the condition they’re experiencing and hurt themselves (like an antibiotic for an allergic reaction), it is possible to hurt oneself or another with the truth, a salve, as well. This is where training comes in, so the healer may know what salve to use where.
For example, to the fat lady as a response to her question ‘Does this dress make me look fat?’, saying something like ‘yes, you do look really fat in that’ is likely to cause pain. Saying something truthful, but of a different order may work better ‘I don’t think it matters if one is fat or thin, these are impossible standards handed to us culturally and in media, if the dress is comfortable and serves the purpose, that’s good enough’
Mismatching wounds to salves can be disastrous, internally more so than externally, immaterially more so than materially. For example, to comfort someone who has lost a young child, saying something like ‘This is a test from God, you are being elevated by this test’ may be ill-received even though it’s truthful. Saying something kinder, more empathetic, but still true, is better e.g. ‘You may find some comfort in knowing your child is in heaven in Ibrahim AS’s nursery, the Prophet SAW told us that all young children go to heaven and are taken care of by the Prophet Ibrahim AS and the angels in a nursery which is full of laughing, playing children, they await and welcome their parents when they also pass into the next world’. Try and think of some falsehood you could say to that person that would comfort them. Nothing. Nothing would work.
The truth is a salve. And only the truth is a salve. All salves of immaterial wounds flow from the Truth. To the one who disagrees, try using something else and when it doesn’t work, humble yourself and open yourself to the reality of your own experience.
In the Quran, 13:28, God says ‘Verily, in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find peace’. One of the names of The Creator is The Truth, Al- Haqq. I see this tested observation, that only the truth, tactfully and appropriately chosen, comforts troubled hearts and inner wounds, as proof of this verse. I have found that inner wounds are comforted by only the truth, The Truth, Al-Haqq and what flows from The Truth like mercy, love, generosity, forgiveness and on. It’s all the same routing.
To whoever doesn’t agree with this, go live life and test it out. Nothing but the routing of the Truth gives peace.
There are only two orders of routing in the reality we inhabit; Beauty and ugliness, Truth and falsehood, Order and chaos, Light and darkness, and so on. Only the routing of the Truth gives peace to troubled humans. If you have a contrary observation, it might be that the particular aspect of the routing might be inappropriately selected, or timed, or delivered, like speaking to someone’s inner aspect of forgiveness when it’s more appropriate to speak to their aspect of justice (for example when someone is seriously wronged by another).
What you will not find is a falsehood has given someone real peace. There’s a reason why marketing campaigns, manipulating liars, governments interested in oppressing and fooling people, keep repeating and renewing the falsehood they are propagating; it doesn’t last. If you fool someone, and they have a working brain open to light, they will figure it out eventually. That’s why psyops are exhaustingly constant and those that use them, very busy. Falsehood doesn’t last and by its nature, perishes. That’s why anyone using falsehood to comfort themselves, like drugs to alter their life experience, or shopping to get a boost of dopamine, has to do it over and over and over again… the experience is not real, it does not last. Compare that to the knowledge that although life may be difficult, you are loved and there is Support for you...that is an everlasting ocean… Real peace… The truth settles in oneself and continues to give comfort and solace from within.
Truth is a salve. And only truth is.