The Ten Commandments Pt 3

THE THIRD COMMANDMENT

The Holy Bible

3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain

The Quran

وَلَا تَقُولُواْ لِمَا تَصِفُ أَلْسِنَتُكُمُ ٱلْكَذِبَ هَٰذَا حَلَٰلٌ وَهَٰذَا حَرَامٌ لِّتَفْتَرُواْ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ ٱلْكَذِبَ ۚ إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ يَفْتَرُونَ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ ٱلْكَذِبَ لَا يُفْلِحُونَ

النحل - 116

And say not concerning that which your tongues put forth falsely: saying "This is lawful and this is forbidden," so as to invent lies against Allah. Verily, those who invent lies against Allah will never prosper. (Al-Nahl Chapter 16 verse 116)

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

Calling the Creator in names he did not mention his self as is a form of taking his name is vain. Adding something which he did not say even unintentionally could lead to a dangerous route.

I have for a very long time, since childhood took Gods name in vain. I had no negative intentions behind it but I was repeating what religion had taught me.

For example they would be things like “God said you can’t do this” or “you can go to hell fire if you do this” or “Do you know why God did that to this person” when realistically I had no clarification from the Quran nor the Bible, they were all assumptions; pre-conditioning from what I’d learnt from society and school.

This caused me to experience immediate miserable consequences everytime I did so. I recall moments from my childhood where I’d always get the hit on the head everytime I tried to speak about God (statements that weren’t true) even if my intentions were good. I remember that I would cry and say “god why is this happening to me, all I’m trying to do is good”. Little did I know then that I was being guided to stop doing so.

WHY IS THIS A FUNDAMENTAL VALUE

The reason that this is a fundamental value is because if anybody uses Gods’ name to get what they want, to manipulate others, and plant fear then this will result in chaos.

Obviously, we can already see the disasters that have occurred around the world as a result of ‘using Gods name in vain’. Such as wars, racism, injustice and so on.

We can also see this in a lot of abusive relationships where a partner or parent will use Gods name as a weapon to threaten their partner or child from doing something, or forcing them to do something.

Although a lot of times this is unintended, it is inherited from parents, scholars and society.

One could ask if the Creator is perfect like most people say or believe then what would change in Gods reality if they didn’t respect Gods’ name, does the Creator even need validation from humans?

What many people fail to understand is that acknowledging Gods existence, or speaking truth about God doesn’t change anything about the Lords being. However, it changes in our being. The importance of it is for our good.

Why?

Let me give a metaphoric example.

Imagine three colleagues and a manager of a company. Colleague 1 is very irresponsible, arrives late, and doesn’t do the requirements to achieve a promotion or pay rise. He is very angry and sees that he is doing better than everyone else and thinks that the manager isn’t generous, he’s unjust, and not reasonable.

Colleague 2 on the other hand, is a reasonable employee. He isn’t perfect but he has the drive to make the company grow, he accepts constructive criticism and takes it to self-improve and grow. He has been in the company way less time than colleague 1 and he is being promoted and given a higher position. His salary has increased by 30%. He is grateful that his work ethic has been acknowledged.

Colleague 3 is new to the environment of this company. It’s his first day, and he is sitting with colleague 1 in the staff room having a cup of tea. Colleague 1 throws all his negative assumptions and experiences about the company and the manager. Colleague 3 is listening and isn’t sure what to believe.

On the 2nd day, colleague 3 is again in the staff room having a cup of coffee but this time with colleague 2. Colleague 2 speaks about his honest experience with the company. He points out the challenges, according to his experience, and how it is so quick and easy to be rewarded and promoted; that the manager is easygoing, and lets things slide.

Colleague 3 is now confused. He has all these thoughts in his head. He doesn’t take any of their judgment to heart and decides to figure it out on his own. As the months go by, he experiences both sides of judgment that had been pointed out by colleagues 1 and 2. He realized that none of the judgments that were planted on his first days of employment were fully true.

He discovered that it is neither easy nor difficult to get a promotion. It all depended on how honest and hard-working you were. He realized that the manager didn’t let everything slide, he was just wise on what constructive criticism to prioritize, and he was just good at weighing out the positive and negative habits of an employee. He wouldn’t call out colleague 2 for instance for coming 15 mins late because his achievements in the company outweighed his bad habit of arriving late. Whereas colleague 1 arriving 15 mins late had a higher negative impact on the company, and not only that, he wouldn’t cover his lateness by staying 15 mins overtime.

Everybody in the company had tremendously different beliefs about the manager although some haven’t met or seen him. Some of these informations were twisted and turned, some were genuine, and some were lies, and some were just robots repeating what they’d heard.

If colleague 3 had believed what colleagues 1 and 2 told him; he would have seen all his experiences based on their perception. If he were to share what had been said to him with new and existing employees, it would have harmed the people who are consuming these false assumptions without seeking the truth. They would slack in the quality of their work, and have had to deal to severe consequences.

If employees had made the effort to seek the manager, try to speak to him and understand his procedure or at least read through their contract seriously they would have found all their answers. Speaking ignorantly about the manager, and receiving ignorantly only misguided the employees. The manager lost nothing.

The route of assumptions is far from the route of truth.

This is why majority of people trying to connect with God find it challenging because they have false data stored in their brain system which effects the function of their hearing and vision.

I hope this was beneficial. I would appreciate your feedback.

Sit tight for part 4.

Love

Peace.