A thief goes into a house to rob, he points a gun to the head of the occupant and asks for his money. The occupant claims there is no money in the house, but after a search, the thief locates a bag of money. The thief said, “Oh! you are lying! How dare you lie to me? I’ll show you what happens to liars”. He shoots the occupant and takes the money.
Go over that again. How many thieves in our society of today have killed others for lying? On what moral ground does a thief punishes a liar?. It seems to me that people do not like a reflection of themselves. The thief does not want to be stolen from, a liar says to another liar, “all liars shall perish in the lake of fire”, the fraudster does not take being defrauded lightly, and yeah, the West teaches those it enslaved and exploited what human rights are (LMAO).
Many times, I keep thinking about why people are not perfect. A man may be good in a thousand ways, yet, flawed in very little affairs. We believe that, unlike Angels and Prophets, Man was created imperfect, however, how much do we accept the imperfection of others, especially those who claim to be religious figures or personalities. This reality makes me expect very little from people.
Bad people are bad people, hypocrites are hypocrites but we cannot accuse people of hypocrisy in all situations. A preacher, for example, who does something wrong, in fact, many things wrong, may not necessarily be a hypocrite. What the preacher preaches is information he has gathered and finds reasonable and acceptable, however, his biological constitution may not let him live up to the standards of the moral values he professes.
When a cleric commits a wrong act, everyone yells, “Ah! Alfaaaaaaaaa!”. While the liberals castigate all clerics with the act, the non-believers take on the entire religion. After that, we go on to say Man is imperfect, making me ask, what type of flaw does a religious figure could have to respect them or our respect hangs on our unawareness of their flaws?
ASSETS AND LIABILITIES
You probably have read what I have written up there and think I am trying to make a case for some hypocrites but NO.
Assets come with liabilities. The one who inherits a house must maintain the house. Therefore, a man who enjoys the luxury and respect of being called a Sheikh, Ustaadh, Mallam, Alfa, etc., is expected to be above some certain flaws the flesh is heir to.
Now that we have understood that man is flawed, and amongst men are those who call to some certain sets of moral values, gathering followers and respect, we are confronted with the challenge of whether to tag them as hypocrites when they do wrong claiming they do not practice what they preach or we understand that they, like every other person, are flawed but if we were to do that, why then do we accord them the respect of being religious figures.
If the reader looks beyond me making a case for flawed religious leaders or personalities, then, he will appreciate the essence of this article which is to get us thinking. What type of flaws should religious leaders exhibit before we accuse them of hypocrisy? In accepting that all men are imperfect, what form of imperfection still makes the ‘Sheikhship’ of a Sheikh valid?
If you ask me, I expect less from people and I understand that those I consider to be religious personalities have their own flaws. It is their own bad to present themselves to us as perfect. What happens if you know your Sheikh told a lie or was unjust? If you agree he is imperfect, to what extent would you deal with his imperfection? How do we balance this not to give the hypocrite an excuse to deceive people with the garment of religiosity?
The article is to get us thinking. Meanwhile, I keep telling people that I am not an Alfa or Ustaadh. Other than not having the required knowledge, I cannot bear the moral burden of being called one lest my religion is dragged for my imperfections. I am just a striver, aiming to be better, and would not Islamize his imperfections.
To what extend would you bear the imperfection of your Sheikh/Pastor before you accuse them of hypocrisy? Look at yourself, if someone does to you some wrong things you do, would you accept it? If no, why do you accept yourself?
As we accord religious personalities with honour and respect, what level of perfection do we expect from them?
English 
