While eating lunch at Life Alive today, I picked up a book called The Essential Koran (the Qur'an is the most important religious text of Islam). I consider myself very neutral when it comes to religions: I'm not atheist, but I follow no religion. I remain open minded.
From the forty pages I read, the following excerpt really stood out. (It's very important to read slowly, and understand each line. The context changes a lot, so you might need to read it a few times to fully appreciate it.)
(8-20)
Is it not that they are in fact
the troublemakers,
without even knowing it?And when it is said to them,
"Believe as the people believe,"
they say, "Shall we believe
as imbeciles believe?"
No, it is they,
they who are the imbeciles,
though they do not know.And when they encounter
those who believe,
they say, "We believe."
But when they are alone
with their obsessions,
they say,
"We are in fact with you;
we were only joking."
While everyone will of course read the text from a different context and therefore interpret it differently (that's what makes humanity so interesting), my take on it was that it seemed to explain the way so many people in this world behave: deceptive. And while I'm sure there is plenty of intentional deceptiveness that goes on in this world, I'm also fairly certain there is as much, if not more, unintentional deception that goes on under the covers ("troublemakers without even knowing it"). But how? How can people be deceptive without even knowing it? Simple: By deceiving themselves! In deceiving themselves they are unable to be fully aware of their actions towards others.
We must make a conscious effort to be true to ourselves so that we may be true to others.