‘Falsehood always passes away’

Spiritual reflections on truth

It is said that the prophet Mohammad, upon entering the holy shrine of the Kaaba and destroying the idols which had been worshipped there, recited the following verse from the Quran:

Say, “The truth has come, and falsehood passed away. And falsehood always passes away”

What motivated the prophet to utter these words? He had been preaching Islam for eight years in the city of Medina, after being chased out of his hometown of Mecca. Now he had returned to Mecca and conquered it, setting as his first priority the occupation of the Kaaba, its holiest site.

It was more than a military triumph: it was a triumph of the truth. Mohammad understood that his message, the spiritual tenets of Islam, represented a higher truth than the idolatry of his time. But despite its clear validity, it was a truth which had earned him the infamy of his tribe, and had even brought him close to being killed.

And now, entering the Kaaba, it was the arrival of this truth which he expressed with these words: a truth that overcame the idols, abolished false belief, and became the dominant faith in Mecca for thousands of years to come.