When Truth Is Lost: Myths, Rituals, and Intention

Exploring how myths, superstitions, and rituals reflect fragments of truth, the role of intention, and seeking divine alignment in everyday practices.

Some words in fiction can unexpectedly unlock deeper reflections. Recently, while reading The Alchemist’s Key by Traci Harding, I came across this sentence:

“Arthur disappeared into the darkened shadows of the arched walkway outside as a hysterical woman, wailing like a banshee, ran into their midst.”

That single image — a wailing woman “like a banshee” — took me on a journey to seek the truth behind myths and rituals. It reminded me how often stories, traditions, and even our emotions carry fragments of deeper realities, distorted or detached from their original source.

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Myths as Fragments of Truth

Take the Irish myth of the banshee, a woman whose wail announces death. Its roots may lie in keening women — real mourners whose cries marked funerals — but on a deeper level, it echoes Lady Zaynab (AS), whose grief at Karbala was purposeful, truthful, and a witness to humanity.

Modern funerals sometimes imitate her wailing “like a banshee,” not out of witness, but social expectation, turning sacred mourning into performative ritual.

Similarly, myths of reincarnation may trace back to Islam’s teaching on metamorphosis of the soul (maskh). Detached from context, fragments of the truth were remembered as cyclical rebirth.

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Superstitions: Filling the Void of Lost Knowledge

Superstitions often arise when people observe phenomena but lack understanding, inventing explanations to settle uncertainty:

• Black cat: Intuitive animals, possibly sensing danger or jinn, misremembered as omens.

• Ladder / mirror / touch wood: Practical origins (safety, fragile mirrors, mezuzah), ritualized as luck or curse.

• Fire-jumping / burning sage or wild rue: Seasonal cleansing and air purification, symbolic of renewal, turned into ritual with supposed spiritual agency.

Even useful acts, when divorced from understanding, become empty or misaligned rituals. Islam emphasizes that protection and blessing come only from Allah, not from objects or gestures.

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The Role of Intention

Intent is central. Actions without understanding or sincere purpose are hollow:

• Prayer: Salat without presence or comprehension loses its purpose.

• Cultural habits: Performing rituals solely because “ancestors did it” risks shifting toward ancestral worship, implicitly replacing divine intent with human reverence.

The Qur’an reminds us:

“We perceive an ill omen from you.” (Surah Yasin 36:18–19)
Ill omens are from yourselves, not objects, animals, or rituals. True guidance lies in knowledge, alignment, and trust in Allah.

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Conclusion

From myths to superstitions, from cultural rituals to prayer, a single thread runs through: truth lost becomes distortion; practice without understanding misaligns intent. Observing phenomena, performing rituals, or mourning for the right reasons must always be anchored in divine wisdom. Only then do fragments illuminate reality, leading the heart toward zuhūr — the unveiling of truth.