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<\/p>\n07 March 2026<\/p>\n
3-minute read<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Let me tell you that a sincere apology is not the way in which most politicians apologise! When they get caught doing something wrong, or when they say that which people deem offensive, they say, \u201cIf I have offended you, then I apologise.\u201d In other words, what they are saying is, \u201cI don’t think I did anything wrong but if you feel that I did do something wrong that\u2019s your problem. Nonetheless, to close the matter I will say sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n
That is an insincere apology.<\/p>\n
The first thing an apology entails is that you must be able to admit to yourself that what you did was wrong. Even before you approach a person to offer an apology, you must be able to admit to yourself that what you did you did was wrong. It is not an easy thing to do. Today, even in the corporate world, it is said that part of EQ or Emotional Intelligence is that you know<\/strong> yourself. <\/strong>When you attend leadership workshops, there is an entire session dedicated to \u2018Know Thyself\u2019. To \u2018know thyself\u2019 does not mean how tall you are, how much you weigh, or how handsome you might be. No, \u2018know thyself\u2019 means knowing your strengths and your weaknesses, both emotionally and spiritually. So, we must be able to admit to ourselves firstly that what we did was wrong. Many a time, we create an internal defence system, where we just close off walls and become defiant: \u2018No, No! I was right! They are all after me!\u2019 And we go on to accuse others of victimizing us. We must admit to ourselves that we were in the wrong.<\/p>\n Secondly, we need to hasten in apologising. We cannot do something now and apologise ten months after the act, when nobody may even remember what we did. Hasten in apologising.<\/p>\n Thirdly, don’t apologise to secure a benefit. Do not say to the teacher, \u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d because you don’t want detention. You should not say \u201cI\u2019m sorry\u201d to your wife because you don’t want to go to bed hungry. Say you are sorry because you mean it.<\/p>\n On a lighter note, there is an anecdote about a husband and wife who had an argument. Shortly after, the son walked in and he said,\u201d Dad, help me with my homework.\u201d His father asked him, what homework it was. He said, \u201cAfrikaans. I must translate from Afrikaans into English.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cAlright, what’s the sentence?\u201d asked the dad. The son says, \u201cThe good, the bad, and the ugly. How do you say that in Afrikaans?\u201d The father responded, \u201cEk, my vrou en my skoonma!\u201d<\/p>\n Don’t apologise to secure benefit. Show genuine remorse. Know that your body language speaks louder than what you are going to say. Do not just say, \u201cI’m sorry. I’m sorry.\u201d Look the person in the eye, show remorse, and let them know that you regret what you have done. Do it sincerely and show empathy.<\/p>\n So, when the need arises to apologise, say sorry with sincerity and empathy. Apologising is powerful.<\/p>\n {Extracted and adapted from Volume One of the book In Pursuit of Purpose by Ml Sulaimaan Ravat}<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 07 March 2026 3-minute read Let me tell you that a sincere apology is not the way in which most politicians apologise! When they get caught doing something wrong, or when they say that which people deem offensive, they say, \u201cIf I have offended you, then I apologise.\u201d In other words, what they are saying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":103793,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35,132,5453],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sabaahul-muslim","category-opinion-and-analysis","category-social"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IN-PURSUIT.webp?fit=493%2C662&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-r8L","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 20:54:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}