TO BE CONCEITED OR HAUGHTY

It is forbidden to be conceited or haughty. Pride (Kibr) is an Attribute of Allahu ta’ala. Being proud (Kibriya) or the Attribute of Pride is appropriate for Allahu ta’ala. When a human being holds the view that his nafs [1] is lowly his value will increase in the sight of Allahu ta’ala. Conversely, a person who thinks himself worthy and superior will not have any value in the sight of Allahu ta’ala. Any scholar who does not know the harm of being conceited and haughty should not be considered a real scholar. Gaining more knowledge increases one’s fear of Allahu ta’ala and one cannot dare to commit sins. For this reason, all prophets were humble people. They were very much afraid of Allahu ta’ala. They did not possess vices like conceit and self love (’ujb). One should not treat youngsters and sinners (fasiqs and fajirs) with conceit. However, it is necessary to treat conceited people with equal conceit. If a person is a learned one; when he sees an ignorant sinner he should say to himself, “This person is sinning because he does not know. Yet I am committing sins despite my knowledge of them.” When he sees a learned person he should think, “This person has more knowledge than I do. And he pays his knowledge its due; he performs his religious practices with ikhlas (sincerity); whereas I don’t.” When he sees an elderly person he should say, “This person has probably done more worship than I have;” and if the person he sees is younger than he is, he should think, “Young people have fewer sins than I do.” When he sees a person his age, he should say to himself, “I know about my sins, not about his doings. Iniquities are to be censured when they are known.” When he sees a holder of bid’at [2] or a disbeliever, he should say, “A person’s credal state is vulnerable to changes till the time of his expiration. I do not know how I will end up.” So, even such people should not cause a Muslim to be conceited. Yet we should not like them. In fact, people who try to spread bid’ats and heresies are inimical to the Sunnat [3] of the Messenger of Allah ‘sall-Allahu ’alaihi wa sal-lam’. They strive to extinguish the nurs (lights) of Sunnat, to promulgate bid’ats and heresies, to malign the scholars of Ahl as-sunnat [4] ‘rahima-humullahu ta’ala’, to distort the meanings of ayat-i-karimas [5] and hadith-i-sharifs [6], and thereby to destroy Islam from within.


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GLOSSARY

[1] nafs: a malignant being created in the human nature. All its desires run counter to Allahu ta’ala’s commandments. It is the only property whose desires and activities are harmful to itself and to its owner.

[2] bid’at: a saying of the Prophet (‘alaihi ‘s-salam).

[3] Sunnat: act, thing that was, though not commanded by Allahu ta’ala, done and liked by the Prophet (‘alaihi ‘s-salam) as an ‘ibada.

[4] Ahl as-sunnat: the true pious Muslims who follow as-Sahabat al-kiram. These are called Sunni Muslims. A Sunni Muslim adapts himself to one of the four Madhhabs. These madhhabs are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i and Hanbali.

[5] ayat-i-karima: a verse of al-Qur’an al-karim ; al-ayat al-karima.

[6] hadith-i-sharif: a saying of the Prophet (‘alaihi ‘s-salam).