Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim
Wa’alaykum-as-Salaam wa Rahmah tullahi wa Barakaatuhu.
First of all let us see what the literal meaning of pride is. According to the Oxford thesaurus, it says, 1) honour, proudness, self esteem, self respect, and dignity. 2) conceit, egotism, self importance, vanity, hubris, arrogance, over confidence, over weeningness, self admiration, self love, smugness, hautiness…
Out of all the above, it is quiet difficult to say whether any of us escape one or more of the above mentioned categories. Even some of the most sincere, and those who have great qualities, may have one of the above. However, it is possible to say that there is nothing wrong in having self respect, self esteem, honour and dignity, yet they are still classified under the heading of pride.
In the book ‘The Chief Sins’, also known as ‘Kitaab-ul-Kaba’ir’, authored by Muhammad bin Uthman Dhahabi, he lists the seventeenth major sin to be pride. He also gives reference from the Qur’an in Surah al-Mu’min as he quotes:
‘Moses said: I take refuge with my lord, and your lord, against overbearing one who does not believe in the day of reckoning’.
From this we find that any body who does not believe in the day of reckoning is one of those who carries pride, as it is a condition of Imaan to believe in the day of reckoning.
He also quotes:
‘Yet Allah does not love the prideful’ (Qur’an, al-Nahl, 23.)
Again, Imam Dhahabi has quoted this verse against those people who have pride, but if you read the previous verse to this, you will notice that it speaks of those who worship another diety other than Allah the Almighty, and those who do not believe in the hereafter.
He also makes a quote of verse 34 of Surah Baqarah, which he states was used by the early scholars, for the first sin committed against Alllah:
‘When we told the angels: prostrate down to Adam, they all prostrated down to him except Iblis. He refused and acted proudly, and became one of the disbelievers’.
What we have to understand is that whatever we do in life must be according to the precepts of religion. If we move away from these laws, and go into the worldly matter, by earning millions of pounds, driving the best cars, wearing the most expensive garments, and eating the best of foods, then this may lead you to being proud, if, you forget who your creator is, what you owe to him, who your true role model is, what is halal, and what is haram. Alternatively, you can have all these things, and still lead a life of a TRUE Muslim. The verses in the Qur’an all refer to those who did not have the faith of Islam, now lets see what the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon Him) has taught us:
‘The one who has a grain of pride in his heart will not enter the garden’.This hadith has been narrated from Muslim (page 92-93, vol.1, Beiruit), and has the word ‘kibr’, it is translated as meaning, greatness, bigness, largeness, (al-Mawrid, p.884). But the rest of the hadith, has not been stated in the Beiruit publication of the ‘Kaba’ir’ of Imam Dhahabi. The Muslim Sharif goes on and states that it is they, who turn away from what is righteous (haqq), and demeans other fellow muslims by looking down on them, regardless of what kind of clothes he wears, because Allah the Almighty loves Jamaal.
There is also a good way of having ‘kibr’, and a bad way. The bad way has been proven to you from the above verses of the Qur’an, and the good way to be proud is to be proud that you are a Muslim, that you have Muslim parents, that your religion is Islam, and that you proudly follow the ahl-as-Sunnah-wal-Jamaa’ah at a time when there are so many secular groups who claim that they are the saved group, yet they do not even have the simple knowledge, of how to create a basic sentence in the Arabic language, and they preach all these hadiths at the top of their voices fearing non, yet they do not even know what the consequences the Messenger of Allah predicted for them, nor do they know what destruction they are causing in the religion.
It also must be borne in mind that one of the names of the attributes (sifaat) of Allah the Almighty, is, Mutakabbir. Indeed this attribute, will reflect in what is His creation, because He created it, and that is His creation. Sometimes it’s reflection is for the benefit of the people, and sometimes it can become a sin, i.e. takabbur (pride), just as we say ‘Allaho akbar’, ‘Allah is the Greatest’, but nobody says that they are greater than Allah, except for the misbelievers and the polytheists.
Sufis tended to rid themselves of this, leaving nothing of pride within them, other than (Almighty) Allah. But that was done in seclusion, by fasting, going hungry, by the pleasure of Allah, by worship, by struggle, not interfering with anyone as they conquered the lowest part of what their desire was, so that their bodies, their souls, their spirits, and their hearts could only win the love for Allah the Almighty, and no other creation or being…
Wallaho a’lamo bithawaab.
M. Waseem Ashrafi