11. ARROGANCE IS THE ESSENCE OF DISBELIEF
I have always wondered about arrogant people!
Especially from Arabs who are willing to fight and kill for a single word. Some of them were around when Islam came. They said, ‘How could we prostrate causing our buttocks to be the highest points of our bodies?’ Allah’s Messenger responded: “There is no good in a religion in which there is no prostration and bowing.”
With all of this arrogance that was in them, they used to worship what was beneath them, like stones and wood. Some even worshiped horses and cows. These people are worse than Iblis, because Iblis refused to prostrate to someone whom he believed was beneath him. He said:
“I am better than him.” [Sad (38):76]
So it is strange that such arrogant people used to humiliate themselves to a rock and a piece of wood! The one with a lower status should be the one humiliating himself to the one of a higher status.
This was pointed out when condemning idol worship (dhamm al-asnam). Allah said:
“Have they feet wherewith they walk? Or have they hands wherewith they hold? Or have they eyes wherewith they see?” [al-Araf (7): 195]
Meaning: You have these instruments of sense, and idols do not, so how could the better equipped worship the less equipped?
Yet, their desires and their insisting on following the ways of their ancestors concealed their intellects, so they were unable to see the facts behind things.
Other people were enveloped by envy (hasd) to the point of abandoning truth (haqq) after knowing it.
Umayyah Ibn Abi al-Salt admitted that Allah’s Messenger was true, and he went to meet him to accept Islam, but then he went back saying: ‘I will never believe in a Messenger who is not from the tribe of Thaqif.’
And Abu Jahl said: ‘By Allah, Muhammad never said a lie, but if taking care of the Ka’bah was assigned to Ban! Hashim, and now Prophethood is also assigned to them, then what is there left for us?’
And Abu Talib saw the miracles (mu’jizat), but said, ‘I know you are upon the truth (haqq), if 1 were not worried that women of Quravsh would make fun of me for believing in you, I would have made you happy by believing in you.’
So we seek refuge with Allah from the darkness of envy (%ulma hasd), the oblivion caused by arrogance {kibr) and the foolishity caused by following desires {hawa) that conceal the intellect’s light (nur al-‘aql).
We ask Him to inspire us with guidance (rushd), and to act upon the truth.
(Source: al-Hafiz Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-jawzl [d. 597AH] “CAPTURED THOUGHTS being” a translation of his masterpiece ‘Sayd al-K hatir)
Comments
John Doe
23/3/2019Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
John Doe
23/3/2019Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
John Doe
23/3/2019Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.