IN THE NAME OF ALLAH MOST GRACIOUS MOST MERCIFUL
AL – NOOR MASJID, ICICE, WUSE II, ABUJA
Juma’ah Khutbah Translation 19th Safar, 1444AH, Equivalent to 16th September 2022
ARROGANCE
All praise is due to Allah, we seek His help and forgiveness, we seek refuge with Him from the evils of ourselves and the evils of our deeds. Whoever Allah guides cannot be misguided by anyone and whoever Allah sets astray cannot be guided by anyone. I bear witness that none deserves the right to be worshiped except Allah alone Who has no partner and I bear witness that our master Muhammad is His servant and messenger.
Brothers and sisters in faith…
Al-Ujub (Self-conceit) is the intensity of one’s pleasure in his or her own qualities.
Imam Ibnul Qayyim said about it: “Its origin is from focusing on one’s own self and also the absence of appreciating the blessings and favors of Lord almighty”.
Al-Khuyalaa’ (Snobbery) is for someone to see himself above what he is or what he deserves or to show people the greatness of himself.
Al-Fakhr (Pride) is for someone to praise his/her own qualities and mention of their virtues by themselves, by giving preference to oneself over others.
The above attributes overlap, so they are interconnected, especially pride and arrogance. Hardly will you find anyone who is characterized by any of the three traits, except that he possesses the other two.
Indeed, these traits are channels that stem from one specific thing, which is: arrogance. The feeling of one’s own greatness and grace and having some obsession about people’s glorification and praise are also part of that. That’s why we often find in the Quran that these traits are mentioned together, Allah says: “Indeed, Allah does not like those who are self-deluding and boastful.” [04:36] He also says: “And do not turn your cheek [in contempt] toward people and do not walk through the earth exultantly.
Indeed, Allah does not like everyone self-deluded and boastful.” [31:18] and he says: “And Allah does not like everyone self-deluded and boastful” [57:23].
Arrogance is a reprehensible attribute that is typical of Satan and his soldiers from among the people of the world whose hearts have been destroyed by Allah. The first person to show arrogance to Allah is Iblees the accursed when Allah ordered him to prostrate to Adam (AS), he refused and was arrogant, he said “I am better than him, you created me from fire and created him from clay”. Allah says: “And We have certainly created you, [O Mankind], and given you [human] form. Then We said to the angels, “Prostrate to Adam”; so they prostrated, except for Iblees. He was not of those who prostrated. [Allah] said, “What prevented you from prostrating when I commanded you?” [Satan] said, “I am better than him. You created me from fire and created him from clay.” [07:11-12].
Arrogance is a character of Iblees, so whoever is arrogant should know that he/she is imitating the character of Satan, and by so doing, he or she is not upholding the character of honorable angels who obeyed their Lord by prostrating to Adam (AS). Arrogance causes deprivation from paradise and Allah will not look at any arrogant person (on the day of judgement) as mentioned in an authentic hadith.
‘Abdullah bin Mas’ud (May Allah be pleased with him) reported:
The Prophet (Peace be upon him) said, “He who has, in his heart, an ant’s weight of arrogance will not enter Jannah.” Someone said: “A man likes to wear beautiful clothes and shoes?” Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him) said, “Allah is Beautiful, He loves beauty. Arrogance means ridiculing and rejecting the Truth and despising people.”
Ridiculing truth means rejecting truth after knowing it.
Al-Kibriyaa’ is an attribute of Allah exclusively, whoever tries to compete with him on it will be destroyed by Allah. Abu Sa’id Khudri and Abu Huraira reported Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him) as saying:
“Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, said: Glory is His lower garment and Majesty is His cloak and (Allah says,) He who contends with Me in regard to them I shall torment him.
Whoever tries to be arrogant and raise head above others, Allah will humiliate him because such person defies the ideal, so Allah also rewards him with what he deserves. Whoever is arrogant towards people will on the day of judgement be trampled under people’s feet so that they are utterly humiliated by Allah for their arrogance.
‘Amr bin Shu’aib narrated the Prophet (peace be upon him) who said:
“The arrogant will be gathered on the Day of Judgement resembling tiny particles in the image of men. They will be covered with humiliation everywhere, they will be dragged into a prison in Hell called Buulas, submerged in the Fire of Fires, drinking the drippings of the people of the Fire, filled with derangement.”
Arrogance has different forms which include:
The failure of a man to accept the truth and argue falsely, or that he admires himself in terms of beauty or goodness, richness in clothing or food, so he swaggers arrogantly, and prides himself over people. That may also be by boasting about tribe and linage.
One of the ways to treat arrogance is to see yourself as other people, and that they are like you, born from a mother and a father as you were born, and that piety is the true standard that differentiate people in status. Allah says: “Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you” [49:13]
And let the arrogant Muslim know that no matter charismatic he/she is, they are too weak to reach the length of the mountains or pierce the earth.
One of the cures of arrogance is for a person to know that the arrogant person will be gathered on the Day of Resurrection as small as atoms trampled by feet. The arrogant person is hated by people just as he is hated by Allah Almighty. People love the humble, the tolerant, the soft mannered, and they hate the rough and tough of people.
Another cure is that people should remember that they and their urine came out through one place, and that their beginning was from sperm while their end is a stinking cadaver, so why should are we arrogant?!!
Ibn Hazm Al-Andalusy said:
If you are arrogant because of your knowledge, you should know that you don’t work by it. You should remember that knowledge is a gift from Allah, so don’t anger him with arrogance, instead show some gratitude towards him. If he wills, he could wipe all that you know due to an ailment he afflicts you with, such that you forget everything.
AbdulMalik bin Tareef, who is one of the people of knowledge and intelligence, and sound research, he told me that he had a great ability of memorization, hardly anything that he needs to recall passes by his ears except that he recalls it. He embarked on a journey by sea and passed by a great horror that made him forget most of what he used to memorize and left with the strength of his memorization severely affected, he has not yet regained that intelligence.
He added, “Know that being arrogant because of money is foolish. Because money is like stones that you do not benefit from, unless you take them out of your possession by spending them for the sake of Allah, money can be gone from you at any time.”
Among what was narrated with regards to the punishment of arrogant people is the Hadith of Abu Huraira, that the messenger (peace be upon him) said: “While a man was walking, dressed in clothes admiring himself, his hair combed, walking proudly when Allah caused the earth to swallow him. Now he will continue to go down in it (as a punishment) until the Day of Resurrection.”
Many people are ignorant of their own shortcomings. Someone sees a speck in his brother’s eye and does not see a stump in his own eye. So, whoever wants to know himself, whether he has these bad qualities or not? And he wants to get rid of them, there are several ways to do that:
- You should have a learned, polite and educated sheikh, who helps indicate your own faults, and helps you to abstain from the ill habits.
- To be focused on your own shortcomings, by heeding to the advice of advisors, guidance from brothers and associate and those cohabiting with you. You shouldn’t be influenced by anger or the desire to be victorious in an argument to denying the truth or to abandon the advice of the adviser to you.
- To read the books of morals and learn from them the characteristics of the arrogant and those who admire themselves, recognize their actions and measure that against yourself, you may have some of these qualities without you noticing.
- To benefit from the knowledge of your own faults from the tongues of your enemies.
- To see yourself as others and that they are like you, born of a mother and a father as you were born, and that piety is the true yardstick for variation in status.
- To know that Allah Almighty’s rights are greater than what you have done of deeds that make you feel so special, and that if all of your deeds were weighed on the Day of Resurrection, they would not be equal to the blessing of sight alone! Then how about the blessing of guidance! How about the blessing of faith! If you know that Allah is the one who guided, you to this deed; why then are you arrogant?
- To make a lot of supplications to Allah Almighty for guidance and steadfastness on good manners and abstaining from bad ones. It was one of the supplications of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): “and guide me in the best of conduct for none but you guide anyone (in) good conduct. Remove sins from me, for no one else but you can remove sins from me.”
May Allah protect us from being arrogant and boastful.
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