Recognising Arrogance

f you want to know the importance of your heart, then look at the hadith (record of speech or action) of Umm Salamah. The people asked her, “What du`a’ [supplication] did the Prophet ﷺ (peace be upon him)] make the most?” She said, “He made the du`a’: ‘Allahuma, muqalib al quloob, thabit qalby `ala deenik. O Allah, the One who turns the hearts, make my heart firm on Your deen (way of life).’” This is the Prophet ﷺ. What about us? We walk across campus and can forget half a juz (part; 1/30) of Qur’an just because of the things we see. We go to class and in one minute our faith is shaken maybe because of something the professor said or maybe from something that fell into the heart. How many of us know this du`a’ and say it all the time? The sign of someone who is doing that is someone who realizes that they need Allah subhanahu wa ta`ala (exalted is He).

Now last time we said that al-Fatiha addressed a lot of issues in the heart, but we’re going to talk about three. We begin by talking about al-kibr (arrogance). Allah (swt) said in an authentic hadith that al-kibr means to be arrogant. The word kabbara means to make something big. We say, “Allahu Akbar,” (Allah is Greatest). Of course Allah (swt) is not arrogant. The Prophet Muhammed ﷺ said in a hadith qudsi (a hadith including the words of Allah (swt)) that Allah (swt) said, “Pride is My cloak and strength is My honor and whoever tries to compete with Me in these two issues then let them go to the hellfire.” We explained that the definition of arrogance given to us by the Prophet ﷺ is that arrogance is to reject the truth and look down on people. For example if someone comes to us and says, “You know, the deen (religion) says we should do this.” And we reply, “Well you know, I don’t do that. I have my own ideas. I think we should pray twice a day. Why pray five times a day? It doesn’t make any sense. That’s not logical.” This is rejection of the truth. This is a sign of kibr.

The Companions of the Prophet ﷺ would submit to the orders of the Prophet ﷺ and Allah quickly. But they also struggled. Unfortunately sometimes the only examples that we’re given are examples in which we hear that Allah commanded something and they all submitted immediately. Then we as young people think, “I can never be like that, it’s too difficult. It’s too difficult.” We go to the Qur’an and we find examples of the Companions showing that they also struggled to obey Allah (swt) in many situations, but they always overcame it. Like Zaynab bint Jahsh radi allahu `anha (may Allah be pleased with her).

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