Arrogance is the most insidious disease of the heart and their effects are reflected in the behavior and conduct of the sick person preventing them from entering Paradise. In the authentic Hadith reported by Imams Muslim and At-Tirmidhi, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “One will not enter Paradise, if one has an atom’s weight of arrogance in his/her heart.”
According to this Hadith, arrogance is one of the major sins because it prevents a person from entering Paradise on the Day of Judgment. It is also clear that arrogance is from the diseases of the heart, as also the degree of arrogance varies. The heart can be filled with arrogance, or can have only an atom’s weight of arrogance.
Several verses and authentic Hadiths were revealed censuring arrogance and elucidating its danger.
First, what is arrogance? The Prophet (peace be upon him) defined it in an authentic Hadith reported by Imams Muslim and At-Tirmidhi, “One will not enter Paradise, if one has an atom’s weight of arrogance in his/her heart.” A man asked, “One may love his clothes to look good and his shoes to look good” The Prophet replied, “Allah is beautiful and loves beauty, arrogance is rejecting Truth and looking down on people.”
The different degrees and types of arrogance: The most evil kind of arrogance is rejection of Truth. In this context, many verses were revealed to censure arrogance and the arrogant people. On the Day of Judgment, it will be said to the arrogant people: “Enter the gates of Hell to abide therein, and (indeed) what an evil abode of the arrogant!” (Qur’an, 40:76)
Hellfire is abode of the arrogant people. This is emphasized in the Hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him) that is reported by Imam Muslim, “Paradise and Hellfire argued. Hellfire said: Inside me are the merciless and the arrogant people … and Allah has judged between them:… You (Hellfire) are my torture, with you I torture whom I will….”
Allah Almighty turns the arrogant people away from being guided with his signs. He, the Almighty, says “I shall turn away from My Ayah (verses of the Qur’an) those who behave arrogantly on the earth, in a wrongful manner.” (Qur’an, 7:146)
The most severe arrogance is being arrogant against Allah and rejecting submission and worshipping Him. Allah Almighty says, “Verily! Those who disdain My worship (because of arrogance), they will surely enter Hell in humiliation!” (Qur’an, 40:60)
From arrogance is being arrogant against the messengers and rejecting their message and not following them just because they are humans. This is the case of many non-believers about whom Allah Almighty says, “They said: ‘Shall we believe in two men like ourselves.” (Qur’an, 23:47) and “They said to their messengers: “You are no more than human beings like us.” (Qur’an, 14:10)
The tribe of Quraish also said, when it rejected and looked down on the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) because he was an orphan and poor, as Allah Almighty said, “And they say: ‘Why is not this Qur’an sent down to some great man of the two towns (Makkah and Taif)’.” (Qur’an, 43:31)
While describing the real situation of the disbelievers, Allah Almighty says: “And they belied them (those Ayat) wrongfully and arrogantly, though their ownselves were convinced thereof (i.e. those Ayahs are from Allah).” (Qur’an, 27:14)
From the examples of arrogance against the Prophet (peace be upon him) reported by Imam Muslim that a man who came and ate in the presence of the Prophet (peace be upon him) with his left hand, so the Prophet (peace be upon him) said to him, “Eat with your right hand.” The man said, “I cannot.” The Prophet (peace be upon him) then supplicated to Allah against this man, “May Allah, make you unable to use your right hand.” “Nothing prevented him from doing so (eating with his right hand) except his arrogance, so he forever could not lift his right hand to his mouth.”
Allah Almighty explicated for us that arrogance is an exclusive attribute of Himself. In a Qudsi Hadith reported by Imam Muslim that Allah Almighty says, “Dignity is my lower garment, and arrogance is my covering. If anyone competes with Me in either of these two, surely I torture him.” Allah Almighty says, “And do not turn your face away from men with arrogance, nor walk in insolence through the earth. Verily, Allah does not like each arrogant boaster.” (Qur’an, 31:18)
Allah does not like the one who is conceited and arrogant. The Prophet (peace be upon him) says what was reported by Imams Bukhari and Muslim, “While a man was showing off his garment, he looked proudly to himself, all of a sudden, Allah immediately crumbled the earth underneath him, and he is still dropping with struggle through it till the Day of Judgment.”
Allah Almighty will not look with mercy, on the Day of Judgment, at the one who lengthened his clothes out of arrogance. The Prophet (peace be upon him) says reported by Imams Bukhari, Muslim, and other, “Whosoever drags his clothes out of arrogance, Allah will not look at him on the Day of Judgment.” Abu Bakr said: “O Messenger of Allah, my garment slips (slightly off his waist) to the ground but I lift it!?” The Prophet replied, “You are not among those who do it out of arrogance.”
After we have heard all these verses and Hadiths about the dangers of arrogance and how bad the consequences are, we should be cautioned and get away from it and from its effects and its characteristics. So we teach ourselves to follow the truth when we know it, and humble ourselves in front of others. Imam Muslim reported that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “....And no one has humbled himself for the sake of Allah, but Allah has elevated him.”
The Prophet (peace be upon him) is the best example of humility in his life. Imams Bukhari and Muslim reported that “The prophet used to pass by children and give Salaam to them (greet them).” Imam Bukhari reported that, “A female slave from Madinah use to take the Prophet’s sleeve and take him wherever she wants.” Imam Bukhari also reported, “That the Prophet used to be at the service of his family.”
- Courtesy of islam1.org
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Hellfire is abode of the arrogant people
Hellfire is abode of the arrogant people
The beauty of prayer in Islam
GOING deeper into our spiritual state during prayers (salah) requires that we have a presence of heart and are mindful of the words being said during the prayers.
Our prayer will feel shorter, yet when we look at how much time we actually spent, we will think, “Did I just spend 10 minutes?” or even 15 and 20 minutes.
A person who began applying this said he wished the prayer would never end.
A feeling that Ibn Al-Qayyim describes as “what the competitors compete for… it is nourishment for the soul and the delight of the eyes,” and he also said, “If this feeling leaves the heart, it is as though it is a body with no soul.”
The love of Allah
Some people’s relationship with Allah is limited to following orders and leaving prohibitions, so that one does not enter hell. Of course, we must follow orders and leave prohibitions, but it needs to be done out of more than fear and hope; it should also be done out of love for Allah. Allah says in the Qur’an: “… Allah will bring forth [in place of them] a people He will love and who will love Him.” (Qur’an, 5:54)
We often find that when a lover meets the beloved, hearts are stirred and there is warmth in that meeting. Yet when we meet Allah, there is not even an ounce of this same feeling. Allah says in the Qur’an: “And (yet) among the people are those who take other than Allah as equals (to Him). They love them as they (should) love Allah. But those who believe are stronger in love for Allah.” (Qur’an, 2:165)
And those who believe are stronger in love for Allah. There should be a feeling of longing, and when we raise our hands to start the prayer, warmth and love should fill our hearts because we are now meeting with Allah. A dua of the Prophet (peace be upon him): “O Allah, I ask You for the longing to meet You” (An-Nisa’i, Al-Hakim)
Ibn Al-Qayyim says in his book Tareeq Al-Hijratain that Allah loves His Messengers and His believing servants, and they love Him and nothing is more beloved to them than Him. The love of one’s parents has a certain type of sweetness, as does the love of one’s children, but the love of Allah far supersedes any of that. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said: “Any person who combines these three qualities will experience the sweetness of faith: 1) that God and His messenger are dearer to him than anything else; 2) that his love of others is purely for God’s sake; and 3) that he hates to relapse into disbelief as much as he hates to be thrown in the fire.” (Bukhari)
Thus, the first thing he mentioned was: “… that God and His messenger are more beloved to him than anything else…”
Ibn Al-Qayyim says: “Since ‘there is nothing like unto Him’ (Qur’an, 42:11), there is nothing like experiencing love for Him.”
If you feel this love for Him, it will be a feeling so intense, so sweet, that you would wish the prayer would never ever end.
Do you truly want to feel this love? Then ask yourself: ‘why do you or should you love Allah?’
Know that you love people for one (or all, in varying degrees) of three reasons: For their beauty, because of their exalted character or/and because they have done good to you. And know that Allah combines all of these three to the utmost degree.
All-embracing beauty
We’ve all been touched by beauty. It is almost fitrah (natural disposition) to love what is beautiful. Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, said about the Prophet, peace be upon him, that it was “as if the sun is shining from his face.” Jabir (may God be pleased with him) said: “The Messenger of Allah was more handsome, beautiful, and radiant than the full moon” (Tirmidhi)
Allah made all His Prophets have a certain beauty so that people would have a natural inclination toward them.
And beauty is more than what is in the face, because beauty is in all of creation and somehow has the ability to take our breath away and give us peace simultaneously. The glimmer of the crescent moon on a calm night, the intensity of a waterfall as the water drops for thousands of feet, the sunset by the sea … certain scenes of natural unspoiled beauty stirs something in us. As Allah is the One Who made it beautiful, so what of Allah’s beauty?
Ibn Al-Qayyim said: “And it is enough to realize Allah’s Beauty when we know that every internal and external beauty in this life and the next are created by Him, so what of the beauty of their Creator?”
This fitrah for loving what is beautiful is because Allah is beautiful. One of His Names is Al-Jameel (the Most Beautiful). Ibn Al-Qayyim states that the beauty of Allah is something that a person cannot imagine and only He knows it. There is nothing of it in creation save for glimpses.
Ibn Al-Qayyim says if all of creation were the most beautiful they could be (so let’s imagine, ever single human being looked as beautiful as Yusuf, peace be upon him, and the whole world was like Paradise), and all of them combined from the beginning of time until the Day of Judgment, they would not even be like a ray in comparison to the sun when compared to Allah. Allah’s beauty is so intense that we will not even be able to take it in this life. In the Qur’an, Allah describes Musa’s (peace be upon him) request: “And when Moses arrived at Our appointed time and his Lord spoke to him, he said, ‘My Lord, show me (Yourself) that I may look at You.’ (Allah) said: ‘You will not see Me but look at the mountain; if it should remain in place, then you will see Me.’ But when his Lord appeared to the mountain He rendered it level, and Moses fell unconscious.” (Qur’an, 7:143)
Even the mountain could not bear the beauty of Allah and crumbled, and when Musa, peace be upon him, saw this (he did not even see Allah), he fell unconscious. This is why on the Day of Judgment it is Allah’s light that will shine on everything. We talk about breathtaking beauty, but we have yet to experience Allah’s beauty. While things in this world can be beautiful or majestic or if they combine both they are finite, true majesty and beauty are for Allah: “And there will remain the Face of your Lord, Owner of Majesty and Honor.” (Qur’an, 55:27)
Keeping all of this in mind, the Prophet, peace be upon him, said: “Allah directs His Face toward the face of His servant who is praying, as long as he does not turn away” (Tirmidhi).
Remember this in your prayer, and ask Allah to allow you the joy of seeing Him in Paradise.
Our prayer will feel shorter, yet when we look at how much time we actually spent, we will think, “Did I just spend 10 minutes?” or even 15 and 20 minutes.
A person who began applying this said he wished the prayer would never end.
A feeling that Ibn Al-Qayyim describes as “what the competitors compete for… it is nourishment for the soul and the delight of the eyes,” and he also said, “If this feeling leaves the heart, it is as though it is a body with no soul.”
The love of Allah
Some people’s relationship with Allah is limited to following orders and leaving prohibitions, so that one does not enter hell. Of course, we must follow orders and leave prohibitions, but it needs to be done out of more than fear and hope; it should also be done out of love for Allah. Allah says in the Qur’an: “… Allah will bring forth [in place of them] a people He will love and who will love Him.” (Qur’an, 5:54)
We often find that when a lover meets the beloved, hearts are stirred and there is warmth in that meeting. Yet when we meet Allah, there is not even an ounce of this same feeling. Allah says in the Qur’an: “And (yet) among the people are those who take other than Allah as equals (to Him). They love them as they (should) love Allah. But those who believe are stronger in love for Allah.” (Qur’an, 2:165)
And those who believe are stronger in love for Allah. There should be a feeling of longing, and when we raise our hands to start the prayer, warmth and love should fill our hearts because we are now meeting with Allah. A dua of the Prophet (peace be upon him): “O Allah, I ask You for the longing to meet You” (An-Nisa’i, Al-Hakim)
Ibn Al-Qayyim says in his book Tareeq Al-Hijratain that Allah loves His Messengers and His believing servants, and they love Him and nothing is more beloved to them than Him. The love of one’s parents has a certain type of sweetness, as does the love of one’s children, but the love of Allah far supersedes any of that. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said: “Any person who combines these three qualities will experience the sweetness of faith: 1) that God and His messenger are dearer to him than anything else; 2) that his love of others is purely for God’s sake; and 3) that he hates to relapse into disbelief as much as he hates to be thrown in the fire.” (Bukhari)
Thus, the first thing he mentioned was: “… that God and His messenger are more beloved to him than anything else…”
Ibn Al-Qayyim says: “Since ‘there is nothing like unto Him’ (Qur’an, 42:11), there is nothing like experiencing love for Him.”
If you feel this love for Him, it will be a feeling so intense, so sweet, that you would wish the prayer would never ever end.
Do you truly want to feel this love? Then ask yourself: ‘why do you or should you love Allah?’
Know that you love people for one (or all, in varying degrees) of three reasons: For their beauty, because of their exalted character or/and because they have done good to you. And know that Allah combines all of these three to the utmost degree.
All-embracing beauty
We’ve all been touched by beauty. It is almost fitrah (natural disposition) to love what is beautiful. Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, said about the Prophet, peace be upon him, that it was “as if the sun is shining from his face.” Jabir (may God be pleased with him) said: “The Messenger of Allah was more handsome, beautiful, and radiant than the full moon” (Tirmidhi)
Allah made all His Prophets have a certain beauty so that people would have a natural inclination toward them.
And beauty is more than what is in the face, because beauty is in all of creation and somehow has the ability to take our breath away and give us peace simultaneously. The glimmer of the crescent moon on a calm night, the intensity of a waterfall as the water drops for thousands of feet, the sunset by the sea … certain scenes of natural unspoiled beauty stirs something in us. As Allah is the One Who made it beautiful, so what of Allah’s beauty?
Ibn Al-Qayyim said: “And it is enough to realize Allah’s Beauty when we know that every internal and external beauty in this life and the next are created by Him, so what of the beauty of their Creator?”
This fitrah for loving what is beautiful is because Allah is beautiful. One of His Names is Al-Jameel (the Most Beautiful). Ibn Al-Qayyim states that the beauty of Allah is something that a person cannot imagine and only He knows it. There is nothing of it in creation save for glimpses.
Ibn Al-Qayyim says if all of creation were the most beautiful they could be (so let’s imagine, ever single human being looked as beautiful as Yusuf, peace be upon him, and the whole world was like Paradise), and all of them combined from the beginning of time until the Day of Judgment, they would not even be like a ray in comparison to the sun when compared to Allah. Allah’s beauty is so intense that we will not even be able to take it in this life. In the Qur’an, Allah describes Musa’s (peace be upon him) request: “And when Moses arrived at Our appointed time and his Lord spoke to him, he said, ‘My Lord, show me (Yourself) that I may look at You.’ (Allah) said: ‘You will not see Me but look at the mountain; if it should remain in place, then you will see Me.’ But when his Lord appeared to the mountain He rendered it level, and Moses fell unconscious.” (Qur’an, 7:143)
Even the mountain could not bear the beauty of Allah and crumbled, and when Musa, peace be upon him, saw this (he did not even see Allah), he fell unconscious. This is why on the Day of Judgment it is Allah’s light that will shine on everything. We talk about breathtaking beauty, but we have yet to experience Allah’s beauty. While things in this world can be beautiful or majestic or if they combine both they are finite, true majesty and beauty are for Allah: “And there will remain the Face of your Lord, Owner of Majesty and Honor.” (Qur’an, 55:27)
Keeping all of this in mind, the Prophet, peace be upon him, said: “Allah directs His Face toward the face of His servant who is praying, as long as he does not turn away” (Tirmidhi).
Remember this in your prayer, and ask Allah to allow you the joy of seeing Him in Paradise.
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