Symptoms of Arrogance

Symptoms of Arrogance

Taqwa means that we should be conscious of Allah. We should be aware of Allah. And we should protect ourselves from His punishment and His wrath. And we shouldn't allow ourselves to die except in a state of لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا اللّٰه، مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللّٰه — la ilaha illallah, Muhammadur Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

I begin my khutbah by asking Allah first and foremost to send blessings and prayers to our beloved Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.

The Hadith on Arrogance

In a hadith collected by Muslim and narrated by Abdullah ibn Abbas, Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that those who have even the weight of an atom of arrogance will never enter paradise. And then in the hadith, Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was asked: what is the definition of arrogance? And Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam defined what arrogance is. He said it is one of these two things.

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 265 — narrated by Abdullah ibn Mas'ud)

Number one is to deny truth out of your arrogance — bataral-haqq. Our arrogance gets in the way and we reject truth. That's his first definition of arrogance.

And then the second definition of arrogance — ghamtun-nas — meaning that your arrogance makes us put people down, makes us walk in and think that we are better than anyone else. Thinking that we're better, thinking that we're more valuable, that we have something special, that we're so special. That feeling that you really think that other people are not worth of value and you got it all. That's the second definition the Prophet gave about arrogance.

So I'll say it again. One of these two things, Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said: either your arrogance gets in the way and you reject truth, or you're being condescending and putting people down just because you think that you're better than someone else.

And I want to talk today in this short khutbah, insha'Allah, about the second part — which is ghamtun-nas: thinking that you are better than someone else.

Arrogance from the Beginning of Creation

SubhanAllah, that actually started from the beginning of the creation of man — from Adam alayhis salam. And we all know the story of Iblis when he rejected the command to prostrate to Adam alayhis salam. It was a command by Allah. And his justification was: "I am better than him." Just think about this. He was actually making an argument that he is better than Adam alayhis salam, just because he was created from fire and Adam was created from dirt. He was trying to justify why he should not prostrate. And that arrogance was the very beginning of this disease.

I want to walk you through the history of humanity until our day and time. And you will find, SubhanAllah, this is a very dangerous disease. It started from the beginning of the creation of man. Prophets came after Prophet Adam, and they were all rejected. And if you think about why they were rejected, the core problem was arrogance.

Prophet Noah and the Arrogance of His People

Prophet Noah alayhis salam — his people said: "You want us to believe in your message? And those idiots, those weak, those poor people are actually believing with you? And you want us to share that belief with them? We're not going to do that." So their arrogance made them blind. They weren't criticizing the content. They weren't criticizing the message. Their arrogance got in the way. And they rejected the whole thing just because some poor people were believing in the same message.

The Elite of Quraysh and Prophet Muhammad ﷺ

Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam — same thing. The elite of Quraysh, those who were more educated, more wealthy — they were listening to Allah's words. The words were so beautiful and powerful. One time they actually heard Surah Al-Najm, and towards the end of it, they all prostrated to Allah out of the sheer beauty of the Qur'an. The words of the Qur'an were not the issue for them. The message itself was not the issue. Even the Prophet was not the issue. They actually used to love the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. They used to call him Al-Sadiq Al-Amin — the most trustworthy, the most honest. The Prophet himself, his personality, who he was — that was not the problem. The problem, again, was arrogance.

"You want us to believe in the same thing that these slaves believe? These poor people, these weak people? We're not going to do this. And then we're going to be resurrected to Allah and treated the same on the Day of Judgment? We're not going to do that. We're better than them. We should have special treatment. We have a special position." Think about it.

Arrogance in Our Communities Today

SubhanAllah, until now, we find it in our own community. "We're Arabs. We're better. The Qur'an was revealed to us. The Qur'an came in our language. We're better than Pakis and Indians and Desis. We have the Prophet — the Prophet is Arab." And then this is used to block others.

And then others come and say, "We're the largest Muslim population across the globe. Islam was spread widely in our lands. We understood Prophet Muhammad's sallallahu alayhi wa sallam words better. We even speak Arabic sometimes. And we have scholars who speak Arabic better than the Arabs." And this is reviving, think about it — first, it came from arrogance, and it is reviving exactly what Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam fought against.

Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam could easily have had his message accepted if he had said: "You know what, you are the leaders. You're the most privileged people here. The message is primarily for you. You're going to have special treatment." His struggle would have come to an end. But he didn't. So again, as a community, we have this issue as well — arrogance.

Arrogance Towards Our Reverts

We even have some arrogance towards the reverts. We think that they're less religious than us. "They just came to Islam. They just reverted, man. We got it all. We were born Muslims. We know everything about this deen." And sometimes we fail to understand that all of the Sahaba — all of those who built this huge empire, all of those who built the ummah — were actually reverts. Until now, we mention their names: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali. All of these sahabas were reverts. They weren't born Muslims. They converted to Islam when Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam started his dawah.

So again, all of these attitudes come from what? From arrogance.

Arrogance in the Way We Give and Receive Nasiha

Even the way we give nasiha to each other. Arrogance can be in the way you give the nasiha. Or arrogance can be in the way you receive the nasiha. It goes both ways.

The way you give the nasiha — you should check your intention before you give it. We all should have that. Ask yourself: why am I giving this nasiha? From the very beginning, why am I giving this nasiha to this brother? Is it because I want to feel good about myself afterwards? Is it because I feel insecure and will feel great afterwards by humiliating someone? Why am I giving this nasiha? Do I even know that person? When you give nasiha to someone, there are rules. If you're giving a personal nasiha, you cannot give it unless you really deeply know who that brother or sister is, and your relationship allows you to go out of your way and give that nasiha. Wallahi, simple question — before you give this nasiha, just ask yourself: why am I giving this nasiha?

And then the way you receive the nasiha. There are some people — may Allah protect us all — the way they receive the nasiha, their arrogance gets in the way. "Why am I going to listen to this brother?" Even though he is saying something actually very valuable. He's talking about something you really should work on. But arrogance gets in the way. "I'm just not going to accept any words from him. I'm good."

The Second Symptom: Covering Up Your Flaws

And that actually takes us to the second symptom of arrogance — covering up your flaws. Instead of bettering ourselves, we make others look worse. Covering up our shame by being arrogant.

"I see you doing good in your life — I have to find a comment about it. You're getting a new job? Well, you don't know how this guy got this job. You passed your exams and I'm failing? This guy must have some connections." I will cover up my flaws. Instead of bettering myself, working on myself, developing myself, my arrogance gets in the way. I don't want to see anybody doing better than me. I will go and criticize for the sake of criticism. Why? Because my arrogance does not allow me to accept the reality and work on myself. So I cover it up by pointing fingers and criticizing others.

The Qur'an on Humility

Brothers and sisters, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ emphasized this in his prophetic tradition. You will see Prophet Muhammad ﷺ speaking a lot about this concept of kibr. And even in the Qur'an, Allah described the mu'mineen, the believers, as those who walk with humbleness:

They walk with humbleness. And I don't want my message to be taken in the wrong way. Being humble does not mean that you're being weak. Islam wants you to have izzah, to have pride — because Islam itself gave you that pride. Being humble does not mean letting people take advantage of you. This is the balance that we should all find. And this is what Prophet Muhammad ﷺ told his companions.

His companion would say:

Allah dignified us with Islam. So you should be proud of who you are, of course. But if you have this feeling that you are better than someone else just because you have extra money, or because you have that SUV, or because you have that education — then wallahi, you should check yourself. Check your intention at this point.

A Story from Egypt

SubhanAllah, in Egypt — and I will conclude my khutbah with this — one time I was in KFC. And KFC in Egypt is a fancy restaurant. It's for the people who have money. And you will find people actually dress up before they go. "You're going to Kentucky today?" And you will find a family sitting there, all dressed well. And then a mechanic or a driver — someone who had probably saved a lot of money to go and share that meal with his family — walks in. They're all excited. "Finally, we're getting to share this meal." They're making noise and everything. And wallahi, you will find in people's faces expressions of disgust. They think these people are not worthy enough to come to that place.

This is what? Arrogance. One more time — you think that you're better than someone else. It is completely different from being humble and having pride in your faith, in your iman.

We All Return to the Same Earth

Brothers and sisters, Allah has created us from dirt, and we are going to return to dirt. We're all on a timeline — 60 years, 70 years, 80 years.

We're all going back to the same thing we were created from. So there is absolutely no reason to think that you are higher than someone else.

Du'a

May Allah protect us all. May Allah make us among those who fight against this arrogance.

Aqulu qawli hadha wa astaghfirullaha li wa lakum, wa aqimis-salah.