Bismillahir Rahmaanir Raheem
Allah Ta’ala has stated in the Qur`aan Shareef :
“Verily the most honoured of you in the sight
of Allah is
(he who is)
the most righteous of you...” .
[Surah Hujurat 49 : 13]
Rasulullah (Sallallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam) also said : “Verily Allah does
not look towards your physical appearances, or towards your riches; but He sees
(the sincerity of) your hearts, and (the nature of) your deeds.”[1]
Allah Ta’ala does not look at our bank balances, our properties, our
beauty, the colour of our skin, our physique, our lineage, our language, our
gender, or the chain of degrees we may have obtained. Allah Ta’ala looks at
the heart. The discrimination is only on Taqwa[2].
Rasulullah (Sallallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam) said : “Nearest and dearest to
me are those who possess the virtue of piety (no matter what colour, race or
nationality).”[3]
Hazrat Abu Zarr (Radhiyallahu ‘anhu) narrated that
Rasulullah (Sallallaahu
‘alayhi wasallam)had said to him: “Verily you are not better than a fair-skinned
person or a dark-skinned person except that you excel him by Taqwa (piety and
fear of Allah).”[4]
…There are so many of us who very foolishly and ignorantly pride
ourselves over our wealth, family name, beauty – sometimes even our knowledge
of Deen or the services we are rendering of Deen; considering these as the
criteria for establishing our superiority over others.
Whenever the nafs asserts itself with : ‘I am better… than him (or
her)’, then we should understand that we are on the same footing as
shaytaan.
When Allah Ta’ala commanded the angels to bow down to Hazrat Aadam (Alaihis
Salaam), shaytaan refused to do so. When asked as to why, he asserted:
‘I am better than he. You created me from
fire,
and him from
clay.’
[Surah A’raaf 7 :12]
This opinion of : ‘I am better…’
is reason enough for serious concern, since this attitude is what is termed as
pride (takabbur), arrogance and
conceit (ujub), the cancer of the
spiritual heart. This is such an ailment which also leads to the evil of
boasting.
Allah Ta’ala states :
“Verily Allah does not like the one who
has pride
and is
boastful.”
[Surah An-Nisaa 4 : 36]
“And swell
not your cheek (for pride) at men, nor walk in insolence through the earth; for
Allah loves not any arrogant boaster.”
[Surah Luqman 31 : 18]
Allah Ta’ala makes evident His abhorrence by humiliating and abasing such
a person and reducing the person’s esteem in the eyes of people. It has been
related from Rasulullah (Sallallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam):
“…he who is proud will be abased by
Allah, for though he considers himself great, he is lowly in the eyes of men to
such an extent that he is of less value in their estimation than a dog or a
pig.”[5]
To cure and purify the heart of these diseases one will have to submit to
the scalpel of the surgeon of the spiritual heart - a Muhaqqiq[6]
Shaykh. Tazkiyah (purification) of
the heart and Islaah (reformation) of
the nafs is not achieved by just reading of kitaabs.
Furthermore, no matter by what titles people may address us in this
world, we still have to await the Day of Qiyaamah to know our worth by Allah.
It will only be on the Day of Qiyaamah that we will find out as to who was Afdhal (most virtuous).
Maulana Sayyid Sulayman Nadvi (Rahmatullahi ‘alayh) used to say:
Whether we live like this or live like that,
What is left to be seen is how our stay there will be
(i.e. the Hereafter).
by Hazrat Maulana Yunus Patel Saheb (Rahmatullahi 'alayh)
[1] Sahih Muslim
[2] Taqwa : piety / abstention from all sins.
[3] Ahmad
[4] Ahmad
[5] Abu Dawood
[6] Muhaqqiq
: meticulous
