Excerpt from Mother of Diseases (Umm al Amraaz) by Ml Zakariyya Kandhlawi رحمة الله عليه.
(1) One level is when a person considers himself superior to others in terms of wealth, intellect, beauty, children and so forth, and considers others inferior because of these things.
Arrogance in such matters is foolishness because Allah is the true owner of these things. They are merely given to human beings temporarily as a test. Whenever Allah wills, it can be snatched away immediately. If not taken earlier, death will eventually cause a person to leave these things.
So where is there any room for arrogance?
A person may feel that although these things are temporary, they are nevertheless visible and apparent as means of superiority. They consider it sufficient to regard themselves as superior to others.
However, worldly people often consider themselves inferior to others in knowledge and good actions. Therefore, their sense of superiority in worldly matters is regarded as a lesser degree of arrogance.
For this reason, Allah’s displeasure is greater toward an old man who commits fornication and a poor person who is arrogant. (Riyad as-Salihin 1852)
Because they lack the means to feel superior yet they behave arrogantly.
(2) A greater form of arrogance is when someone falsely strives to become a saint (wali) for the perceived honour and elevated status associated with closeness to Allah. They see saints respected even by the kings of the world who consider it an honour to carry their shoes.
Therefore, arrogance concerning knowledge and good action is a greater form of arrogance.
Here, foolishness reaches its height. Because wealth, children and other things that are means of worldly superiority are at least visible. But the things that give a person greatness and distinction through knowledge and good actions are not visible.
Therefore, it’s largely a matter of ‘assumption’ because no one knows whether their actions have been accepted or rejected. Ultimately, acceptance depends entirely on Allah’s will and grace.
Even the greatest saint cannot claim that his deeds are worthy of acceptance in accordance with Allah’s majesty. Rather, the greater a person’s recognition of Allah (marifa), the more insignificant they consider their deeds, the more humble and fearful of Allah they become.
(3) There is, however, another form of arrogance more severe. That is arrogance disguised as humility.
A person considers themselves the most humble and thinks they are superior to others in humility.
The thought that they can be arrogant never crosses their mind. For this reason, this form of arrogance is even more severe.
I recall here the story of Shaykh Abdullah Andalusi RA. He narrates the reason behind his Trial.....
......We asked, ‘Was there a reason behind your trial?’
The shaykh replied, ‘Yes, when we reached that village and passed by those temples and churches, seeing those who worship the fire and cross busy in the worship of that aside from Allah, then pride and haughtiness manifested that we are believers, monotheists and how ignorant and stupid are these unfortunate ones that they worship that which has no faculty of sense and intelligence. At that time I heard a unseen voice saying that “this iman and monotheism is not your personal perfection in that all of this is on account of Our tawfiq. Do you think your iman is due to your choice that you consider them to be insignificant? If you want, we can show you now.” At that time I felt as if a bird had left my heart and flown away, which was actually iman.’”
This cannot be undone and I am sure it will be greatly appreciated.
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