The Major Sins Series - PrideBoasting - Abu Usama 1717
By Abu Usamah | 2026-01-15T14:50:04.337407+00:00 | Topic: Repentance
The Major Sins Series - Pride and Arrogance (Al-Kibr)
Speaker: Abu Usama
Opening
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the Trustworthy Prophet, and upon his family and all his companions.
Introduction to Chapter 15: Al-Kibr (Arrogance)
As for what follows, the author, may Allah have mercy on him, Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi, begins the next chapter, O my brothers, chapter number 15, dealing with one of the greatest major sins (Kabair) known to mankind. Yet there is a deception that Iblis has been successful in pulling off upon many people. That is the major sin of Al-Kibr (arrogance), being a person who is Mutakabbir, or Al-Khuyala, which is to be haughty and arrogant.
Whenever we hear about Al-Kibr, most of our minds go to the rulers. When we hear the word Kibr and the Mutakabbirin, many of our ideas go to that rich relative who thinks he is better than everyone because he changes his Mercedes every year or every two years, or has a big house, and deals with people in a way suggesting he thinks he is better than everyone because of his color, money, or position. Those people are Mutakabbirin.
But the reality is that the vast majority of people, even regular normal people, have Al-Kibr. Many of us sitting here who consider ourselves people of humility have Al-Kibr, based upon the definition that the Prophet gave, and based upon the way we behave.
This particular chapter, InshaAllah, is a reminder from Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi that comes from the Kitab and the Sunnah, and the authentic statements of some of the righteous predecessors, reminding us about the importance of discarding all the characteristics and all the means and ways that lead to a person being from the Mutakabbirin.
Evidence from the Quran
First Ayah: The Story of Musa and Fir'aun
Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi brings, as he always does in all the previous chapters, verses from the Quran. Allah says:
"And Musa said: Verily, I seek protection with my Lord and your Lord from every arrogant one who does not believe in the Day of Reckoning."
When Musa had his discussion with Fir'aun, who was the leader of the human beings, when he was giving dawah to Fir'aun and calling him to La ilaha illa Allah, and calling him to be a person who was fair and just in his treatment of Bani Israel, Musa said: Verily, I seek the protection and assistance of my Lord and your Lord, and I seek protection in Allah and His assistance from every person who is Mutakabbir and doesn't believe in the Day of Hisab.
Second Ayah: Allah Does Not Love the Arrogant
The next verse is the statement of Allah: Verily, Allah does not love those people who are arrogant. So Allah in those two verses has made it perfectly clear that Al-Kibr is a major sin from the major sins.
Third Ayah: Arrogance Without Authority
He also brought the statement of Allah in Surah Ghafir, which shows that many people are Mutakabbirin. Many normal people don't see themselves as being Mutakabbirin because they are from the poor, weak, and needy. They don't have money, so they don't see themselves as being Mutakabbirin.
But this verse shows many of us are Mutakabbirin. Allah said in this verse: Verily, those people who argue about the signs of Allah without any proofs—they argue about the signs of Allah and make disputation without any Sultan (authority)—they just argue based upon their desires.
Someone says something is Haram without any proof why it's Haram. He says it's Halal without any proof why it is Halal. He tells you that you have to follow one of the Madhabs, and if you don't follow one of the Madhabs, your Islam is suspect. That's a claim. Bring the proof if you're speaking the truth. He can't bring any proof, but he'll remain on that particular point of view.
He'll say whatever his Shaykh is calling to, his peer is calling to, whatever the point happens to be that a person is upon. When you ask him to please present the evidence, he doesn't present the evidence. So he's arguing about the signs of Allah without any proof whatsoever.
"Verily, those who dispute concerning the signs of Allah without any authority having come to them, there is nothing in their breasts except pride. They will never have it."
Verily, those people who argue about the signs of Allah without any authority that has been given to them, verily inside their hearts there is Kibr, and they will never be able to reach it. So seek the assistance of Allah. Verily, Allah is All-Hearing and All-Seeing.
The reason why this verse was revealed to Rasulullah is because some of the disbelievers of Quraysh had a problem with the fact that Allah chose Muhammad Ibn Abdullah to be the seal of the Prophets and Messengers, to be the Messenger sent to Quraysh and to all of mankind. They used to ask questions: Why would Allah send Muhammad as opposed to sending one of the men from the two great cities? They used to argue about that point.
Allah chooses to do what He wants to do, and it is not for us to ask why this or why that. So it wasn't permissible for them.
The part of the verse when Allah says: إِن فِي صُدُورِهِمْ إِلَّا كِبْرٌ مَّا هُم بِبَالِغِيهِ - Verily in their chests, in their breasts, there is Kibr, arrogance, and they will not reach it.
What will they not reach? The verse that Allah sent down was the fact that He chose Muhammad as His Prophet and His Messenger. The fact that these people are arguing about that verse—they will never, no matter how long they argue, no matter how much they argue, themselves reach the point of being a Prophet or from the Prophets. They will never reach that point.
The Danger of Rejecting the Truth
So that shows, O my brothers, whether we understand an issue or we don't understand an issue, in the religion of Islam it is not permissible to reject something in this religion with hatred. You don't necessarily have to practice a thing.
As it relates to us men, the same thing with riba, for example. Someone comes up with all kinds of excuses. Just say: I'm weak and I want to use the riba. That is better than saying: We're living in this country and you can't get away from it, so I'm going to do it. Allah has allowed interest/usury to be taken because this is the 21st century. When you start to deal with these excuses scholastically, they don't stand up to any intelligent argument in the religion of Islam.
It's better for a person just to say: I'm weak, I'm going to do it—and not to make disputation and be one who argues without any sultan, without any proof. It is not a proof in our religion that Shaykh so-and-so said it. That Shaykh so-and-so said it, no matter who that Shaykh happened to be, because he could be mistaken in his points that caused him to take that particular position.
Hadith: No Entry to Paradise for the Arrogant
Abdullah bin Mas'ud narrated that the Prophet said:
(Sahih Muslim)
"The man who has a speck of arrogance in his heart will not enter Paradise."
He doesn't need a lot of kibr. The man who has a speck of kibr will not enter Paradise, because the Jannah has been made haram for anyone to go in there and he has kibr in his heart, thus competing with the Lord of the worlds.
One of the companions sitting amongst the companions heard that statement. When he wanted further elaboration, he said:
"O Messenger of Allah, a man likes that his garment be beautiful and his shoes be beautiful."
The man said: Ya Rasulullah, this is the way we are. One of us sitting here, we like to have a nice thobe, nice clothes for the Eid, for the waleemah, for the nikah, or just in our dunya. One of us likes to have nice shoes, nice socks, nice furniture, a nice car. He wants a reliable car that he can afford—a Mercedes Benz, a Rolls Royce. That's what he wants. He lives in a place where people drive those kinds of cars. Is that kibar, ya Rasulullah?
He told him:
"Verily, Allah is Beautiful and He loves beauty. Arrogance is rejecting the truth and looking down upon people." (Sahih Muslim)
Allah is beautiful, and Allah loves beauty. There's nothing wrong with you purchasing and wearing nice things. It is from the religion, and it's from the gratitude that Allah deserves.
As He told us: إِنَّ اللهَ يُحِبُّ أَن يَرَى أَثَرَ نِعْمَتِهِ عَلَى عَبْدِهِ - Allah loves to see the effects of His favor upon His slave.
So if Allah has given you something, He loves to see that He has given you that particular thing, and you've displayed it. The Prophet used to go out to the Eid with nice dress. He used to tell us: Wear your nice clothes for Salatul Jumu'ah. If a man is going to get married, he can wear nice clothes; his wife can wear nice things. There's nothing wrong with that.
Always remembering : إِنَّ الْبَذَادَةَ مِنَ الْإِيمَانِ - Wearing simple clothes is also from faith.
And البذاذة is you wearing the same clothes once, twice, or three times without changing them which doesn't mean you don't bathe and don't keep up with your hygiene, but not going overboard.
So the point is, O my brothers, in this issue it is the middle course that the Muslim is encouraged, ordered, and commanded to maintain and hold on to. Allah loves to see the effect of His blessing upon the servant. So Allah is beautiful, and He loves beauty.
Then He gave us the prophetic definition. He said: Arrogance is rejecting the truth and looking down upon people.
If you are a rejecter of the truth, you are متكبر. And if you look down upon any person from the Muslims, then you are متكبر
Every Disbeliever Has Kibr
This hadith shows us, brothers in Islam, we as Muslims, based upon this hadith, have to recognize that every single disbeliever is متكبر because he has rejected the greatest truth, which is Allah, who is Al-Haqq. He is the Truth. From His names is Al-Haqq.
So anyone who has rejected Him, because his fitrah has been corrupted, he has some kibr inside of him. That necessitates, based on the definition that Rasulullah gave.
Again, as it relates to the fiqh of Islam or other than the fiqh of Islam, the issues of this religion for the most part are clear. When we look at the madhab in Islam, there is not a single madhab except that it has what is correct and it has what is incorrect. You can't even say that one madhab has more things correct. All of the madhabs, the majority of what is in the madhab, more of it is correct.
Each madhab is like that. But for someone to think that my madhab contains all of the truth and all of Islam, that is incorrect. If you remain on that position, that is a form of kibr.
Our imams themselves used to say that, and they used to warn the people who follow the madhabs: Don't take every single thing that I said, because there is not a human being except that some of the Sunnah, some of Islam has passed them by. No human being had all of Islam except the Messenger of Allah, as it relates to taking the correct position.
Kibr is rejecting the truth when it comes to you. Rafu' al-Yadayn has been established with tawatur in hadith, and so many companions have narrated it. The person comes and says: No, I'm going to follow my madhab. Abu Hanifa didn't say it.
Abu Hanifa was wrong, and his two companions rejected that position of his. You must be a person, O my brothers, that you do not connect your religion to any human being like that. When the truth comes, that's what you have to do.
Allah, out of His infinite mercy on us, has made it halal for everyone sitting here to wipe over your socks. These socks that I have on. The sock doesn't have to be leather. The sock doesn't have to stay up on my calf. It can have holes in it.
If you make wudu in the morning or anytime during the course of the day and you put your socks on, you have a day and a night to wipe on that sock. Wiping on the sock, or the mess on the sock, is from the Sunnah.
Rasulullah, as Anas ibn Malik said: كَانَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ يَمْسَحُ عَلَى التَّسَاخِينِ - Rasulullah used to wipe upon the tasakheen.
ARABIC TEXT (CRITICAL - PRESERVE EXACTLY)
The Story of Iblis
Then he brought the verse to prove that point. Allah said about Iblis:
"And when We said to the angels: Prostrate to Adam, they prostrated except Iblis. He refused and was arrogant, and became of the disbelievers."
Remember when We said to the angels: All of you should make sajdah to Adam. So all of the angels made sajdah to Adam, but Iblis refused and was arrogant. He refused because of his Kibr, and he was from the disbelievers, and he became as such.
He went on to say, may Allah have mercy on him: Therefore, this verse shows anyone who has the Kibr that Iblis had, then his Iman or his faith will not benefit him one bit. So Kibr, O my brothers, can put a person outside the fold of Islam.
To reject something that Allah has ordered in Islam and you say: No, Al-Jihad—because they're putting pressure on us, I don't believe it, it's not from the religion—and you apologize and you erase it. That is Kufr.
Allah has legislated it, and we accept it the way He legislated it. But the way He legislated it is—again, we repeat and reiterate—Al-Jihad has its people, its time, its place, its system. It is organized. It has been legislated to save lives, to save the money, to save the blood, and to eradicate fitnah from the earth.
Jihad was not legislated to create chaos and confusion. That's not from the religion of Islam. So whether it's Jihad or other than that, we accept it, we embrace it, because it's from Allah.
Hadith Qudsi: Allah's Greatness and Pride
He went on to say about the hadith of Rasulullah, the Qudsi hadith:
"Verily, My Greatness is My Izar (lower garment) and Pride is My Rida' (upper garment). Whoever competes with Me in either of them, I will cast him into the Fire." (Hadith Qudsi - Sahih)
Verily, My greatness or My Izar is My greatness. The Izar is the bottom portion that we wear when we make Umrah. They call it here the longi, what the Yemeni people wear. You wrap that lower portion around your waist and it goes down. He said: That is My عظمة My Izar.
And My رداء the one you wear on the top arrogance, pride-is My رداء. Does Allah wear that? Obviously it's not talking about Allah wearing clothes. He said: Whoever competes with Me in either one of these, he competes in trying to be great like I'm العظيم or he competes with Me in pride or arrogance, I will punish him. I will throw him in the Hellfire.
Example of Muhammad Ali
I had the opportunity of meeting the famous boxer Muhammad Ali. The Arabs call him Muhammad Ali Clay. Muhammad Ali, heavyweight champion of the world. He's probably one of the world's most well-known Muslims. I met Muhammad Ali in Chicago.
He can barely speak and he's trembling because of Alzheimer's disease. He said to me and a group of people who were there, when the issue of his statement came up, when he used to say: "I'm the greatest, I'm the greatest." He said: If I could take that word back, I wouldn't have said it in the first place, because maybe my condition right now is a result of what I used to say: I'm the greatest, I'm the greatest.
He didn't mean that he was greater than Allah. He meant that at that particular time, when African Americans were being oppressed and they were fighting for their civil rights and civil liberties and were being terrorized by the American government and being prevented from their rights as they still are—they have some nerve to call people terrorists; they're terrorizing black people in America.
Back then it was worse—sicking dogs on people, on old ladies and old men. Muhammad Ali used to beat up white people and say: I'm the greatest, I'm the greatest—trying to get young black people to look at him as a champion to tell them that they can be somebody.
Is that acceptable in Islam? No, that's not acceptable, because the hadith said: Whoever competes with Me in My pride or in My greatness, I'm going to punish him or throw him in the Hellfire. It may be that Allah tried Muhammad Ali with that disease because of that statement, or maybe other than that. Allahu a'lam.
But it definitely shows, O my brothers, that the Muslim man and the Muslim woman have to be careful with what comes out of your mouth. Even if you don't mean what that particular word is suggesting.
In a state of anger, you say to your wife: I hope the baby dies. She says: I don't want this baby, I hope the baby dies. And Allah, He allows that dua, that statement, because it was during the time of the hour in which the dua is accepted.
So the Muslim has to be careful and conscious of what comes out of his mouth. Whoever competes with Allah in al-kibr, Allah is going to oppress, Allah is going to punish him if that's what He chooses to do.
Hadith: Paradise and Hellfire Dispute
He brought the hadith of the Prophet, and the chapter is almost finished:
"Paradise and the Hellfire had an argument and they raised their complaint to their Lord. Paradise said: O my Lord, what is it about me that the weak and the downtrodden are those who enter me? And the Hellfire said: As for my case, my Lord, what is my situation that those who enter me are the arrogant and the oppressors?"
The fiqh of the hadith is clear. Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi is simply showing, clearly showing, that if you are a person who has al-kibr or you are a tyrant, then that's the place for the people of the Fire.
The people of humility, the people who recognize they're not better than anyone else because of their color, because of their tribe, because of their class, because of their economic standing, because of their social standing—people recognize all those affairs are what Allah distributed upon the servants as He wished and wanted.
No one is better than the next man because of that. Those people who work like that in this religion, they go to Paradise.
Hadith: The Man Who Ate with His Left Hand
So Allah's Prophet said in the last hadith that Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi brought before the last hadith (which is not authentic):
(Sahih Muslim)
"A man ate with his left hand in the presence of the Prophet. He said: Eat with your right hand. The man said: I cannot. Nothing prevented him except arrogance. So the Prophet said: May you not be able to. And he was never able to raise it to his mouth again."
That he's a Muslim because he has certain characteristics. From the characteristics is he's not musbil. The Muslim does not wear anything below his ankle bone. He is a person who is humble and sees himself as being humble. But if he's musbil, having al-isbal is a part of kibr even if you don't do it with the intent of being mutakabbir.
He told Muslim ibn Jameel and Jabir ibn Muslim:
"Beware of having something below your ankles. Barely anything below your ankle is arrogance."
And he didn't mention like the other hadith: مَنْ جَرَّ ثَوْبَهُ خُيَلَاءَ – Whoever drags his clothes with arrogance.
Yeah, that means it's even worse he's doing it because of arrogance. And it's just not in your thobe and below the ankle bone.
Al-isbal is in your sleeve. Al-isbal is in the imamah. Al-isbal, O my brothers, is the woman who gets married and she has a long dress and she needs 25 of her nieces to walk behind her with the dress.
That's al-isbal. Not only do our women not dress like that—that's not the way of the nikah in Islam—but it is an added problem in that it is arrogance. It goes to show that the person is saying: Look at me, I have money to waste. What is all of that material for? Just to say I can waste money.
The man wants to get married and he has to go and rent a long vehicle, a Hummer from the door to this table, to drive it through the streets and beep the horn so the people can say: Look at the money we have to waste on this day. That's from our culture now in Birmingham.
And the person can't even afford it. You're wasting money. That's kibr.
The majority of the people have kibr. So al-isbal, O my brothers, is in all of that. The rich people in the past would have extra clothing to show: Look, I got money to waste. That's why it's not permissible in Islam to put curtains on the wall, to cover the wall completely with a curtain. It's from al-kibr. Islam didn't allow it.
Islam didn't allow us to sit on top of the lion skin, the tiger skin. That's what the kings used to do. So he told us: Don't sit on top of the lion skin, the tiger skin, to say: Look, I'm like a king, I got money.
So the point is, O my brothers, as we sit here, we've been conquered in our countries and colonized. In most instances, they gave us our freedom, but our minds are still colonized. Because the Muslim finds it—he wants to leave alone the Sunnah of Abul Qasim that will set him free.
And follow the sunnah of the colonizers. If you know the history of colonization, you know that everywhere the Muslims were colonized, there were individuals from the leaders of the Muslims and groups that came to help the colonizers. The Qadiyani movement was started by one of those people.
We still have the same issue today. So the point is, Al-Isbal is from Al-Kibr. If you ask the Muslim: Why are you Musbil? He won't have anything to say other than: It doesn't look right in the realm in which our corporate America, corporate UK—this way that I look is what's acceptable.
But as a Muslim, O my brothers, we have to do our best to make Jihad, to establish our Islamic identity.
The Etiquette of Using the Bathroom
So in this hadith, look what happened. The man was sitting, Rasulullah told the man: Hey, the man was eating with his left hand, with that left hand that's used for the dirty things. As we mentioned the other day, now that we have more people, we want to mention this, because this athar should be an athar that you should remember doing these days.
With Salman Al-Farisi. Salman Al-Farisi, the Ajami, from the companions of Rasulullah. The Yahudi wanted to have istihzaat, he wanted to be sarcastic with Salman Al-Farisi, to make him afraid about his religion and apologetic about his religion.
So the Yahudi said to Salman:
"Verily your Prophet, your Nabi, has taught you people everything. He even taught you how to go to the bathroom."
Making istihzaat. Salman Al-Farisi didn't say: Oh I'm sorry, yes he did, I'm sorry. He didn't apologize.
He said: أَجَلْ – That's right, he did.
"That's right, he taught us everything, even how to go to the bathroom. He taught us that we should not face the Qibla when we use the bathroom either way—face it or turn away from our Qibla. He also taught us that we should clean ourselves and we shouldn't use our right hands, only with the left hand. He also taught us that when we purify ourselves with al-istijmar, we should not use less than three rocks. If you're going to use rocks, then don't use less than three. And he taught us not to use bones or dried dung of animals." (Sahih Muslim)
He used to use the right hand for what was clean: shaking hands, giving things, eating, drinking, taking things. When he gives the khutbah, he would say: أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا الله when he made the shahadah, he would put his finger up in the air with his right hand. He would make the dhikr of Allah with his right hand. He wouldn't do that with his left hand.
Today the Muslim is embarrassed to say that we use rocks for al-istijmar. The environment they used to have was like that, and you may find yourself in that type of situation where you can use al-istijmar. Instead of apologizing, be proud.
Proud, not arrogant pride. Be proud that our religion has the system where we use toilet tissue. Because if you can use rocks, you can use toilet tissue. That's the fiqh of Islam. Don't be apologetic.
He was answering the call of nature. He told one of the companions: Go give me some rocks. The man went, the boy went, and he brought back some bones and some rocks mixed in.
Rasulullah told him: This is the food of our brothers from the jinn. Don't use it.
The Muslim is apologetic to say something like that to the people. The ant spoke to Sulaiman. The Muslim is apologetic because the kuffar said: You really believe ants spoke to a man? Nah, we believe the ant spoke to the man. We believe the bird spoke to the man. We believe the camel spoke to our Prophet.
They really look at that, O my brothers, as being really strange. So you people are fanatic. This is the problem with religion—it makes intelligent people bury their intellect.
No, that's the problem with intellect. When it's not bridled and harnessed, it goes beyond the limits that have been ordained by Allah. And it rejects what it has no right to reject, what Allah didn't reveal to Sultan for it to reject.
So the man said, when he told him: Eat with your right hand. The man said: I can't.
Nothing prevented him from changing his hands other than kibr. The narrator of the hadith said: After that, he became paralyzed, and he wasn't able to raise his left hand to his mouth again.
Why? Because he had kibr as it relates to the Quran and the Sunnah when it comes to him. No, it's only the Sunnah. It's only what Allah ordered me to do, but I don't have to do it. I'm not going to do it.
So that is a sign for us, O my brothers, as it relates to being arrogant and opposing and repelling the Sunnah of Rasul Allah.
Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi's Warning to Students of Knowledge
The last hadith that he brought is not authentic, so we're not going to mention it.
We'll end with the last statement of Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi for the students of knowledge in our masjid. Anyone who considers himself to be a student of knowledge, or he wants to tread the path of the ulama and the students of knowledge, Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi said:
He said: And the worst type of arrogance is the arrogance that the people have as a result of the knowledge that they were given.
Allah blessed the person with knowledge, so he becomes puffed up with pride and he sees himself as having some virtues over the other people. He said: Verily, this individual never received any benefit from the knowledge that he acquired.
Whoever goes out to seek knowledge for the Hereafter, the knowledge in itself will make him humble and lower him. His heart will become fearful. He will see his nafs as being low. Because the more knowledge that he has, the more he becomes humble.
He said: The individual who goes out to get the knowledge in order to get benefit in the Hereafter, he is the one who is always having to make hisaab and he's reckoning his own self.
As for the one who becomes incognizant of this reality, then he has deviated from the correct way and he has been destroyed by the knowledge.
Whoever goes after the knowledge in order to become a leader and in front of the people, or in order to brag and boast with pride, and in order to look down upon the Muslims and make them seem as if they're ignorant, they're stupid, they're idiots -this is the individual who has fallen into one of the greatest forms and manifestations of al-kibr.
And the one who has one speck of kibr in his heart, he will not enter into the Jannah. There's no power and no might except with Allah.
Warning Against Arrogance Among People of Knowledge
O my brothers, there are some people with knowledge that we have met in the Muslim world and other than that. If you just want to – because you have a good opinion about his particular position – you want to just give him salams, and he treats the people as if they're dirt. He doesn't want to look at you, he doesn't even want to acknowledge your presence.
We're not talking about the one who has a position like he's the imam of the Haram of Mecca and he has to get in and out of the Haram every day to make salah, and everyone wants to stop him and touch him and greet him with sincerity because they want to meet the imam of the Haram of Mecca. But he can't stop to greet every individual. Because he keeps going, we say he's arrogant. No, that's not fair. He can't stop to greet every single human being.
But we're talking about those individuals who they don't have those type of demands on their time and they don't have that type of position. When you meet them, they look down at you. You have to stand up when they come into the room.
If he comes into the room, you have to stand up. But if another regular person from the Muslim comes into the room, the people don't stand up for him. So it's social hypocrisy.
If he dies, we'll pray Salatul Janazah for him. But the regular normal Muslim, we're not going to pray for him. Social hypocrisy.
We recognize people's different positions, but (الْمُسْلِمُونَ تَتَكَافَأُ دِمَاؤُهُمْ - Al-Muslimūna tatakāfa'u dimā'uhum) The Muslims, their blood is equal. No one's blood is more important than the next man's blood.
So the worst type of kibr is the kibr that comes as a result of a person having been endowed with knowledge.
"Those people who fear Allah from His servants are the ones who have knowledge."
The more knowledge he has, the more he becomes humble, because the more knowledge he has, the more he realizes he doesn't know much. The less amount of knowledge he has, the more he thinks he knows. He memorizes 40 hadith and now he's a mufti giving fatawa about the blood and the privates and the monies of people.
That's a problem we're dealing with today. From our youth are those people who read a book or two or three. They've been guided to the right way. As a result of that, they have الكبر They don't know how to treat people and they don't know how to rectify the affairs.
Knowledge should increase an individual in humility.
Conclusion: The Parable of Water and Humility
As At-Tabi' Al-Hasan Al-Basri used to say, when he used to tell his students to look at the signs of Allah concerning the land, the earth: When it rains, the water is caught in the lowest parts of the earth. The earth, when it has holes in it, the parts that catch the water—it's not the mountain, the high part of the earth. It's the place where there are holes and the earth has sunken in.
So the lesson he was trying to teach them is: The one who has knowledge, the water—the one who has knowledge is the individual who is humble. He's approachable. You can talk to him. He can spend time with you.
But we have to be balanced as we mentioned before. That doesn't mean that every scholar has to sit with you in your personal affair every day all day. It doesn't mean that.
So we're going to stop here, InshaAllah.