Arrogance

Khutbah: Arrogance

Sheikh Yassir Fazaga

Opening

Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

Al-hamdu lillahi rabbil alameen, wassalatu wassalamu ala ashrafil anbiyai wal mursaleen, nabiyyina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajmain.

Introduction

The Quran calls that certain behaviors are not befitting to a Muslim. You cannot be a believer and at the same time be guilty of certain types of behavior. The Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) said that such kind of a person would not be admitted to Paradise.

And that is the concept of arrogance. I begin by greeting my brothers and sisters, As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.

Just listening to how the world is responding, the different communities, the pledges that were made about the tsunami that took place. Then I remembered that December 10th is a day that was designated for human rights, to acknowledge human rights. And I thought about it and I said, that's interesting that we're talking about human rights because nowadays our problems are not really human rights, our problem is acknowledging humans for being humans. And that is why, subhanAllah, you see that the reaction is very different when certain type of people pass away and then other type of people pass away.

You see that the reaction is not equal and the reaction is not the same. And the world that we are in today can really be classified into two kinds of people. Our world today is a reflection of mutakabbirin wa mustad'afin.

Our world is a group of arrogant tyrants and then we've got the exploited and the poor people. So it's about istikbar, arrogance and pride and then it's about istid'af. It is about weakening that specific segment of society.

Story of Wasiba ibn Ma'bad

It was said that one time a man by the name of Wasiba ibn Ma'bad and we will see how this will tie in. Wasiba ibn Ma'bad, one time he is thinking to himself in the evening. He said, tomorrow morning when I go for the fajr prayers, I'm going to ask the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) to define for me what sin is and what righteousness is.

What is sin? What is righteousness? So he said, I am determined. He woke up in the morning and he went to the masjid, fajr prayers, thinking that this will be the best time to get a hold of the Prophet peace be upon him. But the minute he got there, the masjid was full.

And he can see the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) but there is no access to the Prophet peace be upon him. And what does he start doing? He says, I've got to ask that question. I have to ask my question.

So he starts pushing on the side. Please excuse me, I'm going there. And people are saying, Wasiba sit down, you came in late.

And he's saying, no, no, no, I have to talk to the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) today. I have. He said, the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) looked at me and smiled.

Which means that, you know, keep coming your way. Assured him that, keep coming. He said, I got so close to the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) as he was sitting down, he said, I sat down.

And my knees were touching his knees. And he said, Prophet of Allah, I have a question for you. The Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) said, Wasiba, I can answer your question before you ask it, or you may ask your question and then I will answer it for you.

Wasiba is very surprised. He said, Prophet of Allah, please answer my question before I ask it. The Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) said, Wasiba, you are here this morning to inquire about what is righteousness and what is sin.

Wasiba looks at the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) and says, by Allah, this is exactly what I came to ask for. The Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) and listen to this very carefully, he said:

(Sahih Muslim Hadith 2553)

He said, Righteousness is about having a good character. And then he said, Sin is that which pricks in your heart and you don't want it to be publicized to be, you don't want to get exposed as you are doing it.

So now the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) said if you have an alive conscious, that conscious is one of the means of knowing whether what you are doing is sinful or it is not. But that is not our concern. Our concern is where the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) says that righteousness is about having good character.

The Importance of Good Character

In other words, the ultimate, the highest level, the best illustration and expression of religiosity, the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) is saying, it is in having good character. So you want to see the religiosity of a person? See their character. How does Islam, how do the rituals that they perform, how does that impact their character? Are they better people when they leave salah? Are they better at the end of Ramadan than they were before the beginning of the month of Ramadan? And that is why the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) would constantly speak to people about the importance of having good character.

Being good, somebody that is full of magnanimity, a propriety and what have you. So the Quran calls in and the way the Quran invites to good character. So that you must have as believers, you must have good characters.

O ye who believe, be conscious of Allah, and be amongst those who are truthful.

The Story of the Village and the Milk

Speak the truth. You cannot claim to be a believer yet and do not speak the truth. And subhanallah, it is this kind of character that would keep a community, a society together.

It was said that one time there was a village and the village decided that they were going to have a milk drive. And that we're going to donate milk for the poor children in a neighboring village. So they decided that they're going to have a big huge bucket and they asked every person if they can bring a cup of milk and just dump it there in the evening when they go back home so that in the morning the bucket will be full of milk.

Now this is supposed to be done after Maghrib and in the evening when it's dark. So this person thought to himself and he said, you know, the whole village is going to be donating milk. Nobody would notice if I take some water with me and instead of me putting the milk, I'll put water and what's one cup of water in the midst of a thousand cups of milk? Nobody will even miss my milk.

Nobody would notice that. So he goes there and he tells himself and it's dark and nobody sees what you have and he pours his cup of water. In the morning, after Fajr prayer or in the morning when the sun has risen, the whole village goes there to take pride in what they have accomplished and see the bucket that they have filled with milk.

They go there after the salah and to the surprise of everybody when they open the bucket, it was full of what? It was full of water. Okay, now can you really say that this is a community of believers? Is this really an illustration of the ayah:

of Allah and be amongst those who tell the truth. Subhanallah, sometimes we justify to ourselves saying, these are just small lies.

When the real thing happens, I'm going to tell the truth. But you know what happens when the real thing happens? We just tell a bigger lie. That's really what happens.

Nothing changed, but we just tell a bigger lie. So the Quran calls that certain behaviors are not befitting to a Muslim. You cannot be a believer and at the same time, claim or be guilty of certain types of behavior.

The Definition of Arrogance

And this is what we'll be talking about here tonight inshallah, and that is the concept of arrogance. Where you belittle people, look down upon people. It is not befitting.

In the hadith, the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) said:

(Sahih Muslim Hadith 91)

They won't be admitted to paradise. He who has even an atom's weight of arrogance in their heart. There is another hadith that we recite often.

The Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) said:

(Sahih Muslim Hadith 2564)

He said, Allah does not consider you because of your physical appearance and He does not consider you because of your facial appearance. He said, rather Allah looks into your heart.

We have a very important question to ask here. Is your heart worthy of the gaze of Allah? Is your heart worthy of the gaze of Allah?

Because Allah won't consider any of what you look like. But rather Allah is going to look into your heart.

And the question that we have is, is your heart worthy of Allah's gaze? Because that's where Allah is going to be gazing at. And that's why subhanallah, again, the Quran deals with the concept of the heart because that's where almost everything emanates from our heart. So Allah subhanallah says, that is what needs to be purified.

And certain things do not really belong into our hearts. They must be taken from our heart. And here the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) said, that a person who has an atom weight of arrogance in their heart, they will not be admitted to Paradise.

No such punishment, no such statement is said about anybody else that is guilty of anything else.

However, the person who is guilty of pride and arrogance, the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) said, that such kind of a person will not be admitted to Paradise. And we see that in the life of the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ)

The Prophet's Humility

He was a true expression of humility. Now, they say that a beautiful description of humility. They said that it is easy to be humble when you are brought low.

Everybody can be humble at that time. But they say that to be humble when you are praised is a rare and is a great attainment. And the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) was a true expression of such a life.

His life was a true expression of such a behavior. So we see this man, the Prophet peace be upon him, and how he dealt with people. And he is a messenger from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, yet he was not arrogant.

We'll take several examples to illustrate this idea. One time it was said that the Prophet peace be upon him went out with his companions.

And they came to an area where they needed to camp.

So they were going to settle there for a while. So one person said, Prophet of Allah, I'm going to slaughter the animal. Another person said, Prophet of Allah, I'm going to skin it.

Another person said, Prophet of Allah, I'm going to cut the meat. The Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) said, I will collect the sticks to make up the fire. So somebody said, Prophet of Allah, we'll take care of it.

We will do it. Don't worry about that. Then the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) said, I don't like to be distinguished amongst my companions.

I like to be one of them, be one of the of the masses. Now what is beautiful about the hadith is what? Is that the Prophet peace be upon him, he chose the least significant act to do. When was the last time you remember and you commented on your wife's cooking and you said that fire was really good? Nobody says that.

You comment on the cooking. You comment on everything, but nobody really remembers the fire that was made. So the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم said, the idea is to participate and the idea is not to get praised.

So what does he pick? He picked the least significant of all the works. Now do the politicians act this way nowadays? In the midst of suffering that is taking place, it has gotten so bad that they say that some of the TV channels, they've gotten so aggressive. There was a woman in Sri Lanka and she was about to put her baby in the grave that she just dug.

The cameraman came to her and said, can you please hold the baby to the camera? Just tells you how insensitive, desensitized, despicable and disgraceful it has gotten. That at the expense of the suffering of other people, we can say exclusively a dead baby was given to our camera. But the idea is what? They don't care.

No matter who is suffering, this is going to be a time where I'm going to improve my image. Not that these people are worthy of my help and they're worthy of our sympathy. That is not the case.

It's just going to make me look good. Politicians are best at it. To them, this is heaven.

Can you imagine me being there, pictures being taken of me, pretending to be a feeling for these poor people? Next time, the pictures will be there when we are on an election year. To say that I am a very merciful, I'm a very kind person. Now I'm very, I don't like politicians a lot.

Said that one time there was a bus load of politicians. And the bus was driving and suddenly the bus gets into an accident. The tire bursts and the bus rolls over and, you know, people are there.

So a farmer comes and he sees the politicians and he digs this big grave and he starts throwing them in to bury them. So the next morning, the police sees the incident and they came to him and they're investigating. And they said, did you bury the politicians? And he said, yes, I buried every single one of them.

And the policeman said, were they all dead or were some alive? He said, well, some were telling me they were alive, but you know that all politicians lie. So I thought they were lying to me. Okay.

But what happens is that this is what's going on. Where the leaders, instead of really sympathizing with their people and behave in such a manner, they've got, they've taken and seized these opportunities. Like we said to them, this is heaven.

And what they're doing, they're using it to their advantage. But the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم did not act like this. And that is why when you see the Prophet, peace be upon him, he was always representing those who were never represented.

He was always speaking on behalf of those that were always marginalized and they were forgotten and no one would even mention them, speak about them or any of that. See, one time the Prophet, peace be upon him, his masjid was being kept clean by an unsung hero.

There's so many unsung heroes out there.

They do the good because it's good. They do the good because they feel that it elevates their status, not with people, but with their Creator, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So there was this lady, they described her saying that she was a black lady.

And she was cleaning the masjid of the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم on daily basis. People come in, the masjid is clean. Don't know who cleaned it, but the masjid is clean.

So the Prophet, peace be upon him, two days he doesn't see her. And he said, you know, there was a lady that cleaned the masjid every single day. What happened to her? Said, Prophet of Allah, she passed away two days ago.

So we thought that, you know, you're too busy for us to let you know about her. And the hadith said, they belittled her affair. She was not an important person.

She was not a person that everybody knew. So the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم said, why did you not tell me? But then you remember the people that are marginalized, that are not, that are forgotten, never remembered. Said, Prophet of Allah, we thought that you would not care.

But they forgot that they were talking to Muhammad صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم. So what does he say? Say, show me where her grave is. You show me where her grave is.

And the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم went there and he offered the funeral prayers on her. See that the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمhe will be sitting with his companions and then a better one would come in and they would say, the better one doesn't know anything, doesn't know what's going on. And he would be asking, where is Muhammad? Which one of you is Muhammad? Because they said that the man would come in and he would not even be able to distinguish which is Muhammad صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم.

People went and they met with the Caesars and they came back and they said, Prophet of Allah, we went to these people. And what we saw is that they had these big beautiful gowns that are made of gold. We saw that they had thrones that they sat on.

Prophet of Allah, we respect you more. We love you more. We want you to be like that.

We want to show our respect like that. What does the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم say? Good idea. Yes, Lord, I stood.

Prophet, yes, Lord, I stood. No, this is not a contest for popularity. That's not what you do when you are in that position.

So the better one would come and he would ask, which one is Muhammad? And they will say, this is Muhammad صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم. And the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم was not distinguished as a result. You see that the Prophet, peace be upon him, would remind people of this concept.

The Value of People

One time as they're sitting down, a man passes by. And the Prophet, peace be upon him, said, what do you think of this man? How would you consider him? Where would you place him? Where would you classify him? Said, Prophet of Allah, this man comes from such a poor family. Prophet of Allah, they are not known to have great wealth.

They're not known to be amongst the elites of the community. Prophet of Allah, he is poor. And to be honest with you, if he ever makes a proposal, his proposal should not be considered.

Don't even consider it. The Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم does not say anything. Few minutes later, another man passes by.

And the Prophet, peace be upon him, said, and what do you think of this man? Said, Prophet of Allah, he comes from good family and they are very rich. And Prophet of Allah, if he ever makes a proposal, his proposal should be taken very, very seriously. What does the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم say? He said, he said, one of one of a kind of that very first person.

He said, he said, one of that kind of a person, the very first guy, he said, it's better than if the whole earth were to be filled with the second kind of people. Why is this? Because again, it is the fact that we make our judgment on the basis of what people look like. Or how much they have or how much they do not have.

Wallahi, brothers and sisters, please do not misunderstand me. I am not racist, but I see, I know racism when I see racism. Had this catastrophe taken anywhere else, the response would have been different.

Had their westernness not died in this catastrophe, the reaction would be very, very different. You say, how can you say that? It's all over the BBC. It's on CNN.

We see it on the news day and night. I say, yes, because it's sensational. It captivates those who are watching it.

And that's why it's there. Remember a year ago when the earthquake took place in Bam, and you see that, you know, all the pledges that were made and the money that the people would promise and we're going to reconstruct and these leaders and politicians went there and we are pledging to give the help

and the aid and what did they get of it? Seventeen million dollars. They were promised billions, but all they got of it was seventeen million dollars.

I was listening to the news and it was so ironic. They said that the G8, the summit, the G8 summit, they had a meeting and in the meeting they decided that they needed to help the countries that are affected by the tsunami. So they looked deep in their very, very soft hearts.

They looked deep in their very compassionate, kind, merciful hearts. And what did they say? For a period of time, we are going to suspend the payments on the debts that you owe us. Not that we're going to cancel the debts, we're just going to suspend the payments for right now.

You don't have to be making the payments. See, that is sheer arrogance. That is really the description of what arrogance is.

When people belittle, and that's what the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم described arrogance to be. They said, Rasul Allah, what is arrogance? The Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم said:

(Sahih Muslim Hadith 91)

He said, it is to reject the truth when you know it is the truth. And then he said, it is the belittling of people.

Belittling of people. How do you belittle people? You can belittle people by your attitude towards them. You can belittle them by what you say to them, by how you do physically to them.

And sometimes by the way that you do not consider them. That is part of arrogance. The Prophet صلی الله عليه وسلم would teach us.

But the idea is, in the example of the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمhe said, of all things that are not befitting to a character of a believer is that a believer is never arrogant. We also see that the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم would not just do this in public.

Because see sometimes, subhanallah, we are good in public because it makes us look good.

So in public we pretend to be very nice and gentle and always have a big smile on our face. And then when we go home, we are just, you know, Fir'aun. We are all our pharaohs there.

Okay, so the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم knows this about people. So they say:

(Sunan at-Tirmidhi 3895)

The best amongst you are those who are best to their families.

Many times the whole country can count on you, but your own family cannot count on you. Everybody knows that they can call you at any time and you will be of service to them except your family, they can never call you and you are never at service to them. So the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم was asked, Aisha was asked, she said, how was the Prophet peace be upon him? She said:

She said that whenever the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم would enter to his house, she said that he met his family with a cheerful face. And then she said, and he was at the service of his family. And they would talk about him and they would say:

He would wash his own clothes, and he would be fixing his own shoes. And sometimes he would even be helping the family.

Faqal ya Rasulallah, nahnu nakfika hadha. They would say, Prophet of Allah, we will do it for you. These are his wife and his daughter would say this.

And the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم would say:

Should I not then be at your service for just few hours, few minutes? But that was such the character of the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم. As far as arrogance is concerned.

The Dangers of Arrogance

Now what happens is sometimes we have a misunderstanding of what humility is and what arrogance is. Al-Hasan ibn Ali radiallahu anhuma said one beautiful statement. He said, annihilation of people lies in three.

Three characteristics. When people are guilty of it, he said that is just their annihilation. And he said they are arrogance, greed, and envy.

So the minute this exists in any community, so that is it. It is the end. When people are arrogant, it means that because of the haughtiness that they have given themselves, they've got to push somebody else down.

And then when they are greedy, what happens is that they do not, they are not concerned about the affairs of other people. And when they are envious or jealous, they are not bothered by their own failures,

rather what bothers them is the success of the other people. So Al-Hasan said, here in this statement he said the annihilation of people lies in three.

And one of them was arrogance, and greed, and envy. And that's why the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) would speak so much of this. And he would say, Say that Allah has revealed to me that you should humble yourself, that you should live with humility, so that nobody boasts over the other person.

You do not do this. Brothers and sisters, arrogance is a vain, it's not good. It's a vain attitude, act, or habit of exalting oneself.

Arrogance owns importance, arising from an assumption of one's superiority over others, regarding one's fame, knowledge, achievement, physical features, strength, culture, rank, or religiosity. So it's just a feeling that you have about your own self, assuming that you are superior over others. For what reasons? Could be any of this.

Physical achievement, knowledge, achievement, how much money you've got, physical features. So that, because of this you feel that you are arrogant. And most important also because of your religiosity.

Because the worst type of arrogance is what we call the arrogance of the self-proclaimed righteous people. See, as righteous people sometimes, people can be very arrogant when they self-proclaim themselves as righteous people. So what happens is that, to illustrate this, there was a man by the name of Abdullah ibn Himar.

And Abdullah ibn Himar was a good Muslim, but he was weak. He had a problem with alcohol. He would drink.

And every now and then he would be brought, you know, to be rebuked and scolded by the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) for what he's guilty of. So one time when he was brought to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) people were just getting tired of this man being brought there all the time. So what did they say?

Ya Rasulullah, la'an.

So the Prophet of Allah cursed this man. Cursing, he drinks all the time. So what does the Prophet (صلی الله عليه وسلم) say? The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) says:

(Sahih al-Bukhari 6780)

said, do not curse him for he loves Allah and His Messenger.

It may be surprising, but I would have loved to be that man. I would have loved to be that man. The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said and testified on his behalf and he said, this man loves Allah and His

Messenger.

Now we can make the claim that we love Allah and His Messenger, but we do not have Muhammad (صلی الله عليه وسلم) to say, yes, they are telling the truth. But this man, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said that he loves Allah and His Messenger. Now please do not misunderstand this to be a promotion that a person can do and go out there and drink and get, you know, dozed off and then wakes up in the morning and say, I love Allah and His Messenger.

We won't have the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) to testify on your behalf there. But what is happening is that sometimes, yes, people who've got better hearts than most, people who've got purer hearts, sound hearts, that we may disregard them and we are so full of ourselves, we're so consumed and possessed with our own so-called religiosity that we look down upon, that we look down upon other people. And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) would say, make sure that this is not the case.

True Humility

Imam Ja'far, he would say something that is so beautiful. He would say, be careful of hypocritical humility. He said, where the body appears humble, but the heart is not humble.

He said, your body, physically, you look like a very humble person. But in reality, he said that your heart, because that's where arrogance is, that's where it emanates from, he said, your heart is not a humble heart. Rather, your heart is a very, very arrogant, arrogant heart.

See, brothers and sisters, they say that, like I said earlier, it's very easy to be humble when you are being brought low. Like that small child, he said, it's very easy to be brave when you are not scared. He said, it's easy to be brave when you're not scared.

Similarly also, it's easy to be humble when you're being put low. True meaning of humbleness is when, he said that when you are at your highest, you can still know who you are and where you stand. And this is so beautifully illustrated by the action and behavior of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) when he conquered Mecca.

He went there and here are the people that tortured him. Here are the people that persecuted him at his mercy. He could have done whatever he wanted to them and he would be justified in the process.

And some of the companions, they took their swords out and they were waving and saying:

Today, we're going to make this a slaughterhouse. The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said,كلا, that's not the case.

Indeed, today is going to be a day when we are going to illustrate compassion, forgiveness and kindness. So he comes in there and what does he say? He starts boasting about himself.

He stays very, very low, said that his beard was touching his chest down here. And what happened? They said that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) would say that, you know, that this is not the time to do this, but rather, this is not the time to boast, but rather, this is the time to be grateful to Allah جل جلاله Brothers and sisters, true humility is not an abject. It's not gobbling self-despising spirit where you just feel sorry about yourself.

That's not the case. They say it is but a right estimate of ourselves as God sees us. How does God see us? Said at that point, subhanAllah, you get to know yourself.

And that is why we also say that it's very easy to look down upon others, but it is very difficult to look down upon ourselves. However, a man who knows God will be humble. A man who knows himself will never be proud.

A man who knows God will be humble. And a man who knows himself will never be proud. People may think that it's far-fetched.

But a great part of our problems nowadays, they're emanating because of this concept of arrogance where the rich are looking down upon the poor. So polarized, the whites and the blacks are looking down upon one another. Men and women are looking down upon one another.

People from the southern hemisphere are being looked down by the people from the northern hemisphere. And in the process, what happens is that we see atrocities taking place. We see unjustified suffering taking place.

Global Perspective on Arrogance

Humanitarian Day, when it was announced, the 10th of December, on that particular day, 24,000 people die every single day because they are hungry. 24,000 people die every single day because they are hungry. You know what that is? That is one person every 2.43 seconds.

By the time that will be done with this, thousands of people would have died. 2.43 seconds, a person is dead. Why are they dead? Because they're hungry.

Are they hungry because there is no food in the world? The world has never known such mass production of food as we have it nowadays. But those who possess it are so arrogant that those who are die-hungry, they are not worthy of it. And that's what the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said.

It is your attitude, the attitude that you have towards other people. Because you are rich, and sometimes we think that because we appear to be religious, it gives us a green license or a green light that we can put down people who do not appear to be as religious as we are. See, brothers and sisters, the Prophet

(صلى الله عليه وسلم) said, Allah is going not consider you by your physical appearance or what you look like, but rather Allah is going to look into your heart.

The question that we have is, is our heart worthy of the gaze of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? And for this, if it is not, then we have got to go through muhasaba, self-accountability. We have got to go through mujahada, where we struggle with ourselves to truly purify ourselves, and then we've got to go through the process of tazkiyah, where we would acknowledge, we would pinpoint as to what it is that needs to be changed about our hearts, and we would have to take it from there. Very quickly, four things to be done.

Say that in the name of Allah, what do we do? In the name of Allah, soften your heart, strengthen your body, and sharpen your mind.

These are the elements of success. In the name of Allah, in that whatever we do, there's got to be a higher purpose than ourselves in it.

What do you do? Soften your heart in order to make a difference, in order to bring about a change, you've got to soften your heart, especially when you see the suffering of other people, especially when you see the mistakes of the others, especially whatever it is, it takes compassion and change and not really hate and what have you. Soften your heart, strengthen your body, take care of your own personal self, and then also remember to sharpen your mind. Nowadays, the kind of world that we live in, with all the ideological dictatorship that is taking place, the only way that you can liberate yourself is through education.

And that's why they say, libraries are the arsenals for liberties. You've got to be, if you want to be liberated, you've got to be educated, brothers and sisters. And the tsunami that took place, as bad as it is, and our condolences goes to all those who have suffered, those who have lost loved ones or position or possession or wealth or health over this.

Remember, as bad as it is, it also provides us with an opportunity to bring about a change. See, this is an opportunity to do good. Like I said, the politicians have seized it as an opportunity to look good, not to do good, but rather to look good.

Others are stealing the aid that is going there. The money that is donated to these poor and needy people is being filtered in this channels of bureaucracy where it's, by the end of it, very, very little of it is reaching those who are poor. We can say this and then hold back, that's not the case.

How can we best make a difference, brothers and sisters? Collectively, insha'Allah, we can make a difference, we should make a difference, but in order to do so, we have got to humble ourselves. We have got to feel for the suffering of others. And how do you humble yourself? The more you know of God, the humbler you become.

The more you know of yourself, you can never be a proud man or woman. With this, insha'Allah, we come to the conclusion.

Closing

Jazakumullahu khair for being very supportive.

I'd like to say jazakumullahu khair for your hospitality and the respect and the love that you have shown to us. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reward you best. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us of those who are facilitators of peace and justice for all.

Say Ameen. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us of those who render justice. Not only for those who look like us, but also for those who do not look like us.

May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us among those who love peace and justice. Not only for those who like us, but also for those who dislike us. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us among those who want peace and justice, even if it be in favor of our enemy.

For truth is unconditional, brothers and sisters.

Question and Answer Session

Question: Assalamualaikum. This is from another sister. She says, I have a good religious uncle who is mostly responsible for our whole family being brought up religiously. But when he gets angry, he doesn't stop to listen to any explanation and just explodes. My aunt justifies his actions saying, it is just for that minute that he gets angry. After a few minutes he forgets. But being much younger to him, I am unable to tell him to change himself. And he doesn't take anyone's advice on that. Is this arrogance? Who is the right person to convey the message to him? Please give your opinion.

There are a lot of angry brothers, I guess, being asked about. You know that in the hadith, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم),when a man came and inquired and he said, Prophet Allah give me an advice, and the Prophet peace be upon him said, have good character. And three times he is asking, he said, have good character, have good character.

And the fourth time the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari 6116)

Don't you understand? Do not get angry. So what happens is that sometimes we are taught, at least in the west, we are taught to express ourselves. To just explode when you feel like it.

Do not suppress it. It will give you a heart attack. So if you feel like yelling at a person, yell at them.

If you feel like calling them names, then call them names. But the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said, you know, and sometimes we take this to be a manly characteristic. But what happens is that the Prophet peace be upon him once inquired, he said, Who do you consider to be a strong person of physical strength? And he said, by the power of Allah, he who is able to wrestle down other men.

The Prophet peace be upon him said, no, true strength is not in the ability of wrestling down other people. He said, but true strength is in your ability to control your anger when you feel like it. That is true strength right there.

As far as the people who are suffering from it, here is what they say. My advice is what we call copy mechanism. You're talking about you not being able to change him or him not being a person that takes the advice.

Since he's not asking the question and he's not the person that is here, a copy mechanism is just a principle that we can all benefit from inshallah. They say that if you have a problem and you cannot change it, then the challenge becomes in us changing ourselves and how to deal with the problem. Meaning that the problem is there and it's there to stay and I cannot change it.

What can I do? Now what I have to do is that develop my own ways in making sure that the problem does not affect me. Such as, if this is a habit that he has formulated, do not take his statements personally every time he makes that statement. Because sometimes people are like that.

There are some men who would explode, they would call names and they would make all kinds of statements. But they would do it in the time of anger. Not paying attention that the sister, be it in the form of a daughter or a wife, could be very sensitive and she would take these things into heart.

So you've got to develop what we would refer to as a thick skin, when he is in his moments of explosions there. And like the Sheikh said earlier, contemporaries who would talk to him at his level, probably most of the time advise us are better taken from our peers, not necessarily our youngsters.

Question: Is it arrogance or ignorance of Salman Rushdie that he criticizes our Prophet, may peace be upon him, in satanic verses?

The question is, was it arrogance or ignorance on the part of Salman Rushdie when he insulted the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) in the satanic verses? I don't know if I told this story here before or not, but there was an African American civil rights fighter by the name of Booker T. Washington. He tells a very interesting story. There was a doctor that was visited by an old lady.

And the old lady came in believing that she has cancer. She was a very rich lady. The doctor checked her out.

He did all the exams that he needed to do. And the conclusion is that she does not have cancer. But he thought to himself and he said, you know, she's a very rich woman.

So he decided to treat a cancer that never existed. So for 15 years, he led her to believe that she has cancer and he's treating a cancer that does not exist. He himself became rich, bought a house, sent his son to medical school.

The son finished school and came back to work with his father in the clinic. After a while, the father, now that the son is there, decides that, you know what, I'm going to take a break and have the son run the clinic. He goes for 15 days.

During the 15 days, the old lady comes and visits the son. The son doesn't know what's going on. She comes and she sees him.

And in 5 days, he convinced her that she absolutely has no cancer. So the father comes back from the vacation and said, well, son, how did it go? He said, dad, there was this lady for 15 years. She thought she had cancer and in 5 days, I convinced her she does not have cancer.

The father looked at him and he said, you fool, it was that cancer that bought our house. It was that cancer that sent you to medical school. You have started practicing medicine all the wrong way.

He knew the wrong to be wrong, but it was to his advantage. So he kept it as such. And nowadays, we are the easiest target where, you know, just go out there.

Everybody is ready to lash on the Muslims. So what happens is that sometimes people do it because of arrogance. They really feel that they are superior and they need to place these so-called Muslims where they are.

Sometimes people do it of mere ignorance. And you see so many writers. It's unbelievable.

Unbelievable of how ignorant they are and they are the self-proclaimed experts. For this, there is an excellent book by the late Edward Said covering Islam. Edward Said was not a Muslim.

But what he did is that he went to the media and he would look into the covering of Islam by this media. And it would be like some basic facts about Muslims and Arabs and Islam. And he would expose these people and say, this is the guy that works for the BBC or CNN or writes in this magazine.

And he would be questioning the motives why they are doing this. The nature of kufr sometimes is that I may be a disbeliever, I reject the truth. But in the process to further justify it to myself, I would have to put your truth down.

So it's a combination, ignorance, arrogance. And there is a lot of money to be made at the expense of insulting Muslims and insulting the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). Especially when the Muslims get so

excited and they further give publicity to the books.

You know, in the Quran, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is called sahir. He is a magician. Majnoon, he is a madman.

He is a fortune teller. He is a kahin. The attempt was character assassination.

But had Allah given it any more importance, it would just make it, you know, it would give it further publicity. So these books have come before. They will continue to come.

And they will always be there. So many times, the best thing to do is not to overreact. For the minute we overreact, we give free publicity to these kinds of books.

And people become very interested in, I want to know, why did they hate him or why, what have you. Wallahu anhu Allah.

Question: My question is, at Prophet's age, Prophet used to be humble with them and the sahabas were ready to sacrifice their life for him. At this age now, in this century, if we are humble with people, they take you for granted. What should be done?

It's a good question. It has to do with us correcting the definition of humbleness. And then correcting the definition of what it means to be humiliated or to be weak. We live in a time, if you are humble, people take you for granted, like you said.

Or like we say in the states, they make you the doormat. People think that they step on you. And there is a very clear distinction that the Prophet said, yes, be humble, but not at the expense of belittling yourself.

(Sunan at-Tirmidhi 2194)

Let not any of you belittle themselves. So what happens is that we have got to understand the culture and the society that we live in. So if certain behavior is deemed to be weak or to convey a message of inferiority, then as Muslims, we would avoid that and we would bring a better alternative.

In the process, however, we have to recognize that we can be proud, but not arrogant. We can be humble, live with humility, but never accept humiliation. So it is that balance.

That's why they say that justice is giving to others all the rights that you claim for yourself. And humility is when you see others not as your superiors and also you do not see them as your inferiors. The more you know of God, the more humble you become.

And the more you know of yourself, you can never be proud. So inshallah, that is the balance that we would have to use. And also in the process, remember that we don't live life to impress other people.

Most of the time, we are so concerned about what other people would think of us. And that is so very irrelevant. Beautiful statement that I read the other day.

It said that right is right even if no one is doing it. And wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it. It's not a big deal to be right when everyone else is right.

It's a big deal to be right when everyone else is wrong. So the idea is the minute you make impressing people or getting the acceptance of people or being validated by people the focal point of your life, at that point I believe you are opening for yourself doors of misery and a recipe for disaster. That does not mean that we disregard what people think of us, but what we think of ourselves is more important than what people think of us.

What we mean to Allah is more important than what we mean to people. Inshallah with this we can create the balance.

Allahu A'lam

Barakallahu feekum wa jazakumullahu khair