In our pursuit of pleasing Allah, we keep asking about the best ways to gain Allah’s Pleasure and Satisfaction. It is undoubtedly that anyway he decides starts with fixing the heart and purifying it from its illness. It also starts by defining the illness that eats up the heart and trying to get rid of it. In the day of judgment, which Allah describes as ”The Day when there will not benefit [anyone] wealth or children.”, surah Ash-Shuara, Aya 88 (يَوْمَ لَا يَنفَعُ مَالٌ وَلَا بَنُونَ), no one is safe but the person who has a sound heart, ”But only one who comes to Allah with a sound heart” (إِلَّا مَنْ أَتَى اللَّهَ بِقَلْبٍ سَلِيمٍ), same surah’s name, next Ayay. Thus, the core of your faith starts and ends with your heart. Some of these diseases not only expand the distance between the believer and Allah but also bring people’s hatred and anger, such as arrogance.
Arrogance is seeing the self above others with some characteristics that no one else possesses, and seeing everyone as lesser. It breeds a sense of superiority. Arrogance is the feature of Iblees, he was the first creature who committed this sin before Allah, when Allah commanded him to prostrate to Adam, he refused and was arrogant, and said, “I am better than him (Adam), You created me from fire, and him You created from clay.”. So, whoever wants to be arrogant should realize that he is acquiring a characteristic of the devils and that he is not acquiring a characteristic of the noble angels who obeyed their Lord and fell down prostrated. According to the Holy Qur’an, arrogance is a sin that will most certainly be severely punished. The one who considers himself to be the best wants others to know that he is the best. While the arrogance grows inside the Man, his self-esteem grows aggressively, he starts to despise people, rejects their gatherings, and his equability to them. As a result of that, he will not accept advises from people. Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, “Allah is Beautiful, He loves beauty. Arrogance means ridiculing and rejecting the Truth and despising people.” Arrogant person tends to show others his mastership to see him as the best of the best in all possible ways. It means that he would be cruel or unfair to others just to force his superiority over them. For example, the father would go mad if his children start a discussion with him, the husband would never listen to his wife’s opinions or feelings, just because he sees himself as the best, therefore his choices are the best correct too.
Arrogance does not stop at the level of feeling superiority above people but also reaches the level of challenging Allah. We as Muslims believe that Allah is the Provider of all the created things. All the gifts that Man enjoys are made by Allah. Allah grants and prevents, the question that forces itself is that if all the successes of this life are made by Allah, what makes human beings so arrogant about. The answer to this question is the key to heal the heart from its arrogance. Allah mentions in Quran, Surah Luqman, Aya 18 ”And do not turn your cheek [in contempt] toward people and do not walk through the earth exultantly. Indeed, Allah does not like everyone self-deluded and boastful” (وَلَا تُصَعِّرْ خَدَّكَ لِلنَّاسِ وَلَا تَمْشِ فِي الْأَرْضِ مَرَحًا ۖ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ كُلَّ مُخْتَالٍ فَخُورٍ). The Pride is Allah’s Cloak. Whoever vies with Him, shall be tormented. A direct command from Allah to reject such a quality and cures the heart from it.
the cure
The believer must have knowledge of his nature and educate himself about Islam and its teachings. He needs to remember that his start was clay, he was created from nothing and will end up as nothing too. Also, he should grow his heart with fear of challenging Allah with some of His Characteristics which is Pride and that his arrogance will be a reason for Allah’s Anger against him. As it was explained before, the arrogance leads to hellfire as happened with Iblis. We pray to Allah to purify our hearts from the diseases that keep us away from righteousness.
