Forging Ideal Muslim Subjects (Lexington Studies in Classical and Modern Islamic Thought) by Faraz Masood Sheikh

Author:Faraz Masood Sheikh [Sheikh, Faraz Masood]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2020-07-21T18:30:00+00:00

Arrogance and Intersubjective Receptivity

It is widely known that among the most important ethical values in the Islamic tradition is humility and one of the worst offenses that a Muslim can commit against God and others is to be proud. Pride, after all, seems to be the offense for which Satan is rebuked in the Quran’s telling of the story of Adam, the first human being. When told to bow before Adam, Satan refuses, arguing that he is superior to Adam for he is made from fire, a superior material in his view, and Adam from clay. He is rebuked by God for his pride and expelled from heaven (Quran, 7:11–13). The mythos of Islam then makes pride (kibr) a fundamentally destructive and vicious attitude.

Muhasibi uses the term mutakabbir to refer to God’s majesty and dignity and kibr as an attribute that makes a person haughty and arrogant toward other beings. He explicitly connects arrogance (kibr) with conceit (ʿujb). He says,

The slave may estimate highly or consider great what he has been given by God of religion or the world but if he does not boast with it over someone, then it is [still] conceit when he forgot the favor of God in regards to this [favor]. But if he was arrogant and haughty with it [i.e., with the favor] over another and disdains him, then scorns him haughtily, then he acted proudly (fa qad takabbara) because when he was conceited within himself (‘ujb) and did not disdain another, he was conceited and not proud or arrogant. But when he was conceited within himself then looked at another, then he said in himself, “I am better than him” disdaining him and looking down upon him, then at that time the conceit is called kibr.[65]

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