Shun Arrogance

 بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

سَأَصْرِفُ عَنْ آيَاتِيَ الَّذِينَ يَتَكَبَّرُونَ فِي الأَرْضِ بِغَيْرِ الْحَقِّ وَإِن يَرَوْاْ كُلَّ آيَةٍ لاَّ يُؤْمِنُواْ بِهَا وَإِن يَرَوْاْ سَبِيلَ الرُّشْدِ لاَ يَتَّخِذُوهُ سَبِيلاً وَإِن يَرَوْاْ سَبِيلَ الْغَيِّ يَتَّخِذُوهُ سَبِيلاً ذَلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ كَذَّبُواْ بِآيَاتِنَا وَكَانُواْ عَنْهَا غَافِلِينَ

Sa asrifu ‘an Aayaatiyal lazeena yatakabbaroona fil ardi bighairil haqq; wa iny-yaraw kulla Aayatil laa yu’minoo bihaa wa iny-yaraw sabeelar rushdi laa yattakhizoohu sabeelanw wa iny-yaraw sabeelal ghaiyi yattakhizoohu sabeelaa; zaalika bi annahum kazzaboo bi Aayaatinaa wa kaanoo ‘anhaa ghaafileen

 
Al-A'raf (The Heights) - 7:146  From My messages shall I cause to turn away all those who, without any right, behave haughtily on earth: for, though they may see every sign [of the truth], they do not believe in it, and though they may see the path of rectitude, they do not choose to follow it-whereas, if they see a path of error, they take it for their own: this, because they have given the lie to Our messages, and have remained heedless of them,"

Arrogance is a barrier to all kinds of Divine Grace - shun it

Lesson 1: 

The representative character of Muslim scholars used to be humility.  And this is something that we need to revisit. There are many proofs of this, but for now, I will only quote this story narrated by Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-‘Arabi in his "عارضة الأحوذي   Aridhat al-Ahwazi'" a commentary on Imam Tirmidhi's hadith collection.

A man was praying in the masjid beside Ibn al-Shihab al-Zuhri who was the leading authority on matters of jurisprudence on behalf of the government at that time.  Observing that the man did two two tasleema at the end of his prayers, Ibn al-Shihab asked him where he was from, as it was the norm to do only one tasleema at that time.
The man replied, "Kufa".
Ibn al-Shihab asked him further:
"Where do you get this second tasleema from?"
The man responded:
"Ibrahīm al-Nakha'ī told me that he heard from  'Alqamah Ibn Qays who learnt from  'Abdullāh Ibn Mas'ūd (رضي الله عنه)."
Ibn al-Shihab said :
"I have never heard of this"
The man responded:
"Are you aware of all the hadith of the Prophet  ﷺ ?"
Ibn al-Shihab replied, humbly :
"No"
The man continued :
"Then perhaps two-thirds of those?"
Ibn al-Shihab replied, again, humbly :
"No"
The man pressed on :
"Then perhaps half?"
Ibn al-Shihab said :
"Yes"
Here the narrator was in doubt that it might have been one-third.
So the man said to Ibn al-Shihab:
"Then you should place this hadith among the two-thirds that you have not seen yet"
 
Hearing this, Ibn-al-Shihab, the leading religious authority of the time (at least in the government), rather than rebuking him or getting angry, simply laughed, and left the man alone.  I am sure that nowadays we have plenty of people who know far less than Ibn al-Shihab al Zuhri, and if faced with such a situation, would have reacted rather harshly, and full of self-righteous condemnation for something different from their understanding.

Lesson 2: 

Bayazid Bestami, one of the greatest Sufi saints, is an example of one who shunned arrogance. Once while walking to the masjid for prayer, he saw a dog approaching him.  He thought of stepping out of the way, as if his clothes might come in contact with the dog, they might become impure.  Bayazid said that he heard the dog rebuke him which went something like this:

"O Bayazid, I hope your stepping away from me is not due to ignorance, for my fur is dry, and your clothes are dry, so coming in contact will not in any way disturb you or make your clothes impure. I really hope that it is not due to arrogance, for it has so happened that God put me in a dog’s body and you in a human body, and He could have easily chosen the opposite to happen!"

Bayazid, getting chided and guided at the same time, said that after this he had great reverence for dogs.

Some years later, he was walking with his students (all dressed up, on the way to Friday prayers) when they came to a ditch across which a log had been thrown to help people cross. When they were about halfway across,  a dog got on this log from the other side, upon seeing which Bayazid immediately got off in the ditch allowing the dog to cross.

His students protested:
"Shaykh, your clothes have become all dirty. Why did you do so? You could easily have chosen to shoo the dog away, or we could have done it for you."

He responded:
"These clothes can be easily washed with a little soap and water. Had I kept moving on, thinking myself superior to the dog, arrogance would stain my heart. How would I wash that?"

 

Lesson 3: 

In Ibn Rajab’s Dhayl Tabaqat al-Hanabila, in the biography of ʿAbd al-Qadir al-Jilani, we find this:

 

وَذَكَرَ فِيهِ أَيْضًا بِإِسْنَادِهِ عَنْ مُوسَى بْنِ الشَّيْخِ عَبْدِ الْقَادِرِ، وَقَالَ: سَمِعْتُ وَالِدِي يَقُولُ: خَرَجْتُ فِي بَعْضِ سِيَاحَاتِي إِلَى الْبَرِّيَّةِ، وَمَكَثْتُ أَيَّامًا لَا أَجِدُ مَاءً، فَاشْتَدَّ بِيَ الْعَطَشُ، فَأَظَلَّتْنِي سَحَابَةٌ، وَنَزَلَ عَلَيَّ مِنْهَا شَيْءٌ يُشْبِهُ النَّدَى، فَتَرَوَّيْتُ بِهِ. ثُمَّ رَأَيْتُ نُورًا أَضَاءَ بِهِ الْأُفُقُ، وَبَدَتْ لِي صُورَةٌ، وَنُودِيتُ مِنْهَا: يَا عَبْدَ الْقَادِرِ، أَنَا رَبُّكَ، وَقَدْ أَحْلَلْتُ لَكَ الْمُحَرَّمَاتِ — أَوْ قَالَ: مَا حَرَّمْتُ عَلَى غَيْرِكَ — فَقُلْتُ: أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ. اخْسَأْ يَا لَعِينُ. فَإِذَا ذَلِكَ النُّورُ ظَلَامٌ، وَتِلْكَ الصُّورَةُ دُخَانٌ. ثُمَّ خَاطَبَنِي، وَقَالَ: يَا عَبْدَ الْقَادِرِ، نَجَوْتَ مِنِّي بِعِلْمِكَ بِحُكْمِ رَبِّكَ، وَفِقْهِكَ فِي أَحْوَالِ مُنَازَلَاتِكَ. وَلَقَدْ أَضْلَلْتُ بِمِثْلِ هَذِهِ الْوَاقِعَةِ سَبْعِينَ مِنْ أَهْلِ الطَّرِيقِ. فَقُلْتُ: لِرَبِّيَ الْفَضْلُ وَالْمِنَّةُ. قَالَ: فَقِيلَ لَهُ: كَيْفَ عَلِمْتَ أَنَّهُ الشَّيْطَانُ؟ قَالَ: بِقَوْلِهِ: وَقَدْ أَحْلَلْتُ لَكَ الْمُحَرَّمَاتِ. وَهَذِهِ الْحِكَايَةُ مَشْهُورَةٌ عَنِ الشَّيْخِ عَبْدِ الْقَادِرِ، فَلَيْسَ الِاعْتِمَادُ فِيهَا عَلَى نَقْلِ مُصَنِّفِ هَذَا الْكِتَابِ. 

He also relates there, through his chain of transmission from Mūsā, the son of Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir, who said: “I heard my father say: I once went out on one of my wandering retreats into the wilderness, and I remained there for several days without finding any water. My thirst grew severe. Then a cloud came over me and cast its shade upon me, and from it there descended something like dew; with it I quenched my thirst.

Then I saw a light by which the horizon was illuminated, and a form appeared before me. From it I was addressed: ‘O ʿAbd al-Qādir, I am your Lord, and I have made the forbidden lawful for you’—or, as he said, ‘what I have forbidden to others.’

So I said: ‘I seek refuge in God from Satan, the accursed. Be gone, accursed one!’

And suddenly that light was darkness, and that form was smoke. Then he spoke to me and said: ‘O ʿAbd al-Qādir, you escaped me through your knowledge of your Lord’s ruling and through your understanding of the states that attend such confrontations. By means of an experience like this I have led seventy seekers of the Path astray.’

So I said: ‘To my Lord belong all grace and favor.’

He was then asked: ‘How did you know that it was Satan?’ He replied: ‘From his words, “I have made the forbidden lawful for you.”’

And this story is well known from Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir, so it does not rest solely on the transmission of the compiler of this book.”

 

This is a well known story, with variants found quoted by Ibn Taymiyyah, who cites it as al-Jilani’s “well-known story” in Majmuʿ al-Fatawa / Qaʿida Jalila fi al-Tawassul wal-Wasila, as well as al-Shaʿrani’s al-Tabaqat al-Kubra. 

 

A small philological note: سِيَاحَاتِي here means ascetic wandering or retreat, not travel in the modern sense; and مُنَازَلَاتِكَ is best understood here as spiritual confrontations or encounters.