Chapter on ʿUjb Regarding One's Lineage

Chapter on Self-Admiration with Great Numbers

I said: And what of self-admiration (ʿujb) with great numbers of children, servants, clients, kinfolk, companions, and followers?

He said: Seeking to amass them, adorning oneself with them, and boasting over others; relying upon them with caution, and relying upon their numbers, and forgetting reliance upon God, Mighty and Majestic — as some of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ did. And the majority of the hypocrites were of this type. And whoever among them did not openly profess his hypocrisy attempted to make the prescriptions of Islam submit to his caprice, and acted upon corrupt interpretation in pursuit of that.

For God, Mighty and Majestic, revealed: «on the day of Hunayn, when your great numbers pleased you», when one of them said: "We shall not be defeated today due to lack of numbers!" So he relied upon great numbers and neglected the remembrance of God, Mighty and Majestic. «Yet it availed you nothing». They were rebuked for that, and for boasting in great numbers and might over those among the believers and the disbelievers. As the disbelievers said: «We are greater in wealth and children».

So the one impressed with his great numbers over people acts tyrannically, and grows bold in reviling and fighting and striking others, relying upon their great numbers to support and defend him. And that emboldens him to deny rights, to commit iniquity and oppression through reliance upon great numbers.

And through self-admiration (ʿujb), he wrongs others more than what comes from oppression and tyranny alone.

I said: What negates that?

He said:

By your knowledge of your own weakness and their weakness, and that whoever God, Mighty and Majestic, does not aid has no helper, and whoever God, Mighty and Majestic, does not protect has no protector. And that relying upon them rather than relying upon God, Mighty and Majestic, is something by which its possessor deserves abandonment from God, Mighty and Majestic, such that neither their gathering nor their great numbers avail him. And if God does not hasten that upon him, still he should not be deluded, but should expect it swiftly — for the best community upon the face of the earth, they experienced this at Hunayn. So how shall the disobedient wrongdoer who is excessive against his own soul experience it?

And by his knowledge that the gathering will disperse from him, and that he will be left alone in the throes of death, then he will die and they will surrender him to trial, and they will avail him nothing against God, Mighty and Majestic. And that everyone who sought aid through them and they aided him in tyranny or oppression — all of that is recorded against him and he shall be recompensed for it on the day when a person flees from his father, his wife, and his sons. And the one who is impressed with them, gathered together — rather, on the Day of Resurrection he will wish, if God, Mighty and Majestic, does not pardon him, that they would be his ransom from the Fire.

And that shukr (gratitude) is due upon him for what God gave him of great numbers and made him among the people of great numbers. And that if he neglects gratitude, he will have angered God, Mighty and Majestic, thereby, and they will not avail him anything against God, nor will they be able to ward off from him the slightest thing in religion or worldly life.

So when his heart holds fast to this knowledge, self-admiration is removed from him thereby, and he is roused to action, and he fears what is decreed, and he relies upon the Lord, Mighty and Majestic, and not upon any other than Him.

Chapter on Wealth

And what is feared regarding it [wealth]:

He said:

Until it leads to aggrandizing it, amassing it, and relying upon it, and boasting about it, as they said: «We are more abundant in wealth and children» [Saba':35], and seeking through it desires that are not lawful, and looking down upon the poor through it, and growing bold through it in committing injustice, and exalting oneself over the poor and regarding them with contempt. As was narrated from the Prophet ﷺ that he saw a wealthy man who had gathered up his garments and drawn them back lest the clothes of a poor man sitting beside him should touch them. So the Prophet ﷺ said to him:

"Did you fear that his poverty would pass onto your wealth?"

I said: How then does the servant dispel that?

He said: By knowing that he has only been tested with it as a trial and tribulation, and that the rights incumbent upon him thereby are greater and more obligatory than those upon the poor, and that he is exposed to ruin — unless he gives thanks to his Lord, exalted and glorified. So he has mercy on himself from zakat (obligatory alms) and is apprehensive about it, and sees the poor person as having a favor over him since the trial has been removed from the poor one, and [recognizes] the obligation of the abundance of rights upon him — of hajj (pilgrimage), zakat, maintaining ties of kinship, hosting the guest, sharing with the neighbor, and other things.

The righteous were indeed apprehensive because of its abundance, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, Khabbāb, and others among them were apprehensive about that.

Three days would pass upon him in the path of God while I had with him only a qīrāṭ or two qīrāṭs,

fleeing from abundance due to his knowledge of its danger, and out of zuhd (renunciation) regarding it.

among those who say: "The majority are the least in intellect, except for a servant of God whom..." And he said, meaning:

«from his right and his left, and from before him and from behind him.»

When his qalb (heart) holds fast to this, he despises himself, fears for it [his wealth], magnifies the poor person, because he [the poor person] suffers less tribulation than him. Do you not see what befell the one whom admiration at his abundance led to that which is not lawful for him?

In zuhd (renunciation) [regarding] other than God, exalted and majestic:

[regarding] the earth:

And the Prophet ﷺ said:

"A man was strutting in a robe of his" — or he said: "in two cloaks of his that pleased him — in his self-admiration, when God commanded the earth and it swallowed him, and he continues to be convulsed in it until the Day of Resurrection."

So he fears what admiration with wealth and adornment may lead to of punishment. The most debased is one who sees himself as better than another, when he has not been tried with the like of what that other was tried with. Do you not see the hadith of Abu Dharr? He said: I was with the Prophet ﷺ and he said to me:

"O Abu Dharr, raise your head and look at the most elevated man you see in the mosque."

So I raised my head, and there was a man strutting in a robe. I said: "This one." He said:

"Raise your head and look at the most lowly man in the mosque."

And there was a man upon whom were two tattered garments. I said: "This one." He said:

"O Abu Dharr, this one is better in the sight of God than an earth-full of the likes of that one,"

because one is not elevated in His sight except through obedience, not through wealth or anything else.

When his heart holds fast to this, he fears the abundance of his wealth, and he sees that the poor person is better than him, and that he was only given surplus through tribulation and trial, and the great weight of obligatory rights.

And he recognizes that God, exalted and majestic, has bestowed upon him through wealth, so let him examine how he shows shukr (gratitude) for it, and that he does not know whether he has shown gratitude to God, exalted and majestic, as is due to Him. So he feels apprehension about that, and admiration with wealth departs from him, God willing.

I say: I have seen that most scholars call one who is arrogant out of self-admiration [by that name], and they describe admiration with the attribute of kibr (arrogance).

He said: The first origin of the reprehensible thing [i.e., kibr (arrogance)] is, for one who conceals it, that one be in a state of ʿujb (self-admiration), and the self-admiring person can scarcely be saved from arrogance.

So if self-admiration was that which brought forth arrogance — meaning arrogance from it and through it — then it has the characteristics of arrogance upon it , because it [i.e., self-admiration] has indicated the characteristics of arrogance.

He esteems greatly what he has been given, whether of religion or worldly things, and does not magnify himself through it over anyone. So that self-admiration occurs when he forgets the bounty of God, Exalted and Glorious, in that. When he then magnifies himself through it over others, and looks down upon others — because when he admires himself and does not despise others, he was self-admiring but was not arrogant. But when he admires himself and then looks at others and says within himself, "I am better than him," holding him in contempt, scorning him, then at that point it is called self-admiration and arrogance, because it is self-admiration that stirred him to arrogance.

And arrogance is not the same as self-admiration.