Chapter on Negating Kibr and Making the Servant Know His True Worth

He looks upon them with contempt and repays them with disdain." And He does not look upon them except with scorn — with al-zubr (severity).

Chapter on the Negation of Pride and Acquainting the Servant with His True Worth

I said: How does the servant negate pride?

He said:

Through his knowledge of his true worth in

religion and worldly life.

I said: How does he know his true worth?

He said: He knows his true worth through knowledge of his beginning, his life, his end, and his consequence.

As for his beginning: ages passed in which he was nothing worthy of mention, then God, exalted and glorified, brought him into existence after nonexistence — since he had not been a thing mentioned, God, exalted and glorified, brought him into being.

He began him with his death before his life, because He created him from dust, then from a drop of fluid, then from a clinging clot, then from a lump of flesh, then He made him bones, then He clothed the bones with flesh. So He began him with his death before his life, with his weakness before his strength, with his ignorance before his knowledge, with his blindness before his sight, with his deafness before his hearing, with his muteness before his speech, with his hunger before his satiation, with his nakedness before his covering, with his misguidance before his guidance, and with his poverty before his sufficiency.

Then He gave him life after he had been dead, and granted him hearing after he had been without hearing, and granted him sight after he had had no sight, and strengthened him after he had been weak, and taught him after he had been ignorant, and enriched him after he had been in poverty, and sated him after he had been hungry, and clothed him after he had been naked, and guided him after he had been astray.

So He began him with these lowly states of the world, then transferred him to these exalted states: he became existent after nonexistence, alive after death, speaking after muteness, hearing after deafness, seeing after blindness, strong after weakness, rich after poverty, and rightly guided after misguidance.

[damaged] to know that, and to restrain him from it, «so that he may know thereby the smallness of his worth,» and his neediness, poverty, want, and lowliness, and [to restrain him] from pride, boasting, insolence, vainglory, and self-admiration ('ujb).

So he began with the smallness of worth, the placing of stations, in which there is upon him from God, Mighty and Glorious, a lavish blessing — if he has intellect — since he knew himself, and that restrained him from exceeding his measure, and held him back from pride, boasting, and insolence.

And the second blessing upon him from God, Mighty and Glorious, is lavish, since through it he knew his Lord who transferred him from blameworthy, base conditions to lofty, noble conditions. So both blessings are lavish from God, Mighty and Glorious. By the first he knew himself, and by the second he knew his Lord, Mighty and Glorious.

By the first, his own worth becomes small in his estimation. And by the second, the worth of his Lord becomes great in his estimation, so he submits and humbles himself, and his Master is owed gratitude, since He raised his baseness after lowliness, smallness of worth, and abasement.

Whoever's beginning is this beginning, and whose states are these states, he is far removed from pride, just as Luqman said to his son: "O my son! What is there for ostentation and arrogance?!" And the truthfulness of God's argument [against such a person]! One whose origin was what it was, and whose clay was putrid — even though it was pure — until it became fetid molded mud — how can he presume to stand tall among creation when his origin is lowly and base? For if he wished to diminish him by the measure of another, he would say: "You are more insignificant to me than the dust I tread beneath my feet, and you are more foul-smelling than a corpse."

The origin of the son of Adam is from dust, which is trodden beneath feet, and fetid molded mud, so it is foul-smelling. Then after this origin, he became from a filthy drop of fluid (nutfa), and from it is his branch.

And when a man reproaches another man, wishing to diminish him in his worth, he says: "You have no root and no branch." The root, among the Arabs, is the grandfather, and the branch is the father. So his root is dust and his branch is the drop of fluid. And after his father, he is from a drop of fluid. So the root is trodden beneath feet, and the drop of fluid — bodies and garments are washed from it — so he was created from his baseness, weakness, and filth. Do you not hear the saying of God, Mighty and Glorious: «Say: What thing is greatest in testimony?» [6:19] [TN: The Quranic citation here appears garbled in the manuscript; the context suggests a verse about human creation such as «From what thing did He create him?» [80:18]]. The human being looks to nothing but dust and [damaged]

And God, Exalted and Majestic, said: «From what did He create him? From a sperm-drop He created him, then He determined him» [80:18-19]. And the Prophet, peace be upon him, said:

God, Exalted and Majestic, says: "Does the son of Adam deem Me incapable? I created you from the like of this." And the Prophet spat into his palm.

Then from the loins, from the male through the passage of urine into the womb, then it emerged from it through the passage of filth, as was

Anas ibn Malik said: Abu Bakr, may God have mercy upon him, used to address them in his sermon saying: "One of you emerged through the passage of urine twice," until one of us would feel contempt toward himself.

The beginning of the son of Adam is from dust, then from a lifeless sperm-drop, then from a lifeless clinging clot, then from a lifeless lump of flesh, then from a lifeless body — he neither hears nor sees, neither speaks nor reasons, nor moves with what is upon him of abasement and humiliation. Then the spirit (ruh) was breathed into him from these states, and He brought him out alive, weak, a small and lowly infant, entrusted with filth — excrement in his belly, urine in his bladder, mucus in his nose, saliva in his mouth, and grime in his ears. Then the stench and filth hasten to him; if he neglects to wash or clean them himself, he becomes more putrid than beasts. He is beset with illnesses and conflicting, opposing natures that never part from him: bile, phlegm, wind, and blood.

Along with all that, he is a lowly slave whose affair is in the hands of others. He hungers, overcome and compelled; he lives compelled; sleep overcomes him, overcome and compelled. He possesses for himself in that neither harm nor benefit regarding the things he detests. He desires from himself what he cannot attain — he desires neither to hunger, nor to thirst, nor to fall ill — yet what befalls him from that is contrary to his wish. He desires to remember a thing, but it is made to escape him; and he desires to forget a thing, but it is made to remain in his memory.

perhaps the damage may be in his youth, «and He wills and veils» — yet with all that, he is not safe that the damage may be in his youth, «and his heart is turned» as an abased slave, a possessed one, or other than that. And he is not safe, night or day, that his hearing and his sight may be stripped from him, and all his limbs and his intellect, or some of that, until he is returned to some of the states he was in at his beginning — of blindness, or deafness, or muteness, or ignorance — until his intellect departs. And Allah, Exalted and Glorious, has seen him.

Yet with all that, he does not conceal anything in his qalb (heart), nor move a single limb from his limbs, nor earn, nor spend, nor eat, nor drink, except that upon him is one who records all of that against him, so that he will be called to account for it and it will be examined.

Yet with all that, he is not safe that his dominion may be stripped away. So his action within His dominion — he is not his own, and he does not possess, nor has power over what He wills therein.

And with all that, he is heedless of his Master and his Lord, ungrateful to Him, and people who do not remember Him. He has committed much of what He forbade him from, and neglected much of what He commanded him with. He has thereby deserved of punishment — that which, if he is not pardoned for it, swine and dogs would be better than him, and more virtuous, and cleaner, and purer, and more pleasant, and more exalted than him — because swine and dogs will become dust, while he will become one punished.

If creation were to find the stench of his grave, they would die from its foulness. If they were to see him, they would be struck unconscious from the horror of [damaged]. And the drink that he drinks, to which he turns so that his thirst may be quenched — if a drop of his drink were to drop upon the mountains of this world, they would melt from its torments, for all eternity in punishment.

So the one who is in the utmost degree of abasement, and submission, and destitution, and death, and punishment — and greater than this description in this world — it has been made binding upon his neck, and he has deserved it, and it has been decreed against him thereby — how then should his humility and his tawadu' (self-lowering) be?

How is it fitting for one of this description, upon whom it has been made obligatory to move among the servants? And does one of intellect refuse this — that he should be in himself abased and humiliated?

Have you not considered one upon whom a sentence has been decreed, and he is in a prison — which is a dungeon — waiting to be brought out to the place of presentation, wherein he shall be subjected to whatever manner of punishment has already been decreed against him? How is his abasement in the prison, and his anticipation at every moment that he shall be brought out to the place of presentation where the sentence shall be carried out upon him?

Is he not indeed of this world? And he is in the prison, the punishment having been made binding upon him — he does not know when he shall be brought out of this world to the place of presentation so that the sentence may be carried out upon him with punishment — unless the Generous One pardons.

And he, along with what has been made binding upon him, anticipates death. For death is the seal of his life, because it has been made known that his life shall end in death. He shall be returned as he was in the beginning — dead — after he had been alive, just as [God] was slow in creating him dead.

Do you not hear their saying: «Our Lord, You have caused us to die twice and given us life twice» [Ghāfir 40:11] — meaning: we were dead in the loins of our forefathers, then You gave us life, then You caused us to die after life, then You gave us life [again].

So he shall be patient as one dead, just as God — exalted and majestic — began his creation: he shall become blind after sight, and deaf after hearing, and mute after speech, and his joints shall decompose, and the beasts and creatures [shall consume him].

The Prophet ﷺ said:

Every part of the son of Adam decays except the tailbone — from it he was fashioned, and from it he shall be reconstituted .

He shall become dust, and he shall return to his origin from which his first father was created, becoming nonexistent after having been existent, just as the ages were before him when he was nothing worth mentioning. Then God — exalted and majestic — shall raise him after the long decay and bring him forth to the terrors of the Resurrection, which shall engulf him entirely: a changed earth, mountains set in motion, stars scattered, sun and moon eclipsed, the roaring

and then it is presented to him, and he will be questioned about all his deeds before «his Master», and the ruling that was incumbent upon him — that after the questioning, he is dispatched from before Him either to a punishment that never ceases, in the utmost of abasement and humiliation and submission, or He pardons him, and so dispatches him back, having forgiven him.

So when the servant remembers and reflects upon how his origin was, and his lineage and his separation from it, and his weakness, and what he was made to endure alone in states of revolving through detested things — bitter experiences, seizures, and what scarcely ever ceases to afflict him of illnesses, anxieties, pain, hunger, thirst, and what was incumbent upon him of punishment and humiliation, and what he will come to after death — death and trial — and what he witnesses of terrors, and what he fears he may come to of punishment — then pride departs from him, and khushūʿ (submissive humility) becomes binding upon him, and abasement and tawāḍuʿ (self-lowering) before the Master, Exalted and Majestic, and shukr (gratitude) to the Bestower of blessings, Most High, and brokenness out of khawf (fear) of punishment. When he knows that, he knows his measure, and the measure of his soul diminishes in his sight, and [the worth of] this world and the religion in his estimation.

The likes of that are many. There is nothing comparable to the smallness of measure like the example of the origin of the son of Adam when he reflects upon it. His measure diminishes in his own sight — like a man who never ceased in his own estimation to be from the Banū Hāshim, his father having told him that. So the Hāshimite pride was in his soul — magnifying himself, boasting of his lineage, scorning those beneath him and vaunting over them — because he had no doubt that what his father informed him of regarding his origin and his lineage, he had indeed been truthful in it.

Now while he was in his pride, his arrogance, and his self-magnification, two men or a number of men from those whom he trusts came to him — he does not doubt their truthfulness — more truthful in his estimation and more reliable than his father, reporting to him with the seniority of their age and the precedence of their knowledge of his origin, and they informed him — between themselves and him — that he was in fact from the Khūz, or the Nabat, or the Sind. He believed them and did not doubt them regarding their people, and that his father had lied to him and told him falsehood. Would he be able to refrain from becoming humbled in his own soul, and that pride being broken from his heart? Even if he outwardly displayed otherwise, he had become certain that it was contrary to what he used to see and suppose.

And likewise the son of Adam becomes arrogant and puffed up with pride as though his origin were not dust and a drop of fluid. Yet when he reflects and is truthful with himself regarding weakness, humiliation, abasement, lowliness, clinging to necessity, and the remembrance of the report concerning his origin and whence he came and how his states were, he cannot refrain from abasing himself and breaking away from his arrogance and his pride.

And consider his life and his health and what he turns about in of his possessions and his wealth — the likeness of a man who was in his own estimation a free man, without doubt regarding that. Then his parents died and bequeathed to him much wealth, and he would exalt himself and pride himself on his youth, the comeliness of his body, his appearance, his wealth, and his possessions, while along with that he enjoyed spacious dwellings, cleanliness, fine scent, protection, security, and safety.

While he was thus, full of pride and self-exaltation within himself, someone arrived who had come from one of the lands. He seized him and established conclusive proof against him that his forefathers had been slaves belonging to him, and whatever wealth there had been, it was his. So the reality judged against him accordingly, and his knowledge also confirmed the truth of that, and his heart settled upon what the evidence testified to. Would he have been able to refuse within himself that his arrogance and his pride be removed from him, when he knew that he was an owned slave who possesses nothing for himself — neither property nor wealth in his hand — and that his master, if he wished to take him, could do so, and that he could not do anything except by the permission and will of his master?

And consider: along with what he became certain of regarding servitude — for in his dwelling there are lethal plagues and other things, and he has no choice but to dwell therein — that could be — I say at the very least — something from which he cannot be sure his own self will not perish, because his master has obligated him to that so that the dwelling and what is in it not be ruined. How would he see — I say at the very least — what would be in himself regarding the abasement of servitude and the stripping away of his possessions, and the fear of the perishing of his self? And that dwelling did not belong to anyone else; rather, the end of his destiny was toward perishing. Would he have been counting wealth for himself? And would he have been preparing for himself a dwelling or a permanent abode?

Likewise the son of Adam: when he becomes arrogant and exalts himself, he is forgetful of the state he has been placed in, and forgetful of

and he reflects and remembers the position in which He placed him through its splendor, [he recognizes] his lowliness, that he is a lowly, owned slave of servitude, possessing no dominion.

Neither his self nor his wealth — whatever was in his possession — he neglected some of it, which the changeable one is expected to have some of it taken away, and it is turned about, and that the end of his destiny is that it perishes, and he departs from this world, and everything he is in passes away from him. And when he verifies the report through remembrance and reflection upon that — was he able to refrain? — and through the khushūʿ (reverent humility) in himself, and he submits to his Lord, and he is in awe of Him, and [he recognizes] the station in which He placed him of khawf (fear) of God.

And the likeness of the one who disobeys God, Mighty and Majestic, upon whom punishment has been made obligatory in his lifetime, is like the likeness of an owned slave who has a master, severe in retribution, severe in power and authority, who possesses the earth, and who does not issue a command except that it is executed, and he has power over him. So his master entrusted him with a task and forbade him from things that would corrupt that task, and gave him wealth to spend upon his work. But he was heedless, and negligent, and ignorant, and he neglected most of the work, so he did not do it, and he did little of it, and he introduced into it corruption and deficiency. Moreover, he spent the wealth on the pleasure of his self and its desires, while in all that he was merry, joyful, insolent, arrogant, boastful, swaggering in pride, turning about in his pleasures, unconcerned — neither concerned about what he neglected of his master's work, nor about what he ruined of what he had done for him, nor about what he squandered of the wealth that he had been given.

Then a truthful report came to him that his master was sending someone to him who would bring him out of everything he was in, naked, humiliated, and cast him at his master's gate in the sun and scorching heat for a long time, tormented by the sun and the heat. Until, when that reached the utmost of his exhaustion, he would summon him and present him before himself, and order him to submit his account. He would then examine his work — what he had neglected of it, what he had corrupted of it, and what he had squandered of his wealth — and then he would command that he be taken to a narrow prison and perpetual punishment from which he would never have a moment's relief, and he would never leave that prison, ever. And he had already known that his master had already sent out many of his slaves to punishment and humiliation, among those who had done as he did, and had pardoned some. So when this report reached him, along with this peril — would he refrain? And he would reflect on it and remember, and his qalb (heart) would hold firmly to the belief that this was inevitably going to happen, unless his master pardoned him, and that this

Was it not incumbent upon him to break away from his evil? He does not know—perhaps it will be so, and the deed [is likewise]—until his takabbur (arrogance) and his joy and his batar (insolent exultance) [cease],

until he becomes the most abased of people in his own nafs (soul),

and the most intense of them in submissiveness,

and in lowliness, and he does not expect swiftness and haste in being seized suddenly, for what his Master has decreed against him—until there passes over him everything his Master has decreed against him. And if he refrains from all of that—that he humble himself and submit—

Likewise the son of Adam: when he remembers how much of his Master's work he has squandered, what was most incumbent upon him, and what he corrupted of what he had done therein, and what entered into it of riya' (ostentation) and 'ujb (self-admiration) and the like, and what has gone of his lifespan that he consumed in following his hawa (caprice) and forgetfulness of his Master, and that death descends swiftly and imminently.

He will be brought out to his grave and will decay therein, then he will be brought out to the Resurrection and made to stand until it reaches the utmost of exhaustion with him. Then his Master will present him for review, then hold him to account for everything he did and squandered and wasted of his lifespan, and for what he has been commanded—

to His punishment, which neither the punishment of this world nor its penalties resemble. He does not doubt that punishment has become incumbent upon him. He only hopes for pardon while in doubt—he does not know whether He will do that to him or not. For if He pardons him, there is no doubt that he will be presented for review and held to account and made to stand over what was squandered and corrupted of his deeds, and what was wasted of his lifespan, and what he spent of his wealth therein.

Do you see him—would he refrain from humbling himself in his own soul, and from having his self-aggrandizement and his arrogance removed from him? Regarding that, the hadith is narrated in the question about the Prophet, peace be upon him, that he said:

"The two feet of the son of Adam will not move from before Allah, Exalted and Glorious, until he is asked about four things: his youth—how he wore it out; his lifespan—how he consumed it; his wealth—from where he earned it and how he spent it; and his deeds—what he did with them."

When the intelligent, discerning person reflects upon that, he becomes humbled and submissive, and pride and boasting are removed from him.

Even if it were but a single trait from among these traits by which one expels pride from its onset, and from love, and what is incumbent upon him from his disobedience—even if he were created from the best of things, and circumstances assisted him—