Prophet Muhammad said, “Anyone who possesses a speck of pride or arrogance in his heart will not enter Paradise”
This saying of Prophet Muhammad is a stern discouragement for anyone to be arrogant. Arrogance is defined as an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions.
Prophet Muhammad said also, “Arrogance is rejecting the truth and looking down on people.”
Incidentally, the first ever manifestation of pride or arrogance is when Allah ordered the Angels including Satan to prostrate to Adam which is not meant that they worship Adam but to show obedience to Allah’s orders. All the angels complied except Satan. Allah said in the Quran,
‘O Satan! What prevents you from prostrating yourself to one whom I have created with Both My Hands. Are you too proud to fall prostrate to Adam or are you one of the high exalted?’
Satan replied: ‘I am better than he. You created me from fire, and You created him from clay.’
Humans are made from clay while the Jinn from which Satan belonged to were created from fire. This led Satan to believe and presume that fire is superior to clay which led him to disobey Allah. With these we could say that pride is the root of all evil because it is the first sin to have happened.
Pride is an attitude that is not befitting anyone except Allah because His is the dominion over all this as He is the creator, maintainer, sustainer and has sovereignty over all things. Humans, jinn and everything else is under His will and none is allowed to disobey him. That is why the Muslims are called Muslims because the literal meaning of the word Muslim is someone who surrenders himself totally to Allah which means that he lets go of all kinds of pride or arrogance and is continually obedient Prophet Muhammad said,
“Might is His garment and pride is His cloak; whoever seeks to compete with Me concerning them, I will punish him.” Narrated by Imam Muslim.
Imam An Nawawi said explained this saying, “The pronoun in the words ‘His garment’ and ‘His cloak’ refers to Allah. What is meant is ‘Allah says, ‘whoever seeks to compete with Me concerning them, I will punish him’.
This means that nobody should be arrogant the way Allah is arrogant and humility is expected from everyone especially when dealing with Allah’s orders.
Allah also said,
“Whosoever desires honour, power and glory then to Allah belong all honour, power and glory and one can get honour, power and glory only by obeying and worshipping Allah alone. To Him ascend all the goodly words, and the righteous deeds exalt it (i.e. the goodly words are not accepted by Allah unless and until they are followed by good deeds, but those who plot evils, theirs will be severe torment). And the plotting of such will perish” Quran 35:10
THE PUNISHMENT FOR ARROGANCE
Other than the general narration about entering hellfire, the arrogant person is also mentioned to suffer a specific punishment in Judgement day.Prophet Muhammad said,
“On the Day of Resurrection, the arrogant will be gathered like ants in the form of men. Humiliation will overwhelm them from all sides. They will be driven to a prison in Hell called Bawlas, with the hottest fire rising over them, and they will be given to drink of the juice of the inhabitants of Hell, which is Teenat Al-Khabaal.” Narrated by Imam At Tirmidhi.
MANIFESTATIONS AND RESULTS OF PRIDE AND ARROGANCE
1 – When a person does not accept the truth and produces false arguments against it, Prophet Muhammad said, “Arrogance is rejecting the truth and looking down on people.”
2 – When a person admires himself for his beauty or handsomeness, or the fineness of his food or clothing, so he feels proud and arrogant and feels superior to people.
It was narrated that Abu Hurayrah said: The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said (or Abu’l-Qaasim (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said): “Whilst a man was walking, dragging his garment with pride, with his hair nicely combed, Allaah caused the earth to swallow him and he will go on sinking in it until the Day of Resurrection.”
Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 3297; Muslim, 2088
A similar case is the story of the friend of the man whose companion spoke to him arrogantly. Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“And he had property (or fruit) and he said to his companion, in the course of mutual talk: ‘I am more than you in wealth and stronger in respect of men’”
[al-Kahf 18:34]
It may be that he was boasting about his tribe and linage.
3 – Envy is also a manifestation of arrogance because it is the belief that the person you are envious of does not deserve the bounties he received and you are more deserving of it. This leads to one’e belief that Allah has been unjust if the distribution of His blessings.
DOES FEELING PROUD OF SOMETHING AUTOMATICALLY MAKE YOU SIN
Sheikh Muhammad Al Munajjid said, “With regards to a person feeling proud of himself, if it is because he is religiously committed, righteous and pious, then it is good, but if it is because of anything else, such as lineage, ancestry, wealth, position or status among people, then this is not permissible.
RIDDING ONE’S SELF OF ARROGANCE
Ridding one’s self of arrogance is easy by continually practicing humility and being close to pious actions. Allah said in the Quran,
And be moderate or show no insolence in your walking, and lower your voice. Verily, the harshest of all voices is the braying of the asses.” Quran 31:18-19
Imam Al-Qurtubi said, “The phrase “nor walk in insolence through the earth” is a prohibition of arrogance and is enjoining humility. Marah (translated here as insolence) is excessive joy, or it was said that it means being arrogant in walking, or thinking too highly of oneself.”
