in other words, are two of the main subjects on which people are
tested in this world. God reveals in the Qur'an that pride and
arrogance are a characteristic of deniers and those who deviate into
blasphemy: But those who do not believe are full of vainglory and
entrenched in hostility. (Surah Sad, 2)
Someone who wishes to raise his pride has discounted everything he
loves. He will do anything, become contrary and unpleasant, and
experience the soullessness and negativity of acting in contravention
of the Qur'an. He will forego his love for someone else for the sake
of his own pride in a single moment. Most important of all, however,
he prefers his own pride to the love of God. And he will persist in
his pride even at the risk of losing God's approval. By thus deifying
and elevating his own desires he sets himself up in opposition to God.
(God is beyond that.)
The pride of Satan, who forewent God's pleasure and his place in
paradise by glorifying himself and who devoted himself throughout the
life of world to misleading human beings for the sake of that pride,is
an obvious example of this. God describes Satan's position in the
following verses:
When your Lord said to the angels, 'I am creating a human being out of
dried clay formed from fetid black mud When I have formed him and
breathed My Ruh into him, fall down in prostration in front of him!'
Then the angels prostrated all together, every one of them – except
Satan. He disdained to be one of the prostrators. He said, 'Satan,
what is it that prevents you being among the prostrators?' He said, 'I
will not prostrate to a human being whom You have created out of dried
clay formed from fetid black mud.' He said, 'Get out from here, you
are accursed. Thecurse will be on you till the Day of Reckoning.' He
said, 'My Lord,grant me a reprieve until the Day they are raised
again.' He said, 'You are among the reprieved until the Day whose time
is known.' He said, 'My Lord, because You misled me, I will make
things on the earth seem good to them and I will mislead them all,
every one of them, except Your servants among them who are sincere.'
(Surat al-Hijr, 28-40)
Satan's obstinacy and pride is a sign of the dimension of the scourge
he represents. His preference for his own pride over the love of God
and the blessings bestowed by Him, his desire, resulting from the
fierceness of that pride, to cause people to deviate from the true
path throughout the life of this world, and the way that he does this
so blatantly, in contravention of God's desire, and knowing that he
will go to hell, are all significant in terms ofthe dimension of this
scourge.
The example of Satan is a reality that reveals that people who love
pride are not really capable of love. There is very definitely no room
for feelings such as peace, security, friendship, loyalty, brotherhood
or altruism. There is literally nobody else around for anyone who is
prepared to give up the ones he loves for the sake of his pride. He is
all alone with his earthly desires and deified pride.
Our Almighty Lord has warned people against this danger and described
how Satan will at the end of the day always abandon then:
He led me astray from the Reminder after it came to me.' Satan always
leaves man in the lurch. (Surat al-Furqan, 29)
Anyone wishing to elevate his earthly desires is very definitely
demeaned in the sight of God. Herewards such demeaned people in the
hereafter and, if He so chooses, in this world. Our Lord has said that
Satan, whom He expelled from paradise for his pride, is actually one
of the demeaned:
He said, 'Descend from Heaven. It is not for you to be arrogant in it.
So get out! You are one of the abased.' (Surat al-A'raf, 13)
The moral values praised by God are those of people who do not exalt
their earthly desires, who are never the captives of their own pride,
who know that God gives all things and that they stand in need of Him,
and who are aware of their own helplessness. Nobody who constantly
bears these things in mind can ever become proud, or elevate his own
earthly desires in the belief that the blessings given him by our Lord
really belong to him, not forget his own helplessness and imagine that
he is a great human being. People who bear these things in mind are
the friends of God. They constantly give thanks to Him. They know that
they need God, and hope to live pleasant lives and for the best in the
hereafter with His help, mercy and love. They have God's approval and
friendship, and so they have no need for anything else. People living
in that awareness of course have the best knowledge of love and
loyalty and the value of their blessings.
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