Humility and Arrogance

“The Prophet (ṣ) once passed by a dark-skinned lady picking up manure or camel dung from the ground, so the Muslims [who were there] said, ‘Make way for the Messenger of Allah!’ The lady said, ‘The path is wide enough [for him to pass].’ So the Messenger of Allah (ṣ) said to them, ‘Leave her alone, for she is insolent.’”

“On the day of the conquest of Makkah, the Messenger of Allah (ṣ) stood up among the people and gave a sermon. He praised Allah and glorified Him, then he said, ‘O People, let the one who is present convey [this message] to the one who is absent: Verily Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, has removed from you, through Islam, the haughtiness of the Age of Ignorance and the mutual boasting about forefathers and clans [that was prevalent] in it. O people, verily you are [all] from Ādam and Ādam was [created] from clay. Behold, verily the best of you in the sight of Allah and the noblest of you before Him on this day are those who are most Godwary and most submissive to Him. Know that being Arab is not [defined] through parentage; rather, it is a language that is spoken. So whoever is reviled among you [for being of a different race] and knows that it (his faith) will make him attain the pleasure of Allah, that is sufficient for him. Know that verily all the blood [that was shed], or the injustice [suffered], or the malice [borne] during the Age of Ignorance will remain under my feet [discarded henceforth] until the Day of Judgment.’”

“I heard Abā Jaʿfar (a) say, ‘The background of a person is his religion, his status is his character, and his nobility is his Godwariness; verily all people are from Ādam, with the same origin.’”

“When Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib returned from Abyssinia, he said to the Messenger of Allah (ṣ), ‘Should I tell you about something that happened, O Messenger of Allah? I went to visit al-Najāshī one day and found that he was neither seated on his royal throne nor was he dressed in his kingly attire, and he appeared different than he normally would. So I greeted him the way kings are greeted and said to him, “O king, why is it that I see you seated in a different place, dressed in different apparel, and having an altered appearance?” He replied, “Verily we find in the Gospels: whoever is given a blessing by Allah, let him show gratitude to Allah [for that blessing]. We also find in the Gospels: there is no form of gratitude to Allah which is comparable to humility. And verily I have received word on this night that my cousin Muḥammad (ṣ) has been granted victory by Allah over the polytheists at Badr, so I wanted to thank Allah, the Exalted, in the way that you see.”’”

“I heard Abā Jaʿfar (a) say, ‘Verily divine revelation was withheld from Mūsā ibn ʿImrān (a) for thirty days, so he ascended a mountain in al-Shām which was called Arīḥā, and said, ‘O Lord, why have You withheld Your revelation and Your communication from me? Have I sinned in any way? Then here I am before You so punish me as You please! And if You have withheld Your revelation and communication from me due to the sins of the Banī Isrāʾīl, then Your forgiveness is pre-eternal!’ So Allah revealed to him saying, ‘O Mūsā, do you know why I chose you for My revelation and communication among My creation?’ ‘I do not know that, O Lord,’ he replied. He said, ‘O Mūsā, I examined My creation, inspecting them, but did not see anyone among them as intensely humble as you. That is why I chose you for My revelation and communication among My creation.’” He (the Imam) said, “When Mūsā (a) used to pray, he did not turn aside [from his prayers] until he placed his right cheek on the earth and [then] his left cheek upon the earth [in humility before Allah].”

“I never saw Abā ʿAbdillāh (a) eat while reclining.” Then he remembered the Messenger of Allah (ṣ) and said, “He never ate while reclining until he passed away.”

“ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn (a) saw a lady in one of the ceremonial precincts of Makkah and was impressed by her. He thus proposed to her and married her, and she stayed with him. He had a friend among the Anṣār who was distressed by his marriage to this woman, so he asked about her and was informed that she was from the family of Dhī al-Jaddayn from the Banī Shaybān in a prestigious household among her clan. So he went to ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn (a) and said, ‘May Allah make me your ransom! Your marriage to this woman was continually occupying my thoughts, and I said to myself: ʿAlī ibn al- Ḥusayn has married an unknown woman, and this is something that people are also saying. So I kept asking about her until I found out who she was and came to know that she is from the clan of Shaybāniyyah.’ So ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn (a) said to him, ‘I used to consider you to be someone with a better judgement than what I now see. Verily Allah sent Islam and through it He raised the lowly one, perfected the deficient one, and ennobled [the people] from rebuke [and false accusation]. Hence, there is no [undue criticism or] blame upon the Muslim; rather, the blame is only [for] ignorance.’”

“ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn (a) married the slave wife of his late uncle, al-Ḥasan (a), and got his mother married to his [manumitted] slave.[1] When ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān heard about that, he wrote to him saying, ‘O ʿAlī ibn al- Ḥusayn, it seems you do not know your position in the eyes of your community and your station among the people! You married a slave woman and got your slave married to your mother?!’ So ʿAlī ibn al- Ḥusayn wrote back to him, ‘I have [read and] understood your letter, yet our exemplar is the Messenger of Allah (ṣ). He married off his own cousin Zaynab to his [freed] slave Zayd, and he himself married his slave maiden Ṣafiyyah bint Ḥayy ibn Akhṭab.’”

“A bedouin approached the Prophet (ṣ) and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, will you race me with this camel of yours?’ So he raced him and the bedouin won the race. The Messenger of Allah (ṣ) said, ‘You had all raised it (my camel) but Allah liked that He should lower it. Verily the mountains vied for the ark of Nūḥ (a), but al-Jūdī was the most humble, so Allah made the ark stop at al-Jūdī.’”

he heard saying, “Verily there are two angels in the sky who have been placed in charge of [observing] the servants, so whoever humbles himself before Allah is elevated by them and whoever is haughty is abased by them.”