Friday Nasiha

Al-Anam (The Livestock)
Chapter 6: Verse 133

The Self-Sufficiency and Mercy of Allah
"Your Lord is Self-Sufficient, full of compassion."

The Quranic statement: 'Your Lord is Self-Sufficient' signifies that God is in need of nothing from anyone, that none of His interests will be jeopardized by disobedience to Him, and that no benefit will accrue to Him from obedience. Even if all human beings became disobedient, God's dominion will not shrink. Nor will His dominion expand if everybody were to become obedient and serve and worship Him as they ought to. God is dependent neither upon their show of veneration nor upon their offerings. He lavishes His limitless treasures on human beings and seeks nothing in return.

The other statement, namely that 'Your Lord is full of compassion', has been made to emphasize two things:

First, that when God urges human being to follow the Right Way, and asks them no to do anything in conflict with Ultimate Reality, He does not do so because their good behaviour benefits Him or their misconduct hurts Him. He does so because good conduct is beneficial to man himself, as evil conduct in harmful to him. Hence it is out of sheer benevolence that God urges man to develop righteous conduct, for it will raise him to great heights, and He urges him to avoid evil conduct because it will lead to his own degradation.

Second, that God is not unduly stern in judging man. He gets no pleasure from punishing people. God is highly compassionate towards all His creatures and governs with utmost mercy and benevolence. Hence, He constantly forgives the sins of people. He grants respite to the sinners in order that they may take heed, understand things properly and reform themselves. Had He been excessively stern, He could even have obliterated them instantly and raised up another people. He could have put an end to humanity and brought into being an altogether different species of creation.

Source:
"Towards Understanding the Quran" - Sayyid Abul Ala Mawdudi, Vol 2, pp. 275-276

1. Why are you so proud? The cognitive steps involve knowing first why you are acting so proudly and then convincing yourself against it. For instance, if you are proud because of the wealth you possess, then you should think of what became of those who were wealthy and acted proudly. Think of the terrible fate of Pharaoh, Nimrod, Qaroon, etc. Think of those rich people who never benefited from their riches; rather their riches became a source of doom and gloom for them.

2. Know your status. You should also remind yourself of your true status as a creature of Allah. You were born of a despicable drop of semen; that was your beginning. As for your end, you will be reduced after death to a rotten corpse eaten by worms and finally disintegrating into the earth. How can anyone who is aware of his true nature act so proudly?

On the other hand, think of the Prophet of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) who, in spite of being the best and the chosen servant of Allah, was always so humble that he never set himself apart from his people in any way. Thanks to his humility, Allah has exalted his status. As opposed to this, the status of those who acted proudly became diminished in the sight of Allah as well as people; people today only remember them with utmost contempt and derision.

3. Beware of the Consequences. To reinforce this concept further, list as many verses and Hadiths as you can find that speak about the terrible punishments or fate awaiting those who are proud.

4. Adopt Humility. We cannot break any bad habit unless we acquire the opposite habit. So if you wish to break the habit of pride, you should do what the humble people do consistently until humility becomes your second nature. This will be easy when you use every opportunity to be humble when meeting people. You should be consistent in this behaviour until humility is acquired as a habit, just as you had acquired the habit of being proud.

5. Turn to Allah. Along with all of these, turn to Allah in repentance and pray to Him to inspire you with humility. You can use the following supplications:

Allaahumma innee a`aoodhu bika min ash-shiqaqi wa an-nifaaqi wasoo’ al-akhlaaq

(O Allah I seek refuge and protection in You from discord, hypocrisy and all base morals and character).

Allaahumma habbib ilaynaa al-imaana wa zayyinhu fee quloobinaa wa karrih ilaynaa al-kufra wa al-fusuqa wa al-`isyaana
(O Allah! Make faith dear to our heart and beautify it in our heart, and make us hate unbelief, corruption and disobedience).