Careful! Feeling Tawadhu 'is an Arrogance

Careful! Feeling Tawadhu 'is an Arrogance

Everyone certainly has a story of their own life journey, both education, career, to love stories. From the journey of their life, they will arrive at certain achievements as a result of the various efforts they have made.

The results they get are different, for example, a santri, for example, there is a kyai in his village, there is a ustadz in a pesantren, some have succeeded in occupying positions in religious institutions , and so on.

The existence of these differences forms an assessment, some are considered successful, some are considered normal, until some are considered failed. This then often gives rise to feelings of being more successful, or smarter, or of higher rank, and the like in a person.

If this kind of feeling is not controlled, then a person can fall into an arrogant attitude, which is when he feels better than others. In a qudsi hadith narrated by Abu Hurairah ra, the Prophet SAW said, that Allah SWT said: " Pride is My turban, and Majesty is My sheath. Therefore, whoever takes one of these from Me, I will surely throw him into the fire of hell ."

Arrogance is the opposite of humility or humility . A humble person feels that he is not better than other people. With this attitude, one will never underestimate other people, even other creatures of Allah such as animals and plants.

People who are humble, never feel that they are humble, but those around them can feel it, both from their actions and words. And, people who feel that they are humble, are actually falling into the pit of arrogance.

In the book of al-Hikam , Ibn 'Athaillah as-Sakandari (d. 709 H) said in the 238th wisdom (Ibn 'Athaillah, al-Hikam , p. 84) that:

Whoever proves humility for himself is truly arrogant, for humility is nothing but elevation. So when you prove humility to yourself, you are truly arrogant.

Whoever determines that he is humble, then he is actually arrogant. Because, it is not an attitude of tawadhu 'except (avoiding) feeling better. When you determine that you are humble, that's when you are actually arrogant.

Ibn 'Ajibah (d. 1224 H) in Iqadh al-Himam fi Syarh al-Hikam explains that tawadhu' is earnest ( Mujahadah ) in positioning oneself in a low position. (Ibn 'Ajibah, Iqadh al-Himam , p. 502) According to him, the negative impulse in a person pushes him to feel better. This is where mujahadah needs to be done to fight the impulse so that we can still position ourselves no better than others.

He continued, that when a person is able to realize the attitude of tawadhu', he will see that all living things are the same, that is, all are creations of Allah SWT. He doesn't feel more special than a dog, nor will he feel more powerful than an ant, and so on.

Lastly, the words of Abu Yazid al-Busthami (d. 188 H) quoted by Ibn 'Ajibah should be a reflection for all of us. He said:

As long as the servant sees something worse than him in creation, he is arrogant.

As long as a servant sees (other) creatures worse than himself, then (during that time) he is falling into arrogance.

May Allah SWT always grant us His help so that we are able to be humble in our daily lives. God bless you .