Chapter IX: Evils of Pride and Vanity
.-■- God gave news of the Quraish who said: Had this Quran been revealed to two great men of the two cities. Qatadha said that the great men were Olid-b-Mugirha and Abu Masud Saqafih? They said: How has God sent an orphan over us? Then God revealed: Do they divide mercy of your Lord. The Quraish said to the Prophet: How can we sit near you when these mean people are sitting round you? They meant by this word the poor Muslims. Then God revealed this verse: Don't drive those who call their Lord morning and evening. God says: Bear patience with those who worship their Lord morning and evening for His pleasure and don't turn your eyes from them to the worldly grandeurs. God says of their punishment in the following verse:
They say: Why do we not find out those whom we considered mean? By this word, Hazrat Bilal, Ammer, Sohaib, Meqdad and other companions of the Prophet were meant.
(3) Third class - Pride on the general people. To think oneself greater in comparison with other people and to look upon them with contempt mean a sense of pride over them. Thus he keeps himself away from following the people. It is bad for two reasons. The first reason is that pride and superiority are due only to the Highest Lord. Man, being naturally helpless, is not able to do anything. How can he claim pride under the circumstances? Whenever a man wants to take pride, he wants to
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set up partnership with the attribute of God which he cannot do.
If any slave wears the crown of a king and sits on the throne, he becomes an object of wrath and hatred of the king. How is he punished for this treason? For this reason, God said: Pride is my garment and glory is my shirt. Whoever quarrels with me about these two matters, I destroy him. In another: He who claims to be vested with an attribute which is solely Mine, is ruined. He who takes pride over the servants of God, commits sin to God. If an officer of the king is humiliated by anybody, he is said to oppose the order of the king. He who wears the crown of the king and sits in his throne, becomes an object of utmost hatred and extreme anger of the king for which he gets the highest punishment for treason.