Pride Vs Humility

Human beings are born with a lot of characteristics, some of which we keep forever and some we don't. We also tend to pick up some as we grow up, most good and few bad. But few, like pride can only be picked up from influence which has been passed on from the devil himself, who showed it first to Allah. Indeed pride/arrogance/haughtiness etc. are the characteristics of Iblees and humility and humbleness is something which our Prophet (PBUH) and our Imams taught us.


This world is divided with two types of people. The first ones are those who are following the right path, the path of Islam which teaches us the true ways of living a life, to be humble and polite, be it with the Muslims or non-Muslims, rich or poor, ugly or beautiful, knowledgeable or ignorant, etc. And the second ones are those who have gone astray, who do not follow Islam in the true sense, who find pleasure in humiliating and degrading others. Thus, my article is based on the two ways of living a life, shedding light on Pride Vs Humility.


Let us begin by knowing the meaning of the word pride. In simple words having pride can be defined as being big headed about anything material you own or anything you have which eventually leads to arrogance with regard to treating people who do not match our standards just because we think we have anything better than anyone else, forgetting the fact that whatever we have is given to us by Allah. Too much of pride hence, often leads to arrogance.

Now coming to the word humility, this word reminds me of our Holy Prophet (PBUH) who being the greatest of the entire mankind was not only humble with fellow Muslims but also with his enemies. To make it short and easy, humility can be defined as showing respect and gratitude towards each and every being and treating them with humbleness.


However, there are two types of pride, the good pride and bad pride. The good pride is to feel happy for what you actually are but still stay grounded and the bad one is to claim that you are more than you believe you are. For example, a son achieves success in his field and mother feels happy and proud for his success, this falls under the good pride category, but this situation can turn to bad pride if the mother feels too proud and degrades others sons by making hurtful statements like: "My son did this, your son could NOT!". I'd like emphasize that it is truly, completely WRONG to compare and humiliate others. By doing so, we make them feel small and incapable of doing things and deep down inside, they get discouraged and lose interest in doing or achieving anything and most of all are hurt.


Things would be easier, if all of us follow this wisdom shared by our 2nd imam,
He says: " Associate with and treat the people in a way as you like to get associated and treated by them".This is a lesson we should never forget and remind ourselves of, so that we are away from this great sin of being proud.

We should say NO to the bad pride and try our level maximum best in helping and encouraging others and treating them in a just manner. Encouraging fellow beings to excel instead of degrading them will earn us sawaab and make them better too. Above all, the biggest fact is that we are in this world to please Allah in every possible way, and He says in His book "Certainly Allah does not love the proud ones" 16:23.


Being a Muslim is about having good Akhlaq (Manners) and being just in everything including treating people regardless of their religion. Imam Ali says: "Meet people in such a manner that if you die they should weep for you and if you live they should long for you." Don't you think the only way people will long for you and weep for you is when you aren't proud but humble towards everyone?! think about it.!

Samreen Fathima Mirza, 17
Mail to: sammirza14@gmail.com