Humility

Tay

Peace,

I've been in this forum for a little over 2 weeks. I decided to look through my posts and make sure I haven't been prideful in my comments. Morningdew asked me to swallow my pride. I thought I already did, but I guess I vomitted it right back up.

What is humility?

Dictionary.com defines it as

The state or quality of being humble; freedom from pride and arrogance; lowliness of mind; a modest estimate of one's own worth; a sense of one's own unworthiness through imperfection and sinfulness; self-abasement; humbleness.
An act of submission or courtesy.
Syn Lowliness; humbleness; meekness; modesty; diffidence.

Sounds a little like the definition of Muslim.

So humility is the antithesis of pride.

What is pride?

Well, there is good pride and there is bad pride.

Good pride

A sense of one's own proper dignity or value; self-respect, ie, "Taking pride in your work."

Bad pride

The quality or state of being proud; inordinate self-esteem; an unreasonable conceit of one's own superiority in talents, beauty, wealth, rank, etc., which manifests itself in lofty airs, distance, reserve, and often in contempt of others.

Those that walk in pride he is able to abase. --Dan. iv. 37.

Pride that dines on vanity sups on contempt. --Franklin.

I believe that one cannot achieve the fruits of humility while sowing seeds of pride. It is the the yin-yang, the "towards God, away from God".

The only way to achieve this state of humility is by debunking the illusion of pride. The QXP tasreef of the Qur'an explains that "Only those with an open mind, free of preconceptions can touch the essence of this book(Al-Qur'an)".

I am proud to have rid myself of the idea that the ahadith are an essential part of Islam. I really felt liberated in doing so. I felt like it was a clean slate for me. But what I am realizing is that this is not enough. I realize that fighting pride is a daily battle. It never ends. As I browsed through the various comments I made, I can see pride in them. Even as I talk about the values of humility, I see a sense of pride.

I think humility is a noble goal, but one that can never be truly reached unless guided by the hand of God Himself. Humility requires constant refinement, constant re-evaluation. We only get closer to humble, never truly humble. Very few have ever reached this status, and some are mentioned in Al-Qur'an.

Thus the importance of La-Illaha-IlAllah.

The Shahada is the essence of humility. It is the reminder that we are nothing save the grace of Allah. It is the criterion with which to weigh all decisions. It is applying a clean-slate in every decision, in every action, in every thought.

Just my humble 2 cents.

Peace,
Tay