Don’t be Sanctimonious!
The feeling of being purified after attempts of self-purification, is something humane, or natural. But why is it forbidden?
“O Ustadz, as a human, sometimes I feel in my heart that I am the best man among men. How can I overcome this feeling? What should I do? I know that it is not allowed (to feel so, -ed).” That was the message I received from one of the person who regularly attends my lesson some times ago. Before I explain about the solution of this disease of the heart, I think it is important to explain about the actual problem, since probably some of the readers of this magazine (The “Pengusaha Muslim Indonesia” magazine, -ed) have already asked: “What’s wrong with it? Since we’ve tried to make better of ourselves. Isn’t it a consequence of our attempts?”.
Between the Attempt to Purify Ourselves and The Feeling of Sanctimonious
Some people can’t differentiate between the “attempts of self-purifying” and the “feeling of sanctimonious.” At a glance, both seems similar, but in fact, even the Qur’an has made distinction between those things. Let’s look upon the verses below. The first one,
“قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَنْ تَزَكَّى”
“He who purified himself shall prosper,” (QS. Al-A’la/The Height: 14).
Similar to this verse is chapter Asy Syams (The Sun): 9.
The second one,
“فَلَا تُزَكُّوا أَنْفُسَكُمْ هُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِمَنِ اتَّقَى”
“So do not boastfully claim yourselves to be purified. He fully knows those that are truly Godfearing.”(QS. An-Najm/The Star: 32). Similar to this verse are the verses no. 14 of chapter An Nisa’ (The Women) and no. 53 of chapter Yusuf (Joseph).
The first verse speaks about motivation to purify ourselves; this is clearly a positive deed. Contrary to that, the second verse contains prohibition to claim ourselves pure; the verse explains that it is a negative deed.
Ar-Raghib al-Ashfahany (died year 425 H) named the first deed as, “self-purification with real action.” Whereas the second one he named as, “self-purification with a mere claim.” (See: “Mufradât Alfâzh al-Qur’ân”; page 381)
Isn’t it a Natural Feeling?
The feeling of sanctimonious, or pure, after doing attempts of self-purification, isn’t it a natural? Why should it be prohibited?
We need to know that something natural doesn’t mean that it is in accordance with Islam. For example, the feeling of attracted towards the opposite sex. It is natural. Moreover, since it is in line with men’s passion. But this natural thing, if being realized without rules, will go against Islamic rules. Likewise is the feeling of sanctimonious, or the thought of being the best or the most righteous. It is not right according to Islam. Why is that?
Firstly, it will cause someone to suffer from many of diseases in his hearts, or inner conscience. Among which are arrogance, snobbishness, being amazed by himself, belittling others, and so on. If a person has contracted the disease of arrogance, even if it was just as big as a grain of dust, he was threatened not being able to enter the Paradise, as the Messenger of Allah -peace and prayer of Allah be upon him- had reminded us about in his saying,
“لَا يَدْخُلُ الْجَنَّةَ مَنْ كَانَ فِي قَلْبِهِ مِثْقَالُ ذَرَّةٍ مِنْ كِبْرٍ”
“One who has arrogance in his heart, even if it is just as the size of dust, will not enter the Paradise.” (Narrated by Muslim, from Ibn Mas’ud)
The arrogance is a complete opposite of the concept of worship in Islam. Because the basic meaning of worship is the humbling of oneself in front of Allah. Thus, if there is a person who is diligent in worshipping, but then an arrogance starts to arise within him, it means that he has failed to achieve the main aim of his worship.
From this point, we could understand why a famous worshipper, Mutharrif Ibn Abdullah asy-Syikh-khir (died year 95 H) once said, “I would rather sleeping thus I couldn’t get up in the night, then I felt remorseful in the following morning, than I could get up in the night, but then I had in my heart the sense of wonder to myself!”. (See: “Hilyah al-Auliyâ’” by Abu Nu’aim al-Ashbahany; II/200)
Secondly, we are not deserved of feeling sanctimonious. Why is that? Because if we’d like to think about how far were our attempts to purify ourselves, we’d be able to reflect, and see, how far we are from the true portrait of purity! Thus, it would be very naive of us to feel sanctimonious.
Let’s take an example; the five time prayers that we always performed in congregation, in time, at the mosque. For these years we’ve performed it, have we ever did it with a perfect devotion, since the first takbeer until the salaam? Just once, during these whole years?! Please answer it with honesty.
It is just the prayer. What about the qualities of our other worshipping activities, such as fasting, paying the zakat, pilgrimaging, and reciting remembrances? Moreover, if we introspected ourselves, we could find ourselves still committing various kinds of sin every day. Such as glancing at prohibited objects, or uttering dishonest words, or concealed sins such as being envious, thinking bad of others, riya’, etc. At this point, we would realize how far we are from the ideal portrait of a pure man. Then, why do we still feel ourselves pure?
Therefore, if we look closely upon the life stories of the pious predecessors, we’ll find that they are people who were far from the feeling of sanctimonious. They were generations that are very serious in their worship, but they were very modest, even tended to worry about their fate later in the Hereafter.
Allah the Exalted recorded their magnificent stories in His verse,
“وَالَّذِينَ يُؤْتُونَ مَا آتَوْا وَقُلُوبُهُمْ وَجِلَةٌ أَنَّهُمْ إِلَى رَبِّهِمْ رَاجِعُونَ . أُولَئِكَ يُسَارِعُونَ فِي الْخَيْرَاتِ وَهُمْ لَهَا سَابِقُونَ”.
“who give, whatever they give in charity, with their hearts trembling at the thought that they are destined to return to their Lord; it is these who hasten to do good works and vie in so doing with one another.” (QS. Al-Mukminun/The Believers: 60-61)
When she recited the verse, mother of the believers, ‘Aisha -may Allah be pleased with her- was curious, and she asked the Prophet -peace and prayer of Allah be upon him-, “O Messenger of Allah, who is the one that this verse refers to? Is it a person who feared Allah? Is it a person who drank intoxicant and stole?”. “Not that, O daughter of Abu Bakr! It is a person who performed prayer, fast, and charitable deed, but he also feared that his deeds would not be accepted.” (Narrated by Tirmidhi, and classed valid by Al Albani).
That is the ideal portrait of a faithful man. He is eager to perform righteous deeds but his heart is overwhelmed with the fear over the fate of his deeds. Unlike those whose deeds are very limited, even less, yet he feels very confident and sees himself as a righteous, pure man. Close that door tightly!
In order to prevent the feeling of sanctimonious, our Prophet, Muhammad, -peace and prayer of Allah be upon him- even felt the need to change names that connotes with it.
It was narrated in “Shahih of Muslim”, one of the Prophet’s -peace and prayer of Allah be upon him- companion named his daughter “Barrah”, which roughly means, “a very devoted woman.” The Messenger of Allah -peace and prayer of Allah be upon him- advised him, “Don’t boastfully claimed yourselves to be purified. Indeed, Allah fully knows those that are truly devoting among you.” Then he ordered to replace the girl’s name with “Zainab”.
Let’s attempt to follow the example of the Messenger of Allah -peace and prayer of Allah be upon him- in closing every gaps that could leads to bad feelings. Let’s make “Purify yourself, but do not feel self-righteous!” as our slogan.
Author: Ustadz Abdullah Zaen, Lc., M.A
Article of www.whatisquran.com