The “I RoxXxX Atittude”- Arrogance and Its Many Off-Shoots
For this article I thought I would talk small and quote big. Throughout my life I was a care-free work-little-have-fun-all-year-round kinda student who somehow managed to score 80-90% regardless of the tiny amount of hard work I put in. That in itself a blessing, which should have been a cause for bringing me closer to Allah, but nay! Like any other silly teenager of my age that just made me more and more self-reliant (read obnoxious) till I fell flat on my face. Life was all sunshine and gold till I ACTUALLY discovered that I was working lesser than my peers and scoring more. That led to a certain amount of complacency, which led to a huge amount of over dependence on the self, which ultimately led to my fall from grace, hah. Now most of you would say (the way I used to) that this is not arrogance, well maybe its not arrogance like the Pharoah`s, who said:
“Council, I do not know of any other god for you apart from Me…”” (Surah Al Qasas 28:38)
But it IS still a form of arrogance, which many of us unknowingly fall prey to i.e thinking our success-es <read blessings> are a result of say our intellect, our logical thinking, our deductive powers…whereas that is not the case! In fact this is exactly the attitude which led to Qarun and his house being swallowed up, when he said of his vast treasures:
“He said, “I have only been given it because of knowledge I have.” (Surah Al Qasas 28:78)
Reading that just gave me the creeps! O God I sound like that! Most of us forget that Satan`s maiden sin, too, was that of arrogance, when the Lord commanded Satan to prostrate,he said:
“I am better than him. You created me from fire and You created him from clay.”” Surah Al A’raf 7:12
Read: “I am sooo better than you dude”. How many times have we said/thought that for someone we thought was beneath us, it might be the mullah next door, or the geeky guy upstairs, and if you think you`re justified in thinking so, think again…
Alhumdolillah I have learnt my lesson but changing the thought-process is a long challenging path, so when I write this article, it is more a reminder for myself than for anyone else. I believe Allah(s.w.t) teaches us lessons in so many ways that we cannot begin to comprehend His infinite wisdom. I mean can you name one teacher who has taught you the lesson of arrogance whilst killing a mosquito (machar)?:D Check following:
Scene I:
Malo sees machar on wall
<evil laugh> “dude you`re so dead!”
WHAM! $%**@
Self whining & holding hand whilst mosquito flies off peacefully, oblivious to pain inflicted
Scene II
Malo still smarting from last call, much more sub-dued <read humble>, spots killer-machine <read mosquito ofcourse>
-advances
-makes dua-“Allah let this terrorist perish at my hands,pretty please!”
SWAT!
Blood splattered on wall!
-Stops mid-step whilst breaking out into weird break-dance sequence
-remembers previous lesson
-says “Alhumdolillah” 😀
Now you know what I meant by talk small at the start;d Also I hope that now you know how much changing the thought-process actually requires-_-
Great read.
Just to add another dimension to it, there is this arrogance that material possessions induce in us that we usually fail to notice.
For example, the “how dare he” feeling when a khatara taxi FX overtakes your civic – I’m sure everyone who drives can relate to that. I learnt it the hard way 🙁 – Or when we look down on a slow car thinking “gari chalti hai nahi road per lay atay hain” and so on.
I can write a whole article on it, and submit it to malonama some day maybe :p – But I hope I am clear here.
I felt like m reading about my own self :O
May Allah forgive me…guide me and bless me to be humble and content… aaameeen.
JzakiLLAJ for this reminder!!
*tears*
your comments made our day uzma. Allah is the source of all good. and may Allah grant you istaqamah in all your amal=)
aww alhumdolillah<3
ok i read ds a week ago n i thot da story abt da mosquito ws pretty funny and kind of random =D bt ive thot abt ds article every tym a mosquito gets particularly close to draining me of the little blood i have in my emaciated figure =P da point is u succeed in communicating exactly wat u intend to.
Inspired =)
aww m.k <3
loved it!! may ALLAH bless u!! loving u!!DIL SE!!:)
very nice…keep it up:D
haha very nice….luvd it keeeep it up:)
Malo I want to give you a huge hug…thanking Allah for giving me friends like you *muah*
correction:this is what happens when i tell my bratty relatives about my blog:D will dedicate something to you guys soon insha`Allah<3 loveS of my life:D mwah<3
malo u didnt totally describe the part wen u fell flat on ur face…dis is wat happens wen u have suh bratty relatives..but more to the point lub da article..lub da machar wala part n da symbolic meaning behind it…<3
awww!! masha’Allah what a great read!! 🙂
no excuse this time me lord ;)) it was soooo nice MA!n giving such an imp lesson with such an interesting example is great!the dua i can think of is “Allah karey zor e kalam aur ziada”!:)
i second your thoughts iqra 😀
liked..!!
Loved it.
this article reminds me a hadith.. “One will not enter Paradise, if one has an atom’s weight of arrogance in his/her heart”(tirmizi)..
Now this is what I call a good read.
🙂 Allah is the source of all good…i hope it helps others too
I just love how u gleaned such an important lesson from something as simple as killing a mosquito!