Man’s Main Problem Is Pride

Bismi Llāhi r-Raḥmāni r-Raḥīm

Maulana Sheikh Nazimق’s Suhbah

03 September 2009

O our Lord! We are saying, A`udhubillahi mina ‘sh-Shaytani ‘r-Rajeem, Bismillahi ‘r-Rahmani ‘r-Raheem. We are running from the worst of creatures, Shaytan. We are fleeing to You, for all light, all eternal illumination, belongs to You, and Your grants know no limit. Shaytan is the most ignorant, the most proud, because pride brings ignorance, and ignorance brings pride. We are running to our Lord to save us from pride, from the claim of being proud, and from Shaytan’s ignorance.

The worst attribute, the most harmful trait in a person, is to be proud. Pride, absolute pride, belongs only to Allah Almighty, not to anyone else. Only to the One. Shaytan fought with his Creator, saying, “You gave me such high qualities, I have the right to be proud.” But that ignorant one never understood that what Allah Almighty granted him from Heavenly Knowledge was not to make him proud. He failed to understand that pride belongs only to the Creator.

Now we are living in a time when pride is sought by all. They are inheriting the darkest tarbiyah, the most corruptive attribute, from Shaytan. They are teaching one another that being something or somebody gives them the right to be proud. This is a very wrong idea, falsely taught to people. They compete to see who can outdo the other in pride, while inheriting that same dark quality from Shaytan.

O people! Hear and listen and obey! Hear and learn, and keep what you learn. What are you learning? Don’t think that your dress or title gives you the right to be proud, whether you are kings or queens or so-called first-class people. They imagine their clothing gives them pride, or that their imitated titles give them the right to be proud. No!

Everything on this planet is an imitation, no true reality. Only a reflection from the Heavens reaches this world, and people think that what they see is real. But it is not. Every appearance on earth is just a vision, not reality. If you seek reality, you must seek it in the Heavens. The existence of the Heavens is not like the existence of this world.

The Heavens contain countless planets, countless systems, countless galaxies without end. No one can count them. That is the level of the Heavens. The creation of the Heavens is something else entirely. They are created from light. And light does not tolerate the darkness of our egoistic desires.

Someone once asked, “O Shaykh! Why is the color of the sky blue in the day, and black at night?” I say, “Go and ask those who were granted Holy Books. What do they say? The Holy Qur’an says, for everything, there is an answer.” During the day, light gives the sky its blue color. Yet that blue holds billions of stars and worlds like our own, swimming within it.

At night, the appearance changes. Night has its own color, a color of light also. It is a dark black, but it too is a form of light, suitable for our level of creation. The color of night carries prestige, haybah. It reflects the awe and might of the One who created it. That blackness holds countless dominions of creation. No one can grasp or comprehend what lies within it.

Now scientists speak of ‘black holes’, but no one truly knows what they are. They only speculate through mathematics and astronomy. They sense powerful realms that can swallow all creation and leave nothing behind. Black holes, no one knows what they are or what they do. So the majestic greatness of the Divine, ‘Azhamah, is far beyond comprehension. What we speak of is not even equal to the size of an atom in comparison to the Oceans of Divine Might.

O people! Come and listen! Come and reflect. We know nothing, yet we spend our lives learning only how to become proud. But it is not for you to be proud. Pride belongs only to the One with endless Power, endless Might, endless Oceans of Strength.

Come to understand to Whom pride truly belongs. Not to you. Only to Allah Almighty. There is no second. And be thankful that He granted you to appear into existence. Look at your place in all existence. How can you say, “I am this” or “I am that”? What is your title, really? Why are you making such claims of greatness or pride? No! It is not for you.

The worst illness, the worst characteristic of man is to think he is something, and then to be proud because of it. Pride eats away the real personality dressed on a person from the Heavens. What appears is merely a body, a garment draped over a skeleton. When that outer form disappears, what remains is something most people would run away from.

One day, that outer garment will be taken from you, and only your skeleton will remain. Anyone who sees it will want to flee. Don’t be proud because of your clothes or your titles. Death is chasing you, ready to strip away your outer dressing and place you in your grave. Only your inner dressing will remain with you in the graveyard.

O people! Absolute Greatness, Absolute Might, and all Absolute attributes belong to the Lord of Creation, only to Him. You are nothing.

Try to learn something about yourself, about your mission in this world. For what were you created? And what is the Lord of Mankind ordering or advising His servants to do? Pride is the veil that blocks a servant from every goodness!

One day, angels will take that proud one to the grave. And they will show him and say, “Look who is there?” And he will say, “A skeleton.” The angels reply, “That is your skeleton, your inner self. On it was flesh, and with that flesh you were proud during this short time in Dunya.”

Reflect on this, and strive to be a good one, a good servant to your Lord, so that you may be granted garments from the Oceans of Light, from the Heavens. A Heavenly Dress that will be placed upon you. Ask for that.

Don’t run to tailors for a good suit. That is nothing. Ask the angels to clothe you in majesty and light, something honored, radiant, and everlasting. That is what matters.

O people! Time is over, it is almost finished. Come to understand, before you are left as only a skeleton in your grave.

May Allah ﷻ forgive us.

Al-Fatiha.

• Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Haqqaniق

03 September 2009 / 13 Ramadhan 1430 AH

Originally taken from ‘2,000+ Sohbats of Maulana Sheikh Nazim’ by Sufimus Online.

With love and intention, parts of this Sohbah have been carefully revised by SufiHub.com for clarity and contextual relevance.

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