Pride and Over-Confidence

Whoever desires (Al-Izzah) honor, power and glory in this world and the next, let him be obedient towards Allah (SWT), as He says in the Quran: 

If any do seek for glory and power, then, to Allah belong all glory and power. The Noble Qur'an (35:10)

If we keep the relationship between ourselves and our Creator in mind, and that He is the only one "entitled" to 'pride', then we bring ourselves back "down to earth" and appreciate that we are all from the same source, and that even though we have differences mostly based on incidental issues, the only source of being "better" than one another (which cannot be fully judged) is our awareness, consciousness, and acceptance of God and all that He gives to us.

The main push behind pride and prejudice is nothing other than the human being thinking himself to be "god" and that he feels he is better than others; however, if we keep the relationship between ourselves and our Creator in mind, and that He is the only one "entitled" to 'pride', then we bring ourselves back "down to earth" and appreciate that we are all from the same source, and that even though we have differences mostly based on incidental issues, the only source of being "better" than one another (which cannot be fully judged) is our awareness, consciousness, and acceptance of God and all that He gives to us.

Imam Ali (AS) says:

"I wonder at the arrogance of a haughty and vain person. Yesterday he was only a drop of semen and tomorrow he will turn into a corpse. Also, it is astonishing if son of Adam is proud, when his beginning is a sperm and his end is a decaying corpse (dead body)."

The arrogant and proud person should recognize and realize his reality: his origin is a dirty sperm and his end is stinky carrion. Between these two, man is weak and feeble. Hunger and thirst exhaust him, ailment and sickness overcome him, poverty and harm afflict him, and death will inevitably befall him. Man cannot provide benefits and cannot save himself from misfortunes.

Overconfidence is a bad trait

Confidence is a great thing. It allows us to get past our doubts and take action. So why is too much of it so bad? Take a look at the example of Azazeel.

His name was Azazeel. He is also known as Iblees. He used to pray a lot and even used to give lectures to the angels. One day there was a notice in the heavens saying that someone was going to be ordered out of the heavens. All the angels were worried because they thought it might be one of them. They all went to Jibreel (Gabriel) who was one of the most important angels to ask him whether he could do anything. Gabriel said he too was worried because it might be himself. Gabriel suggested that they go to Azazeel because he was very clever.

Azazeel told them not to worry at all, he would pray to Allah (SWT) for all of them. He forgot himself, thinking he was the best and it could never be him. As a result of overconfidence, he became the cursed Satan and he was ordered out of heaven.

Imam Moosa Kazim (AS) says:

"O Son! Don't delay in offering your prayers. Nor should you be overconfident of the acceptance of your prayers and feel proud of your efforts at piety. We cannot offer prayers and obedience to Allah commensurate with His Blessings."

In short, as human beings and believers, we need to ensure that we do not repeat the sin which resulted in the fall of Satan - we need to treat all of the children of Adam as human beings and not be judging based on things such as skin color, tribal affiliations, language, place of birth, economic worth, social status, or even religion, as these are all merely ways for us to "know one another" rather than being means of shunning one another.

In short, as human beings and believers, we need to ensure that we do not repeat the sin which resulted in the fall of Satan - we need to treat all of the children of Adam as human beings and not be judging based on things such as skin color, tribal affiliations, language, place of birth, economic worth, social status, or even religion, as these are all merely ways for us to "know one another" rather than being means of shunning one another.

Imam Ali (AS) says:

"People are of two types - they are either your brothers in faith or your equals in humanity."