humbleness, in a sense, may look like poverty or emptiness, it is actually to be rich. For example, if you are a new teacher or the subject is new, you become very worried when students ask questions. If a student asks a few questions, you think that he has a plan to destroy you in front of everyone. However, if you are a confident teacher, not only would you not be worried about these questions, you would actually love people to ask very difficult questions because that would make the class more interactive and give you the opportunity to teach more. Therefore, if we really possess something valuable inside we should become more humble, and when you are more humble it increases your capacity for gaining more. As you said, God gives the gift of wisdom, for example, to those who are humble. We have traditions that, for example, God gives the gift of prophethood to those who are humble. For instance, one hadith states that God said to Moses, “O Moses, Do you know why I chose you over other people, gave you revelation and spoke to you?” Moses said, “No my Lord I do not know.” He did not say, “Yes, there must be many reasons that He chose me. Which one are you talking about?” So God said, “I looked at the heart of people in and out and I saw none of them more humble before Me than you.” Therefore, Moses was the most humble person at that time and God thus chose him. There is a story states that once God said to Moses, “Next time that you come to the appointment with Me, bring someone who is lower than you; so do not come alone, bring also someone who is lower than you.” So, Moses went everywhere and he could not find anyone that he could say he is lower than me. Then
he saw an ill and ugly animal and said, “Maybe I can say this animal is lower than me, it is not a human being, but an animal,” but then he said, “I cannot even say this animal is lower than me because that animal has no guilt or sin.” Thus, he went to meet God without taking anyone and God asked, “Why did you not bring anyone?” He replied, “Because I did not find anyone lower than me.” God declared, “If you had brought that animal you would have lost your position.” Consequently, humbleness is absolutely important, but at the same time, it is extremely difficult. If you are humble it means that you have already made great success since it is not easy for a beginner to be humble. However, when you do become humble you are put on a motorway which quickly takes you towards God and higher positions. So, the important question is how can we become humble? Of course, being with humble people is very inspiring because you automatically and naturally are motivated to become humble. However, we may not find such people very easily or perhaps there are layers of pride within us that would not disappear by only being with humble people. So, I think this is an area that we have to work together and bring our experiences and resources together so that we realise how we can be humble, especially as faithful communities. Unfortunately, sometimes we bring our pride and arrogance to religion, between two denominations or between two religions. If we were really humble, then we were in a better position to enter into dialogue and discussion and find similarities. However, when we are not personally humble and we put any cleric dress, that pride comes in the way of unity, causing difficulties. A Muslim might say
that a Muslim must be the winner, or a Christian might say that a Christian should be the winner. Hence, though we may think it is for the sake of God, in reality, it may not be for the sake of God. This might be the same selfish game people do in different names and now we do it in the name of God. In summary, there is no doubt about the significance of humbleness in our traditions, but we really need to work hard on the practical side and try to achieve this humbleness. Moreover, if we do attain it then we should try not to lose it; as our fourth Imam says, “O God please do not raise me among people any rank unless you bring me lower in myself the same or more.” Perhaps as a first-year seminarian, I have enough humbleness, but when I go to the second year I need more humbleness. When I become, for example, a graduate I need more humbleness. Furthermore, when I become an Imam I need even more humbleness. Hence, humbleness is a virtue that we really need to work on, especially by seeing what we can learn from our spiritual and mystical traditions. Thank you.l
The Islamic Centre of England
April 2018
islam today
9