1)
Ill-thinking of yourself:
Stand between yourself and between being conceited because thinking good of
yourself will not help you in correcting its faults. Ibnul-Qayim says,
“Those who seek the path of Allah Rabbul
Jallaluh must never be satisfied with their acts of obedience by thinking good
of themselves. Being satisfied with yourself because of an act of obedience is
foolishness and a proof of the ignorance of what you should do in obedience to your
Creator as He deserves.
Being satisfied with
yourself makes you conceited and fills you with many heart ailments, even more
than any sins like fornication and drinking can do. It is better in this case
to stop trying to change your faulty brothers because being sorry for yourself
is more worthy of your actions. Maybe taunting your brother is a bigger sin
than his because by doing so you are thinking that you’re better than him!
Maybe his sense of his
sins, his humbleness, and his submission are more worthy of ridding him from his
conceit as he stands humbled facing his Lord, with a downcast head, and is more
useful to him than all your acts of obedience and your good thinking! A sin
that humbles you is more beloved than an obedience that makes you conceited.
Maybe Allah Rabbul Jallaluh
gave him with this sin a medication that extracted from him a deadly ailment
that you’re living with without feeling! The moaning of the sinners is more
beloved to Allah Rabbul Jallaluh than the deception of the glorifiers. That you
spend your night sleeping and admitting to your faults is better than spending
it in prayers and ending in conceit.
