Sermon's Title: Arrogance — the Iblīsian Disease.
Themes of the Sermon:
1- The humiliation of the arrogant on the Day of Resurrection.
2- The cause of arrogance and its types.
3- Allah is the Possessor of Majesty.
4- The honor of the believer lies in his servitude to his Lord.
All praise is due to Allah, the Most High, the Most Great. To Him belongs majesty in the heavens and the earth; every arrogant one besides Him is humiliated and contemptible. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger. May Allah send abundant prayers and peace upon him.
To proceed: fear Allah, servants of Allah, with true piety, and observe Him in private and in secret.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ
“O you who believe, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims.” [Āl ʿImrān: 102]
Servants of Allah:
“Where are the arrogant ones?” Thus will Allah say on the Day of Resurrection.
The Prophet ﷺ said: “Allah, Mighty and Majestic, will fold up the heavens on the Day of Resurrection, then take them in His right hand and say: I am the King. Where are the tyrants? Where are the arrogant ones? Then He will fold up the earths with His left hand and say: I am the King. Where are the tyrants? Where are the arrogant ones?” Reported by Muslim.
Do you know what condition they will be in on the Day of Resurrection?
The Prophet ﷺ said: “The arrogant will be gathered on the Day of Resurrection like tiny ants in the forms of men. Humiliation will cover them from every direction. They will be driven to a prison in Hell called Būlas. The Fire of Fires will envelop them, and they will be given to drink from the pus of the people of Hell—the clay of corruption.” Reported by al-Tirmidhī.
People like insignificant, contemptible ants—humiliation covers them, people tread upon them—recompense for what they used to do.
So, what crime did they commit?
It is arrogance—the hateful Iblīsian disease.
Do you know why Allah cursed Iblīs and expelled him from His mercy?
Allah commanded the angels to prostrate to Adam, peace be upon him. Iblīs was among the angels, worshipping Allah the Exalted. When he heard Allah’s command to prostrate, he refused, and nothing prevented him except arrogance. Allah said:
إِذْ قَالَ رَبُّكَ لِلْمَلَائِكَةِ إِنِّي خَالِقٌ بَشَرًا مِنْ طِينٍ * فَإِذَا سَوَّيْتُهُ وَنَفَخْتُ فِيهِ مِنْ رُوحِي فَقَعُوا لَهُ سَاجِدِينَ * فَسَجَدَ الْمَلَائِكَةُ كُلُّهُمْ أَجْمَعُونَ * إِلَّا إِبْلِيسَ اسْتَكْبَرَ وَكَانَ مِنَ الْكَافِرِينَ * قَالَ يَا إِبْلِيسُ مَا مَنَعَكَ أَنْ تَسْجُدَ لِمَا خَلَقْتُ بِيَدَيَّ أَسْتَكْبَرْتَ أَمْ كُنْتَ مِنَ الْعَالِينَ * قَالَ أَنَا خَيْرٌ مِنْهُ خَلَقْتَنِي مِنْ نَارٍ وَخَلَقْتَهُ مِنْ طِينٍ * قَالَ فَاخْرُجْ مِنْهَا فَإِنَّكَ رَجِيمٌ * وَإِنَّ عَلَيْكَ لَعْنَتِي إِلَى يَوْمِ الدِّينِ
“When your Lord said to the angels: Indeed, I am creating a human being from clay. So when I have fashioned him and breathed into him of My spirit, fall down before him in prostration. So the angels prostrated, all of them together—except Iblīs; he grew arrogant and became among the disbelievers. He said: O Iblīs, what prevented you from prostrating to that which I created with My two hands? Were you arrogant, or were you among the exalted? He said: I am better than him; You created me from fire and created him from clay. He said: Then get out of it, for indeed you are expelled. And indeed upon you is My curse until the Day of Recompense.” [Sūrat Ṣād: 71–78]
How was the beginning, and how did it end in that outcome?
The beginning is that self-admiration creeps into the soul, so a person sees himself through the lens of perfection, greater than others, better than them, and more significant. Then he looks at others with a demeaning gaze, despising them and viewing them through the lens of deficiency.
The beginning is that a person sees the good within himself as belonging to him and arising from himself, and he does not realize that it is a divine gift and a Lordly bestowal. He becomes blind to attributing favor to its true Giver, and his heart does not utter praise of Allah, but rather praise of himself.
Thus the root of arrogance is a disease in the heart, whose effects appear on the limbs, as He, Exalted, said:
كَذَلِكَ يَطْبَعُ اللَّهُ عَلَى كُلِّ قَلْبِ مُتَكَبِّرٍ جَبَّارٍ
“Thus does Allah seal every heart of an arrogant tyrant.” [Sūrat Ghāfir: 35]
Its effects appear in a glance, a gait, clothing, or a tone of speech. You see him reject the truth and repel it out of pride and arrogance, despising people and mocking them.
For that reason, the Prophet ﷺ defined arrogance when he said: “Arrogance is rejecting the truth and despising people.” Reported by Muslim.
Rejecting the truth and belittling people are the marks of the arrogant.
Yet the matter does not stop at arrogance toward people; rather, arrogance may lead its bearer to arrogance toward the Lord of people—Majestic is His Glory.
How is that?
Allah has narrated to us the path of the disbelievers, beginning with the accursed devil, and those criminals who followed his path. In all of them is that accursed disease.
At times it appears as arrogance toward the messengers of Allah—belittling them and deeming oneself too lofty to follow them. They see themselves as more knowledgeable, more honorable, and wealthier than those whom Allah sent to them. How then could they follow them? So they disbelieved in them out of arrogance and haughtiness.
This is the successor of Iblīs: the criminal Pharaoh. He refused to believe in Mūsā because he saw himself as better than him, and he wondered how he could believe in a man whose people and family were lowly and subdued under his power. So he said in astonishment:
أَمْ أَنَا خَيْرٌ مِنْ هَذَا الَّذِي هُوَ مَهِينٌ وَلَا يَكَادُ يُبِينُ
“Am I not better than this one who is insignificant and can hardly make himself clear?” [Sūrat al-Zukhruf: 52]
Allah, Exalted, says:
ثُمَّ أَرْسَلْنَا مُوسَى وَأَخَاهُ هَارُونَ بِآيَاتِنَا وَسُلْطَانٍ مُبِينٍ * إِلَى فِرْعَوْنَ وَمَلَئِهِ فَاسْتَكْبَرُوا وَكَانُوا قَوْمًا عَالِينَ * فَقَالُوا أَنُؤْمِنُ لِبَشَرَيْنِ مِثْلِنَا وَقَوْمُهُمَا لَنَا عَابِدُونَ
“Then We sent Mūsā and his brother Hārūn with Our signs and a clear authority, to Pharaoh and his elite, but they grew arrogant and were a haughty people. They said: Shall we believe in two human beings like ourselves while their people are servants to us?” [Sūrat al-Muʾminūn: 45–47]
Indeed, the disbelievers among the People of the Book as well—Allah has related their story, saying:
وَلَقَدْ آتَيْنَا مُوسَى الْكِتَابَ وَقَفَّيْنَا مِنْ بَعْدِهِ بِالرُّسُلِ وَآتَيْنَا عِيسَى ابْنَ مَرْيَمَ الْبَيِّنَاتِ وَأَيَّدْنَاهُ بِرُوحِ الْقُدُسِ أَفَكُلَّمَا جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ بِمَا لَا تَهْوَى أَنْفُسُكُمُ اسْتَكْبَرْتُمْ فَفَرِيقًا كَذَّبْتُمْ وَفَرِيقًا تَقْتُلُونَ
“And We certainly gave Moses the Book and sent after him messengers in succession. And We gave Jesus, the son of Mary, clear proofs and supported him with the Holy Spirit. Is it that whenever there came to you a messenger with what your souls did not desire, you grew arrogant—so a group you denied, and a group you killed?” [Sūrat al-Baqarah: 87].
Arrogance carried them to deny the messengers and to kill them, because they held positions and had followers, so they were too proud to be followers themselves, and they preferred this world over the Hereafter.
And these are the disbelievers of Quraysh who acted arrogantly toward the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, saying—as Allah has related:
أَأُنْزِلَ عَلَيْهِ الذِّكْرُ مِنْ بَيْنِنَا
“Has the Reminder been sent down upon him from among us?” [Sūrat Ṣād: 8].
Likewise is the condition of the hypocrites today: they reject the statement of the Prophet ﷺ and his Sunnah, claiming that they are rulings of desert Bedouins, outdated by time. They say: it does not suit us, nor is it appropriate for our modernity, refinement, and civilization! By Allah, they are the insignificant, backward ones. And is what the Prophet ﷺ brought anything but the pinnacle of progress, refinement, civilization, righteousness, and the good of this world and the Hereafter? And did he bring anything except the abolition of the regressions of the former pre-Islamic ignorance?
Arrogance may also be arrogance toward believing in the signs of Allah. The verses of the Qur’an come to him, yet he refuses to believe in them, grows arrogant toward them, and then denies them. Allah, Exalted, said:
وَيْلٌ لِكُلِّ أَفَّاكٍ أَثِيمٍ * يَسْمَعُ آيَاتِ اللَّهِ تُتْلَى عَلَيْهِ ثُمَّ يُصِرُّ مُسْتَكْبِرًا كَأَنْ لَمْ يَسْمَعْهَا فَبَشِّرْهُ بِعَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ
“Woe to every sinful liar, who hears the verses of Allah recited to him, then persists arrogantly as if he had not heard them. So give him tidings of a painful punishment.” [Sūrat al-Jāthiyah: 7–8].
Their knowledge, intellects, philosophies, ideas, experiences, and theories grew great in their own eyes. They saw them as sound and infallible. When their messengers came to them with the signs of Allah and His law—by which their worldly life would be wholesome and their Hereafter rectified—they rejoiced in what they possessed of knowledge, and they were too proud to believe in the signs of Allah, turning away from them as if they did not hear them.
Whenever one of them hears a verse containing the ruling of Allah, he argues with falsehood and brings every doubt against it, seeking to nullify acting upon it and to elevate his own thought, opinion, and methodology. The reality of the matter is as Allah, Exalted, said:
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يُجَادِلُونَ فِي آيَاتِ اللَّهِ بِغَيْرِ سُلْطَانٍ أَتَاهُمْ إِنْ فِي صُدُورِهِمْ إِلَّا كِبْرٌ مَا هُمْ بِبَالِغِيهِ فَاسْتَعِذْ بِاللَّهِ إِنَّهُ هُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ
“Indeed, those who dispute concerning the signs of Allah without any authority having come to them—there is nothing in their breasts but arrogance which they will never attain. So seek refuge in Allah. Indeed, He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.” [Sūrat Ghāfir: 56].
It is the arrogance of the criminals that prevents them from worshipping Allah, for the reality of servitude is complete submission and absolute compliance to Allah, Exalted, in every command.
It is arrogance toward saying “There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah” with the heart and in action—even if some of them utter it with their tongues, their actions belie it. Allah, Exalted, said:
إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا إِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ يَسْتَكْبِرُونَ
“Indeed, when it was said to them, ‘There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah,’ they grew arrogant.” [Sūrat aṣ-Ṣāffāt: 35].
The true believer is the one whom you see humble, submissive, and prostrating to Allah, without selectiveness or objection. His state is as Allah described:
إِنَّمَا يُؤْمِنُ بِآيَاتِنَا الَّذِينَ إِذَا ذُكِّرُوا بِهَا خَرُّوا سُجَّدًا وَسَبَّحُوا بِحَمْدِ رَبِّهِمْ وَهُمْ لَا يَسْتَكْبِرُونَ
“Only those believe in Our signs who, when they are reminded of them, fall down in prostration and glorify the praise of their Lord, and they are not arrogant.” [Sūrat as-Sajdah: 15].
May Allah bless for me and for you the Mighty Qur’an, and benefit me and you by what is in it of verses and wise remembrance. I seek forgiveness from Allah for myself and for you, so seek His forgiveness; indeed, He is the All-Forgiving, the Most Merciful.
The Second Sermon:
All praise is due to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, his family, his companions, and all who follow him. To proceed:
Indeed, Allah is the Most High, the Most Great, the Supremely Majestic, the Possessor of dominion, sovereignty, majesty, and greatness.
وَلَهُ الْكِبْرِيَاءُ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ
“And to Him belongs greatness in the heavens and the earth, and He is the Mighty, the Wise.” [Sūrat al-Jāthiyah: 37].
The Prophet ﷺ said that Allah, Exalted and Majestic, said: “Greatness is My cloak, and majesty is My garment. Whoever contends with Me over either of them, I will cast him into the Fire.” Reported by Muslim and Abū Dāwūd.
He alone—glorified be He—possesses the greatness of essence, attributes, and actions. All perfection belongs to Him. He is exalted above every defect and imperfection, while all besides Him are owned servants, poor and weak.
Whoever knows Allah in His perfection and knows himself in his deficiency cannot regard himself highly nor raise his nose in arrogance. Rather, he humbles himself before his Lord, submits to his Master, and yields to His command.
Who are you, O human being?
You are nothing but a speck of dust in this vast universe.
The Prophet ﷺ said: “The seven heavens in comparison to the Kursī are nothing but like a ring thrown into an open desert, and the superiority of the Throne over the Kursī is like the superiority of the open desert over that ring.” Reported by Ibn Ḥibbān.
O human being, were you not once nothing, then Allah created you?
Who created you and fashioned you and proportioned you? Who taught you after ignorance, enriched you after poverty, and honored you after humiliation?
How can a human made from dust, a drop, and a clinging form—weak, unjust, and ignorant—be arrogant because of his knowledge, authority, or dominion, when all of that is nothing but the pure favor of Allah upon him?
And where are the dominion, authority, knowledge, learning, and armies of creation compared to the dominion, authority, knowledge, and armies of Allah?
The arrogant forgot Allah, so He made them forget themselves—how humiliated they are in this world and the Hereafter.
Every one who is arrogant toward Allah, His judgment, and His law will inevitably meet humiliation, disgrace, and the punishment of abasement in this world and the Hereafter, as Allah said:
وَلَوْ تَرَى إِذِ الظَّالِمُونَ فِي غَمَرَاتِ الْمَوْتِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ بَاسِطُو أَيْدِيهِمْ أَخْرِجُوا أَنْفُسَكُمُ الْيَوْمَ تُجْزَوْنَ عَذَابَ الْهُونِ بِمَا كُنْتُمْ تَقُولُونَ عَلَى اللَّهِ غَيْرَ الْحَقِّ وَكُنْتُمْ عَنْ آيَاتِهِ تَسْتَكْبِرُونَ
“If you could but see when the wrongdoers are in the throes of death and the angels stretch out their hands, saying, ‘Release your souls. Today you will be recompensed with the punishment of humiliation for what you used to say about Allah without truth and for being arrogant toward His signs.’” [Sūrat al-Anʿām: 93].
And Allah said:
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَسْتَكْبِرُونَ عَنْ عِبَادَتِي سَيَدْخُلُونَ جَهَنَّمَ دَاخِرِينَ
“Indeed, those who are arrogant toward My worship will enter Hell humbled.” [Sūrat Ghāfir: 60]
Meaning humiliated and abased.
The Prophet ﷺ warned them, saying: “Whoever has even an atom’s weight of arrogance in his heart will not enter Paradise.” Reported by Muslim.
Indeed, all honor and all true dignity lie in worshipping the Lord of the worlds, submitting to His command, and surrendering to His judgment with reverence, love, and humility. Allah, Exalted, described His noble angels, saying:
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ عِنْدَ رَبِّكَ لَا يَسْتَكْبِرُونَ عَنْ عِبَادَتِهِ وَيُسَبِّحُونَهُ وَلَهُ يَسْجُدُونَ
“Indeed, those who are with your Lord are not arrogant toward His worship; they glorify Him, and to Him they prostrate.” [Sūrat al-Aʿrāf: 206].
O Allah, support Islam and grant honor to the Muslims, and destroy the Zionist criminals.
O Allah, send tranquility into the hearts of those striving in Your path.
O Allah, deliver Your oppressed servants and raise the banner of the religion by Your might, O Mighty, O Strong.
O Allah, forgive the Muslim men and women, the believing men and women, the living among them and the dead.
O Allah, grant success to our leader in what You love and are pleased with, and guide him to righteousness and piety.
Our Lord, give us good in this world and good in the Hereafter, and protect us from the punishment of the Fire.
Servants of Allah: remember Allah with abundant remembrance, and glorify Him morning and evening.
And our final supplication is that all praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds.
