FALSE PRIDE
Source of all Evils
SUCCESS always comes after great sacrifice. If you take success as including sacrifice, it will lead to the development of a realistic approach. On the contrary, if you think success should follow without sacrifice, you will develop false pride. False pride is disastrous and ruins the whole personality of a person. False pride always creates the psyche of paranoia.
Currently Muslims suffer from this problem. In the second-half of the seventh century and the first-half of the eighth century Muslims achieved great political success. Within a short period they brought an end to the Sassanid and Byzantine empires. They established Muslim rule in vast areas of Asia and Africa and built an empire that lasted for about one thousand years.
Muslims have done one-sided reporting in narrating their political achievements. They enumerated their achievements without mentioning the sacrifices that went into achieving it. Muslim scholars, overwhelmed with these achievements, wrote books about these events. Instead of titling them as books on history, they preferred titles with the word “victory”. Their accounts were a chronology of victories; we see titles such as, Futuh al-Sham (Conquests of Syria), Kitab Futuh alBuldan (Book of the Conquests of the Lands), and so on.
False pride is disastrous and ruins the whole
personality of a person. False pride always creates
the psyche of paranoia.
This was a fatal mistake as it reported success but excluded the sacrifice preceding it. Muslim historians claim that the history of Islam begins with the conquest of Makkah in the year AD 630. The fact is that it began more than two thousand years ago, when the Prophet Abraham settled his wife Hajira and their son Ishmael in the desert of Arabia. From here began a ‘desert therapy’—that is, the growing up of the people of Arabia in the lap of nature. This helped develop very fine qualities in them and it was among them that the Prophet of Islam and the Companions of the Prophet took birth.
It is these very special kind of people whom Philip K. Hitti calls a ‘nursery of heroes’. From this nursery, people known as sahaba, or the Companions of the Prophet were chosen, and tabeen, or the companions False pride is disastrous and ruins the whole personality of a person. False pride always creates the psyche of paranoia. Spirit of Islam Issue 38 February 2016 33 of the Companions. This heroic group created the history of Islam. Historian M N Roy in his book Historical Role of Islam has acknowledged their contributions in these glorious words: “The expansion of Islam is the most miraculous of all miracles.”
Muslims of later generations reading these histories develop false pride and focus on the victories that accompanied the expansion of Islam, but ignore the sacrifice.
‘As It Is’ Thinking
If a matter goes against us, we tend
to play it down, and if it is in our favour,
we make too much of it. This is insincerity.
One must think as it is and speak as it is.
Speak With Caution
Never repeat or spread any information unless
convinced of its authenticity. Maintain silence
and investigate the truth of the matter before
deciding to publicize it.