Me, Myself and I vs. Humility

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate

Assalaamu alaykum

In our daily business of our lives, the greatest thing in our consciousness and concern is ME, MYSELF and I. Many of us are in that state of personal trinity...ME, MYSELF and I. That is the zikr of the heedless. But for the true monotheist, the zikr of their state is Allah, Allah, Allah. Anything comes to them, Allah would be greater in their consciousness and concern.

If you realize that Allah is the absolute great, firstly you will leave all sense of greatness of your own self, whether to regard you are all that, which you are not, Allah is all that, nor to regard any other as great.

If you realize Divine Oneness, it entails you truly realizing only Allah is great, only Allah has true consequence, has true worth, has true regard.

Allah is Al-Kabir, the Most Great. He possesses the absolute greatness. It is an expression of perfection in entity, attributes and actions. Allah Most High is perfect in His entity because His existence is perfect because His existence is necessary. Whereas everything else it's existence is merely possible. It is only actual because it was brought into existence by Allah. Allah's existence is independent and unconditional. Whereas the existence of anything besides Him is contingent and dependent. Allah is the One who possesses the greatest perfection. He is the One before whose greatness, everything else is considered paltry. Allah's kabir is not comparative. He alone is great. He is the Great. We affirm the greatness of Allah as one of the central statements of our religion. We say Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar is not a comparative. You can only relatively translate Allahu Akbar as Allah is Most Great--there are many things that have greatness but Allah is far greater. It is in the comparative sense to affirm absoluteness. When comparative is used with respect to Allah, it is to affirm absoluteness.

True Divine Oneness will not manifest to you until you leave, through Him, yourself. So you are by Him and not by yourself. You are not self motivated, you are Divinely motivated, you are not self concerned, you are Divinely concerned, you are not self centered, you are Allah centric. And if this were true that you will leave sense of greatness of self, you will make no claim regarding your attributes or your actions. And the way to safeguarding this realization is, as the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said, "Whoever finds good, let him praise Allah." It is Allah who created you and all that you do. Even if you appear great, who inspired you? Allah. You have your choice but what is your choice in comparison to Will and Power of Allah? So you don't make claims. This is humilty (tawadhu')

If you want true humility uphold the sunnah (ways and traditions) of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. He ate with his hands because that is closer to humility. He sat on the ground. They had chairs at that time but he sat on the ground. He didn't show attitude to people.

Drawing closer to Allah is to turn to Him in every action and response. What do I do for Him? It is to make your concern for Allah absolutely great and no concern for your self. This is the sign of people who know Allah. The sign of someone who has tasted the reality of faith is that they don't defend themselves. You don't use that to judge other people. These kind of things you judge yourself with.

"Never look down on anybody unless you're helping them up." Jesse Jackson

"Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less." -C. S. Lewis

"Selflessness is humility. Humility and freedom go hand in hand. Only a humble person can be free." -Jeff Wilson

"Have more humility. Remember you don't know the limits of your own abilities. Successful or not, if you keep pushing beyond yourself, you will enrich your own life--and maybe even please a few strangers."--A.L. Kennedy

May Allah grant us humility and help us reach our own potential and not leave us alone even for a blinking of an eye. Ameen.

Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa 'ala aalihi wa sahbihi wasallam.

And Allah knows best and is Most Wise, and He alone grants success, and to Him is the final return of all.

Wassalaam