Ego and Humility: On Winning the Race

In the Name of Allah, All-Merciful, Ever-Gracious. All praise is for Allah, and may His peace and blessings be upon our Master and Liegelord Muhammad, his family and Companions.

In his Sahih collection, Imam Bukhari relates the following hadith on the authority of our Master Muadh ibn Jabal (R) that he said:

Once while I was riding behind the Prophet on the same beast, no more than the end of his seat separating us, he said to me, “O Muadh.” I replied, “At your service, O Messenger of Allah, at your obedience!” He continued for some time [in silence], and then said, “O Muadh.” I replied, “At your service, O Messenger of Allah, at your obedience!” He [again] continued for some time [in silence], and then said, “O Muadh ibn Jabal.” I replied, “At your service, O Messenger of Allah, at your obedience!” He then asked, “Do you know Allah’s right over His servants?” I said, “Allah and His Messenger know best.” He said, “Allah’s right over His servants is that they worship Him and associate no partner with Him whatsoever.” He continued for some time [in silence], and then said, “O Muadh ibn Jabal.” I replied, “At your service, O Messenger of Allah, at your obedience!” He asked, “Do you know the servants’ right over Allah if they do that?” I said, ““Allah and His Messenger know best.” He said, “The right of His servants over Him¹ is that He not punish them.”

This hadith can be seen as a summation of the entire religion, and hence, of the entire purpose of one’s life. Allah Most High indeed has many rights over His servants—such as gratitude, patience, forbearance, trust, and sincerity—for He created them from nothing and honored them with the ability, and opportunity, to know Him, by their own volition. Yet the Messenger so eloquently expressed the basis of Allah’s rights in one concise statement, namely, that we worship Him. Of course, ‘ibada entails not only ritual worship, but in fact complete devotion and servanthood, as linguistically it is related to ‘ubudiyya. The latter cannot be achieved without the second half of the prophetic injunction, that is, ascribing no partners to His majesty whatsoever. The “servant” actualizes a life of devotion and “servanthood” by removing from his heart any and all ulterior motives and passions, whereby he becomes a true muwahhid, or acknowledger and devotee to divine oneness. And being the best teacher humanity ever witnessed, our Beloved Messenger did not simply proclaim this statement in a forthright manner, but rather prefaced it with three calls (nida’) to his Companion (R), fully drawing his attention thereby, followed by a question to ensure the message be completely absorbed by him.

Imam Bukhari relates this hadith three times in his Sahih collection, the first two being under the chapters, “A man’s sitting behind another man [on the same conveyance]” and “One who responds with ‘At your service and at your obedience.’” The third one, however, proves the most insightful of chapter headings (tabwib or tarajim), which is one of the fascinating aspects of his Sahih collection, as they indicate the Imam’s own personal understanding of the religion. The third chapter heading beneath which this hadith is presented is entitled, “One who strives against his ego in the obedience of Allah.” Neither the word “struggle” (jihad) nor the word “ego” (nafs) is found in the hadith text itself, yet Imam Bukhari is subtly teaching us a very important lesson thereby, namely, that to achieve a life of true devotion to Allah Most High, a life of no other motives or partners whatsoever, the slave has one principal obstacle in his path. His chief enemy is in fact none other than his own self, the notorious “me, myself, and I,” that capacity within the human to react to trials with the internal response of, “You obviously don’t know who I am.” The ego complains against the Sacred Law and is slow in implementing it, and it objects to the divine decree when things do not go its way. As Imam Qushayri states in his famous epistle, the ego is “the locus of all vile traits.” From it springs forth arrogance (kibr), vanity (‘ujb), jealousy (hasad), miserliness (bukhl), laziness (kasal), a bad opinion of others (su’ al-dhann), love of fame (hubb al-jah), and love of this ephemeral abode (hubb al-dunya); the ego is the root of all diseases of the heart.

There is no other hadith under the chapter of struggling against the ego in Sahih al-Bukhari; the next chapter contains two hadiths, seemingly unrelated, yet conjoined under the title of “Humility” (tawadu’). Here Imam Bukhari imparts an even subtler lesson, offering the believer the most potent of weapons in his “self-combat.” The nature of the ego is to rise, to desire elevation, to be recognized for its feats of success. “My achievements are only a reflection of who I am, and of what I deserve,” it says to itself, often unnoticed to the person. The ego is “Qarun-ic” in that way, as in Surah Qasas (v.78), Qarun’s response to being granted the blessing of immense wealth is “I was only given it due to my knowledge,” an obvious barrier to spiritual progress. The cure is to literally place one’s head on the ground, to lower one’s self into obliteration. In Arabic, humility (tawadu’) comes from the root “to lower or put down” (wada’a); by lowering the self, we can move forward in our path to Allah. Imam Bukhari teaches us, then, that the key to the previous chapter (jihad al-nafs) is this chapter (tawadu’), the first hadith of which is as follows:

The Messenger of Allah used to have a she-camel called al-‘Adba’, and it had never lost a race. So a bedouin came one day riding a camel, who beat her in a race. This weighed heavily on the Muslims, who said, “al-‘Adba’ lost!” So the Messenger of Allah said, “Verily, it is incumbent upon Allah² that He raises nothing in this life except that He lowers it.”

Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani in his commentary on Sahih Bukhari mentions that some scholars were perplexed as to why this hadith was placed under the chapter heading of “Humility,” yet he says they must have been unaware of its other narration in Nasa’i’s collection that states, “It is incumbent upon Allah that nothing raises itself in this life except that He lowers it.” The narration, then, clearly discourages the slave from deeming himself as special or worthy of recognition and honor (taraffu’), and encourages lowering the self and inculcating humility in the heart. One can indeed marvel at how simple of an event Imam Bukhari uses here to impart such a grave matter—how many “she-camel races” are we accustomed to winning in our everyday lives? Muslims in the West are particularly inundated with countless opportunities in the educational and professional spheres alone, and Allah Most High has equally showered us with countless victories in those pursuits. We must sincerely ask ourselves where our egos are in these triumphs, and if are we prepared for the day when Allah implements His mandate of lowering what once was elevated. Perhaps the loss might even be at the hands of a social “nobody,” a Bedouin if you will. This life must necessarily be filled with ups and downs, and the pain we feel due to losing our own “camel-races” is almost invariably due to the ego’s objection to Allah’s decree. Deflating our egos with true humility removes the pain, making us realize we were undeserving of the victories in the first place; they were nothing but gifts from the All-Generous. Even the loss is a gift, as we deserve much worse than our trials.

Imam Bukhari’s counsel to us, then, is to keep ourselves low throughout the process. Those who are realized in the station of humility are not thrown off balance by losses in their worldly pursuits, and although in a seemingly insignificant event of a camel-race, the Messenger himself so beautifully exemplified his own personal humility on that day. He had no ego , and hence never suffered of anxiety in a worldly loss, no matter how small or large. His elevation was through Allah, and was hence the greatest elevation. “And We have raised for you your remembrance” (94:4), leading us to the second hadith under the chapter of “Humility,” a narrative that highlights the result of its actualization:

Verily Allah states: Whoever shows animosity to a friend of Mine, I will surely wage war on him. My servant draws near to Me with nothing more beloved to Me than that which I have made obligatory upon him, and My servant continues to draw near to Me with voluntary acts until I love him. And when I love him, I become his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes and his foot with which he walks. Were he to ask Me, I would surely give it; and were he to seek refuge in Me, I would surely protect him. There is nothing I do in which I hesitate³ as I do in taking the soul of a believer; he hates death, and I hate to inflict pain on him.

Once the servant has successfully lowered his ego and is realized in humility, Allah honors him with true elevation, manifested by his successful implementation of the Sacred Law and, as a result, attainment of the station of wilaya, or intimate friendship with the Divine. Such a believer does not find the Sacred Law to be burdensome anymore, as he did earlier due to the “largess” of his ego; rather, he finds it light and doable, even providing a certain sweetness he had not yet tasted. The obligations of the religion (fara’id) are in effect in his life, carried out in a consistent and ordered manner. He has humbled himself to seek additional acts of devotion (nawafil), his ego no longer in his way. He is a true mujahid, conquering his self and moving forward in his spirituality, drawing ever nearer to his Goal, his Beloved, until becoming the beloved of his Beloved, “until I love him.” At this point, he need not wait to enter the Garden before tasting some of the fruits of his arduous  journey, for what greater sweetness exists for the wayfarer then to draw nigh to his destination, to become an intimate friend (waly). His entirety (kulliyya) is completely aligned with the divine will, with the good pleasure of Allah—his hearing is for the sake of Allah, his seeing is for the sake of Allah, his movements and stillness-es are for the sake of Allah. The remembrance of Allah permeates his very being, and manifests through his senses and on his limbs, both now functioning solely to please Him. He is a person of tawfiq, of Divinely-endowed success and enablement to live a life of a true muwahhid, of a true devotee, of a true servant, and of a true saint. The internal echoes of “me, myself, and I” are replaced with plentiful remembrance of “Allah, Allah, Allah.” Complaints against the Sacred Law and objections to the divine decree are replaced with gratitude, patience, forbearance, trust, and utter sincerity and genuineness. There is no more arrogance (kibr), no more vanity (‘ujb), no more jealousy (hasad), no more miserliness (bukhl), no more laziness (kasal), no more bad opinion of others (su’ al-dhann), no more love of fame (hubb al-jah), and no more love of this ephemeral abode (hubb al-dunya); the root has been eradicated, conquered by true humility. The anxieties of losing the camel-races of this life are vanished, replaced by true elevation—a life of proximity to the Divine.

May Allah grant us the immense blessing of conquering our egos, of lowering our “selves” to true servanthood, and of tasting the fruits of intimate friendship and Divine love in this life, as an indication of meeting Him in the next life in Eternal Bliss. May Allah shower endless blessings and peace upon our Master Muhammad, his family and Companions. Wal-Hamdu li Llahi Rabbil Alamin. Amin.