The spiritual path to God is
littered with stumbling blocks. A common stumbling block seekers of God face is
thinking of oneself as better than others. This thought is forbidden or harām
in Islamic law. One may come up with musings like “I’ve taken the hand of
so-and-so shaykh, look how important I am because of my association;” or “Look
at him, he hasn’t even read a book on Sufism. He probably doesn’t even know who
Imam al-Ghazali is. I’ve read all of the Ihya Ulum-id-Deen;” or “Look at
how much I pray, recite Qur’an, and how many du’aas I’ve memorised; aren’t I
great!”
The protection against such
thoughts or the cure once they occur is to check on oneself before checking on
others. Each of us has plenty of things we could remedy. We all have weaknesses
to work on. We are far from perfect. Thus, we are all equal in this sense.
By working on ourselves and
becoming people of God we not only help ourselves but provide an example to
others. States and actions speak louder than words.
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