Self-admiration (ujb)

Self-admiration ('ujb) is a person's esteem for the deeds, knowledge or opinion he has, and his seeing the excellence as belonging to himself. Al-Sallabi presents it in the context of 'Ali's words on the faults that spoil deeds ².

Ali ibn Abi Talib (may God be pleased with him) said: "Self-admiration is the affliction of minds". The book establishes that it is among the faults that spoil deeds and destroy servants, a disease that is incompatible with sincerity and opposed to it ².

Al-Sallabi sets out the views of scholars. Abd Allah ibn al-Mubarak said that self-admiration is that you see in yourself something that others do not have, and Ibn Taymiyya distinguished between showing off and self-admiration in the words "You alone we worship" and "You alone we ask for help" ¹. He reports that al-Ghazali counted self-admiration as a root of arrogance and self-deception, and that al-Qarafi saw in its prohibition a lapse of manners towards God ¹. The book gives two causes: ignorance of God's right and of esteeming Him as He deserves, and heedlessness of the reality of the self and its faults ¹. It cites al-Shafi'i, al-Nawawi, Ibn al-Qayyim and Ibn al-Jawzi on its treatment through remembering God's favour and one's shortcomings and through self-examination, including Ibn Hazm's words on searching the self for its faults ³.

The book relates from Ibn al-Qayyim that when God wills good for His servant, He makes him forget the sight of his acts of obedience and places his sin before his eyes, which is mercy for him; whereas a good deed for which the servant boasts may be the cause of his ruin ⁴.

Al-Sallabi presents this material as an educational and doctrinal warning, and relies on the sayings of scholars without adding a new ruling ⁴. (See Riya (ostentation).)

The Sheikh recounts the story of a teacher in Basra who had five hundred students attend his lesson, and who feared that self-admiration would enter him (needs_source: the details of the account) ⁵. The Sheikh holds, as his own opinion, that obedience may turn into admiration of one's deeds, that deeds carry their own danger, and that a servant's hope in God's pardon for his sins may exceed his hope in his deeds ⁶.

He says that rejoicing in good deeds is right, since God granted one the means to them, while one guards against pride (needs_source) ⁷.