Hypocrisy and pride

6-7-2004 | IslamWeb

Question:

Can you name all or at least the common forms of hypocrisy and pride, and how one might go about eradicating them from oneself? Also if someone wears a Qamiis to Islamic school ten wears English other times is that a form of hypocrisy?

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Answer:

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.

Pride and hypocrisy are dispraised characteristics which are not of the morals and conduct of the people of faith.

The Prophet () defined pride saying: "It is to be arrogant towards the truth, and to deny people their rights." [Muslim]. Two main characteristics of a person with pride are he rejects the truth and despises people. Other characteristics of such person can be encompassed within these two characteristics like refusing to acknowledge one's mistakes, and refusing to sit with poor people, and so on.

As regards, hypocrisy (Nifaq), it is of two kinds:

The first kind: Hypocrisy, which is connected to belief,  is to conceal Kufr (disbelief) and to show Iman (belief). This kind of Nifaq takes the person out of the fold of Islam.

The second kind: Nifaq is called pragmatic Nifaq. It is to perform acts which are the characteristics of the people of Nifaq, like those mentioned in the Hadith. The Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) said:

"There are four characteristics if they are found in a person, then he is a real Munafiq (hypocrite), and if one of them is found in a person, then there is a trait of Nifaq in him until he leaves it: If he is entrusted, he cheats, if he speaks he lies, if he promises, he fails to keep his promise, and if he quarrels he uses obscene and immoral expressions." [Bukhari and Muslim]

With regard to how to treat pride and hypocrisy, it is by remembering the Greatness of Allah, and by fearing His punishment and severe torture in addition to remembering the bad fate of the people of pride and hypocrisy. So this could be a treatment for both characteristics.

However, pride has a treatment peculiar to it, which is that a person has to remember his origin, and that he is a weak creature, created from nothing and will become nothing. His beginning is a drop of sperm and his end is a rotten corpse, and in his body he carries excrements.

In addition to the above, one should remember the good fate of humble people who are beloved by Allah, they are the people who will be honored and given a high status, in addition to entering paradise.

The treatment peculiar to hypocrisy is to remember the fate of being truthful and sincere, and what Allah has prepared as permanent pleasure for the truthful people, and to think about what Allah has prepared as severe punishment for hypocrites.

As regards men's clothes the following requirements should be observed:

·        It should cover the Awrah (from the navel to the knee).

·        It should be loose so that it does not shape the  limbs.

·        It should not be similar to women's dress or Kuffar (non-Muslim) clothes.

Nifaq (hypocrisy) has nothing to do with wearing clothes, i.e. a given type of clothes does not mean Nifaq except if there is something associated to it.

If you mean by Western clothes, the clothes that are now common in Muslim countries to the extent that they are worn by Muslims and non-Muslims, then this is not forbidden, because it is only forbidden to imitate the non-believers in things that are peculiar and specific to them.

Allah knows best.