Self-righteousness

In the movie cliché of cops raiding a building, we see when the cops enter the first floor, the criminals will flee to the second floor. Then as the cops get to the second floor the criminals will run to the third floor. This process continues till the criminals reach the top of the building at which point they can no longer run and instead resort to hiding.

We must be careful lest we allow a similar scenario to happen when we accept Submission. As we work to perfect our religion our egos flee (God willing). With each step towards righteousness the ego is forced to run until it realizes there is nowhere else to go. At that point the ego may stop running and resort to hiding.

In a final attempt to preserve its existence, the ego may play a very clever trick. It will begin praising us for all the righteousness we have achieved. It will remind us how far we have come and how much better of a person we are since we embraced Submission. And if we fail to recognize this ruse, before we know it our ego will transform our work towards righteousness into self-righteousness allowing it to live another day.

Self-righteousness is the belief that we are morally superior to others, to the point that we fail to see our own faults but are great at seeing the faults of others.

The example of Satan serves as a shining example of self-righteousness. Before his fall, Satan was an angel (7:11, 17:61) but his perceived superiority got the best of him. He was exposed when he rejected God’s commandment to prostrate before Adam on the grounds that he thought he was better than Adam (7:12-13), and as retaliation for being banished he vowed to identify and exploit the shortcomings of all the people.

What makes self-righteousness so dangerous is that it looks and feels like righteousness, but it is far from righteousness. Below is a list of twelve items that we can use to identify if we are being self-righteous. Much of the material in this list came from an article I read from Christian pastors, which shows that self-righteousness is a trick that Satan has been utilizing for some time against all believers irrespective of the name of their religion. As a disclaimer, even though I am writing this article I am not immune from falling into these traps.

1. Do you think you have “special knowledge” no one else around you does? Does this make you feel like you have an “up” on others?

According to 56:79, anyone who is sincere God will guide their heart. Our salvation is not dependent on any special information that is not available to everyone. No one has a monopoly on God’s word or the truth. To think that because you have access to special information you are by default more righteous than others is putting too much weight on the information and not enough on the quality of one’s soul.

For example, there are people who memorize the entire Quran yet fail to properly understand one verse. There are people who have access to vast libraries filled with scholarly works, but if they are not sincere then they will not be able to convert that information into wisdom. 

[56:77] This is an honorable Quran. [56:78] In a protected book. [56:79] None can grasp it except the sincere.

[2:171] The example of such disbelievers is that of parrots who repeat what they hear of sounds and calls, without

Cont'd on page 2