Arrogance
Once my sister and I attended a wedding of very wealthy people. Until then I naively thought the Muslims around us were middle class like us and I didn’t know a whole other class existed that were extremely well off. The moment we entered the place, the unwelcoming stares of people around us made us feel out of place. We realized that the wedding was not really for the groom and bride, rather it was being used to show off wealth and in doing so some limits of Allah (swt) were crossed. We sat at a table where everyone was an engineer and they made it a point to boast about the latest contract they had acquired. In fact an uncle looked and me and asked ”what does your father do.” I said “he’s a truck driver.” And he tried to reassure me by saying “That’s okay too.” and I smiled thinking Yeah i didn’t know it was NOT okay and I was NOT embarrassed by this fact.
Lesson:
1. Wealth is a huge fitnah and alhamdullilah for what I have and for what I don’t!
2. Don’t look down on people based on their dunya status. You might have noticed in your family everyone treats the one looking for a job way different than the one who is making lots of money. The rich relatives can do things that are completely wrong and no one speaks up because of their dunya status.
3. Arrogance creeps up in a variety of ways. Ask yourself: do i treat a person differently once I find out he/she is well off or how do I treat the people who are less wealthy than I am. Do I listen and obey more the wealthy person because he/she is wealthy. Check your heart.
In the famous words of Baba Ali “this is your reminder in case you forgot.” :)
