Allah said in Surat Al 'Imran, v. 188: {" Don't think that those who rejoice in what they have done and love to be praised for what they have not done - don't think that they will be saved from the torment ..."}

Abu Sa'id al-Khudri described the circumstances behind the revelation of this verse. He said that when the Prophet (عليه الصلاة و سلام) would go out for Jihad, a group of the hypocrites would sit back from the expedition and rejoice in the face that they got out of it. But when the Prophet would return from the battle, they would come to him with their excuses to convince him of their sincerity. At the same time, the people of Madinah would mistakenly think that they had gone out and would praise them, and they would love this praise and long for it despite the fact that they didn't even perform the action for which they were being praised.

While this verse was revealed regarding an act of worship (i.e. Jihad), there is a wider social lesson that you can extract from it and use to shape your character. This lesson is especially relevant because we live in an era where we're excessively occupied with our image and the perception others have of us. This is to the point that we sometimes feel the need to present ourselves as being more than we really are, as being something we are not, in order to gain the admiration of others. The competitive world we live in makes this phenomenon all the more widespread. What this verse does is pull you away from the tendency to be fake & artificial, just as it put the spotlight on those hypocrites who sought to make others think more highly of them than they deserved.

A Muslim should be confident enough in his/herself that there isn't even a need to give an inflated image of themself to others. When al-Imam Ahmad was asked once if he sought knowledge sincerely for Allah's sake, not only did he not inflate himself, but he humbly minimized his sincerity by replying: "It was just something that I liked and began collecting." And Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, when he was praised, would weep and supplicate: 'O Allah, make me better than they think me to be and Forgive me what they don't know about me,' and he is the best man to ever walk the Earth after the Prophets! So, the Salaf were not concerned with presenting inflated images of themselves to others. In fact, they were not concerned with image at all. They were real, natural, down-to-Earth people, not prone to posturing, seeking only Allah's Pleasure.

The easiest way to imitate them is to take the people you seek to impress and assign them their proper status. They are human beings like you, created from a sperm & egg clot, weak, limited, and imperfect. See them for what they are in the grand scheme of things and ponder over how powerful Allah is in comparison. Who, then, is deserving of your time & concern? Once you allow the awe of Allah to overtake your heart, you'll find yourself slowly beginning to attach less value to the perception of other human beings and concentrate more & more on Him. In fact,when you do so, you'll automatically be great in the eyes of others. People are naturally averse to fake personalities and are attracted to genuine individuals who don't go out of their way to gain admiration from others. You notice this: such people are respected simply account of who they are and how they carry themselves, not because they go out of their way to make others think of them as being this way or that way, and the converse is also true.

So, the first point here involves the effect of this trait on others. The second point to understand is the effect of this despicable trait on your own self. When there is a discrepancy between how others perceive you and what you know about yourself, this results in severe inner turmoil and chaos. Just look at the prevalence of depression, drug use, and suicide among the wealthiest celebrities: the idolization that they're subject to contrasts greatly with what those celebrities know about themselves, and the fake lives they live leave them with the bitter realization that they're living a lie. This occurs on a smaller scale among all who fall into this trap of trying to appear before others as being greater than they truly are.

You'd think that such people would end up feeling good about themselves for having been able to fool others, but a piece of research published in the June 2010 issue of 'Psychological Science' magazine proves the opposite. A group of women were provided in this experiment with Chloأ© sunglasses, which cost $300 a pair. Some of the volunteers were told that the sunglasses were real, while others were told that they were fake. All of the volunteers were then given a math quiz for which they could earn up to $10, and they were allowed to grade their quizzes themselves. In the end, it was found that 30% of these told they were wearing real sunglasses had cheated in their grading, while by contrast 70% of those who thought they were wearing fakes ended up cheating. A second part of the study had the women counting dots on a computer screen, with the location of the dots determining how much reward money they could earn. In this exercise, the women who thought they were wearing fakes lied about the locations of the dots more often than those who did not. In a third part of the study, the volunteers were asked questions relating to ethics & honesty. Here, those who thought they were wearing fakes were more likely to see others as dishonest & unethical. In a fourth part of the study, a questionnaire was issued to test the participants' level of self-alienation. Here, too, those who thought they were wearing fakes felt more alienated from themselves than those who knew they were wearing real Chloأ©s.

So, this very interesting study concluded that, in this case, wearing fake accessories resulted in a person both acting and feeling badly, while those who knowingly wore authentic ones came out more honest, ethical, and internally satisfied.

طارق مهنا
Tariq Mehanna
Plymouth Correctional Facility
Isolation Unit - Cell #108