Signs of Extravagance and Arrogance
Dialogues
“If We bestow favor upon man, he turns away and keeps himself far off; but if evil touches him, he is given to long prayers.” (Surah Fussilat, 41:51)
The causes of falling into extravagance and arrogance are known to every person of sound mind. However, the signs that reveal such behavior in an arrogant and haughty individual are sometimes hidden from some people. Among these signs in today’s turbulent world, we mention the following:
- Exceeding the bounds of wastefulness: Some people misuse the blessing of wealth, deliberately going beyond what is moderate in this regard. You will see them spending their money in ways that exceed reasonable limits, purchasing items they are not supposed to spend lavishly on, even reaching the level of squandering.
- Arrogance toward blessings: A person becomes arrogant toward a blessing when he belittles it and, hypothetically, takes for granted his entitlement to it. Whether the blessing is wealth, high social status, positive personal relationships, or a comfortable life, the sign of arrogance toward it is viewing it merely as a given achievement of personal distinction, even if the arrogant person has not done or achieved anything real to prove his worthiness of it.
- Repaying kindness with hostility: The mean-spirited arrogant person repays others’ kindness toward him by deliberately offending them, especially those who have done him good or helped him in the past. This is done as psychological compensation for the sense of inferiority he feels toward them. Although most benefactors do not boast about the good they have done, the mean-spirited arrogant person harbors old psychological complexes that can only be resolved by offending those who have shown him kindness.
- Arrogance toward one’s own people: The arrogant person acts haughtily toward his family, his relatives, and everyone belonging to the same original and fundamental environment to which he belongs. This rude behavior may stem from the deep-rooted wickedness in his heart, whether innate, inherited, due to upbringing in childhood, or because of the basic flawed nature of his personality. In any case, the prominent sign in this context is that his own people become the first victims of his arrogance.
- Associating partners with God, and seeking refuge in God from this: The arrogant person attributes his intelligence, luck, and what he believes to be his extraordinary abilities—and perhaps the help of some other humans—to the acquisition of the blessings bestowed upon him by the Lord of Majesty. In this, indeed, lies his destruction.
A Kuwaiti writer
