I am not trying to impress you or win your admiration
Conversations
A person impresses others when they deliberately, carefully, and artificially strive to astonish them and evoke their admiration. Artificiality involves undertaking something with unnecessary difficulty; it is a negative and sterile behavioral habit, and it may reveal the presence of old psychological complexes in an individual’s personality.
I confess that I am personally not at all fond of impressing others, nor do I seek to attract attention to myself when I am in the outside world. However, I strive as much as I can to behave naturally and rationally, despite the difficulty of achieving this in today’s turbulent world, for the following reasons:
- Prioritizing God’s Pleasure Over People’s Pleasure: I firmly believe that a sound and rational Muslim must prioritize obedience to Allah, the Exalted, and His pleasure over the pleasure of human beings. It is expected that most of one’s physical, psychological, and mental efforts be devoted to achieving this goal in this worldly life. People’s pleasure comes second, perhaps only to ward off evil, alleviate psychological pressures, preserve mental well-being, do good, or facilitate necessary human interactions.
- The Self-Confident Does Not Seek to Elicit Admiration: The more a person’s confidence in themselves, their abilities, and their personal capacities grows, the more firmly rooted in their heart and mind becomes the necessity of refraining from artificially trying to impress others. Conversely, when self-confidence is weak in some individuals, you will notice them seeking to strengthen it by attracting the attention and admiration of others. This is, of course, a useless behavioral habit that reinforces emotional dependency and destroys psychological independence.
- My Life, Sustenance, and Death Are in the Hands of My Lord: “Come to me.” So they came to him and sat down. He said, “This is the Messenger of the Lord of the Worlds; Gabriel inspired me: ‘No soul dies until it has fully received its provision, even if it is delayed. Therefore, fear Allah, and be diligent in your seeking. Let not the delay of your provision lead you to acquire it through disobedience to Allah, for Allah does not grant what is with Him except through obedience to Him.’” (A noble Prophetic Hadith).
- Kind Treatment Is Not for Your Impression: “Every vessel exudes what is within it.” And in the noble Prophetic Hadith: “The believer is accustomed to being familiar and is accustomed to familiarity; there is no good in one who is neither familiar nor accustomed to familiarity. The best of people are those most beneficial to others.” And Allah knows best.
A Kuwaiti writer
