Rafed English
site.site_name : Rafed English

Adopted from the book : "A Glance at the World of Youth" by : "Al-Balagh Foundation"

Pride and arrogance is a disease which afflicts man as a result of feeling superior over others, priding himself on what he has from strength, wealth, beauty, power, position and knowledge. Surely, this disease is the most dangerous one that affects man and destroys him and puts him in peril. The Holy Qur'an describes it by saying: "Nay!, man is most surely inordinate. Because he sees himself free from want." Holy Qur'an (The Clot 96:6-7) It warns against such acts in the advices of Luqman to his son: "And do not turn your face away from people in contempt, nor go about in the land exulting overmuch; surely Allah does not love any self-conceited boaster." Holy Qur'an (Luqman 31:18)

"(...and do not go about in the land exulting, for you cannot cut through the earth nor reach the mountains in height." Holy Qur'an (The Children of Israel 17:37)

The youth stage, especially the teenage stage, is among the most pride oriented stage in man's life, and that of disrespecting others and falling into hazards and risks. And how often this feeling has a bad effect on the conduct and behaviour of the youths. How often pride, for instance, has a negative effect on the young boys and grils even in choosing a wife or husband or the relationship between themselves, or with their family. Thus, an arrogant youth often cannot marry because he does not see a siutable wife for himself. How many young girls stay unmarried due to pride and arrogance to the extent that they lose their virginity, and their family life becomes a hell and often results in disassociation, when the imagination and expected plans, full of pride and arrogance, fail.

Consequenly, an arrogant youth, due to his bodily strength, deals with people with arrogance and challenge, and often his pride ends him in jail or he becomes a community's hatered; the victim of pride and arrogance. Many incidents, in which tens of thousand of youths become victims, happens every year due to recklessness and hazardous ventures.

It is worth mentioning that statistics show that the number of those afflicted by behavioural episodes is higher than the number of those afflicted by communicable diseases, tuberculosis and other diseases, and that the third world countries are spending 53 billion U.S dollars because of these occurences, which is equal to the total number of financial aid they receive from the rich countries. Rather, pride and arrogance may make some youths feel shame if they are related to a certain family, race, town or village when they feel that that thing does not suit their position, or they may feel superior over their parents, especially, if their position is superior to that of their parents.

Sometimes, his higher educational background will make him downgrade the opinion of others and their ideas. This kind of pride and arrogance has contributed, immensely, to underestimating the belief in Allah and the messages of the prophets (a.s.). Certainly, pride and arrogance in the youths, due to their power, beauty, wealth, or feeling of superiority of social position or knowledge over others, are among the social problems in the community which need a solution, and educating the young generation, morally and socially, in the schools, media, and family, on the dangers of pride and arrogance, can be done by showing them the end results of proud and arrogant people.