The Difference Between Joy in Allah’s Favor and Self-Admiration
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. The questioner asks: What is the difference between joy in Allah’s favor and self-admiration? And how does a person protect himself from self-admiration?
Answer:
We ask Allah for well-being, and one should not be self-admiring. As those who advised Qarun said:[Al-Qasas 28:76] Joy in this world [Ar-Ra'd 13:26]. As for joy in obeying Allah, in the remembrance of Allah, and in obtaining what is permissible for him, there is nothing wrong with that.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. The questioner asks: What is the difference between joy in Allah’s favor and self-admiration? And how does a person protect himself from self-admiration?
Answer:
We ask Allah for well-being, and one should not be self-admiring. As those who advised Qarun said:
Do not exult. Indeed, Allah does not like the exultant.
لَا تَفْرَحْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ الْفَرِحِينَAnd they rejoice in the worldly life, while the worldly life is not, compared to the Hereafter, except [brief] enjoyment.
وَفَرِحُوا بِالْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا فِي الْآخِرَةِ إِلَّا مَتَاعٌ
Source
شرح إغاثة اللهفان من مصائد الشيطان لابن القيم، فصل ومن كيده العجيب : أنه يشام النفس حتى يعلم أي القوتين تغلب عليها — islamhouse.com (1:15:54)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.