If I pray with people in the prayer, I feel as if I am better than them, so I vowed to myself not to make myself their imam. What is the ruling on that?

The questioner : If I pray with people in the prayer, I feel as if I am better than them, so I vowed to myself not to make myself their imam. What is the ruling on that?

The Shaykh : This question has two aspects. The first aspect is what Satan puts into a person's heart when performing righteous deeds. Sometimes Satan whispers to him that he is proud of himself and that he is better than others, so the questioner falls into what he falls into and leaves off leading in righteous deeds because Satan told him: "You are better than them." This is a mistake. It is obligatory for a person to leave Satan's whispers and to place himself in the position befitting him. If Allah the Exalted has blessed him with knowledge and excellence such that he is more deserving of this position than others, let him praise Allah for that, let him step forward, and let him disregard what Satan puts into his heart regarding his pride in himself or his view that he is better than them.
As for the second aspect of this question: it is leaving the deed for the sake of this, and leaving the deed for the sake of these whispers is cowardice, weakness, and timidity. For what a person should do, indeed what is obligatory for him, is to have firmness, courage, and boldness in performing righteous deeds such that he does not submit to Satan and his whispers. For Satan sometimes leads him to leave the righteous deed by frightening him that this is showing off, or that this is boasting and pride, so he leaves the deed because he fears he is a hypocrite, or he leaves the deed fearing he is proud of himself, or the like of that. So a person should be courageous and strong in repelling Satan and his incitements, and he should do what Allah has commanded, voluntarily in what is recommended and obligatorily in what is obligatory. Yes.

The questioner : May Allah bless you. In a question, he says.