Badges mark quoted or attributed material (Qur'an, hadith, another author, an opposing view). Unbadged passages are Maulana Wahiduddin Khan's own words.
Modest Man
S
elf-centredness or a superiority complex is a natural syndrome which exists in everyone. This feeling brings about courage and confidence in a person. If a person has no ego, he will be deprived of self-confidence and in the absence of self-confidence no one can perform any great task. But it is necessary that one’s feelings of self-confidence or superiority complex should be bound by limitations, that is, it should be reined in by the feeling of modesty. In the absence of such pressure, a person will lose his utility and his viability in social life. He will suffer from excessive pride (ahankar). And without doubt there is nothing more destructive than excessive pride in this world.
There are two things in this world which make a person modest. One is a scientific bent of mind, the other, is his being God-fearing. A scientific bent of mind results from the realization of knowledge. And a God-fearing mind is the result of the realization of God.
When excessive pride builds up in a person, the reason is that he sees himself in relation to man, and since, there are many people he finds less excellent than himself, the feeling of ego or his own greatness begins to grow. But one who has a scientific bent of mind in the real sense, sees himself or his issues in relation to knowledge rather than in relation to the person who has knowledge. A person can be limited, but knowledge is unlimited. In relation to the person who has knowledge, one can think of oneself as greater than others but in relation to the vaster world of knowledge, everyone is lesser in stature. This feeling naturally produces modesty in a scientific or learned person.
Similarly one who has fear of God, or taqwa, will see his affairs in relation to God, the Almighty. Here too, the same principle applies with greater force. When one sees oneself in relation to creatures, one can rate oneself as being greater than others. But when one sees oneself in relation to God, everyone becomes small, in relation to God. No one is great. In this way the belief of a God-fearing man or woman makes him or her a balanced person.