The Threat to Those Who Disdain and Act Arrogantly

Disdain (istinkāf) is when a person ignorantly considers himself superior to someone or something; but if he knowingly and freely considers himself higher, this state is arrogance (istikbār) and he himself is considered arrogant (mustakbir).(137) For this reason, Satan’s disobedience has been referred to as arrogance: “they prostrated, but not Iblis: he refused and acted arrogantly, and he was one of the faithless” (2:34).

Indeed, the Dominant God will bring those who disdainfully and arrogantly refrain from worshipping their Creator and Sustainer to the scene of resurrection on the Day of Judgment and punish them for their deeds: “And whoever disdains His worship and is arrogant, He will gather them all toward Him” (4:172).

The Messiah and the angels brought near to God had knowledge and faith regarding the gathering of the righteous and the wicked in the presence of God and their receiving recompense according to their deeds. This knowledge and faith prevented them from disdaining worship and servitude, and disdain would only have been possible from them if an arrogant spirit had dominated them, which was negated from them given that Jesus was distinguished before God in this world and the next: “the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, distinguished in the world and the Hereafter” (3:45) and the angels being brought near to God: “the angels brought near” (al-malāʾika al-muqarrabūn). For this reason, to express the purity of Jesus and the angels from “disdain” (istinkāf), the qualifier “arrogance” (istikbār) has also been added to it in order to completely purify them from the mentioned corruptions.

The central element of the Messiah’s submission (khuḍūʿ) and the angels’ humility (khushūʿ) and the servitude of all those brought near is that they possess abundant perfections, the comprehensive aspect of which is their complete awareness of the divine names, and they also know that all these perfections that shine in the mirror of their existence are from the source of eternal light that has appeared as a loan in the mirror of their being, and the continuance of these manifestations depends on the continuation of orientation toward the true direction (qibla) so that the beauty of that eternal Beautiful One may appear in these mirrors. For this reason, no perfection, even if it be in the form of reviving the dead, healing the blind and the leper, and reporting the Unseen, causes disdain in them.

Note: The singular forms of the verbs “disdains” (yastankif) and “acts arrogantly” (yastakbir) are according to the word “whoever” (man) literally, and the plural pronoun “He will gather them” (fa-sa-yaḥshuruhum) is according to its meaning, just as the division into two groups in the following verse: “As for those who have faith… But as for those who disdain…” (fa-ammā alladhīna āmanū… wa-ammā alladhīna istankafū…) is according to this same plural.