EXCESSIVE HUMILITY (TAZALLUL)

Excess in humility is called lowliness (tazallul), or meanness or holding one’s self down. Lowliness is prohibited (harâm). As is the case with other forbidden things, practising this vice upon a forced necessity (dharurat), also becomes permissible (jâiz). Following are some examples of forced necessities: to protect one’s religion, property, honor, or life, or to save one’s self from a tyrant. Looking for an easy solution is permissible when there is a forcing necessity or difficulty.

Excessive humility is one of the vices. The following is a good example of excessive humility. When a scholar (’âlim) is visited by a shoe maker, the scholar gets up to greet him and tells him to sit in his place and while he is leaving, he walks along with him up to the door and places his shoes in front of him. Alternatively, if the scholar would get up to receive him and then sit back and show him where to sit and converse with him about his business and situation and ask him the purpose of his visit as well as answer his questions with a cheerful and smiling face and accept his invitation and help him to solve his difficulties, he would have shown humility. Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sal-lam’ states in a hadîth-i-sherîf: “A person who saves his Muslim brother from trouble will be rewarded (in the Hereafter) with as much thawâb as if he performed (supererogatory) hajj and ’umra.” Hadrat Hasan ‘radiy-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’anh’ asked Thâbit Benânî ‘rahimahullâhu ta’âlâ’ to do something for him. He said he was busy in the mosque with (retreat called) i’tikâf and that he would do it some other time. Hadrat Hasan ‘radiy-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’anh’ said: ‘Don’t you know that leaving your place for the purpose of attending to one of his Muslim brother’s needs is more meritorious than a nâfila (supererogatory) hajj or ’umra?” This hadîth-i-sherîf incidentally serves as a basis for the conclusion that it is utterly rewarding (thawâb) for holders of position to help needy people and for teachers to support their pupils by using their authority and property.