Proud To Be a Muslim?

I often hear Muslims say, “I am PROUD to be a Muslim.”

Is being proud a good thing? Is pride a virtue that God is pleased with? In other words, are you proud to be proud???

I know that ‘being proud’ can also be a positive thing, like “I’m proud of my  nepwhew for doing well in his exams.”
However, when Muslims say they are proud, it is usually a BOAST that, they and their religion are superior above everything and they look down on everyone else who is not part of the ummah.

I don’t think I have ever heard a Christian boast, “I am proud that I am a Christian” or “I am proud that Jesus came to save me!”  The right attitude a true Christian would have is gratitude, for salvation as a Christian.

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can BOAST about it. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

(Now I’m not saying that Christians are free from pride. I am saying that Christians see pride as SIN and something to overcome.)

What about the prophets? Were they proud?

Let’s look at Moses. Moses was not proud. In fact, it is written in scripture, “Moses was very humble–more humble than any other person on earth.” And if you read about the other servants of God ~ David, Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea…etc – you’ ll see that they were humble before God. Not proud or arrrogant. So why are you proud?

The Bible records some people who were proud. King Saul, King Nebuchadnezzar, King Herod. They all came to ruin.

What about Jesus? Jesus was the perfect example of humility right from the day He was born, in a manger, not in any glittering room of a palace.  His disciples were not so humble. They were proud and often argued among themselves about who among them was greatest. Jesus had to teach them over and over again, until they finally learnt what it meant to be humble and not proud. As their teacher, Jesus even modeled it for them in washing their feet. He said, “I did not come to be served but to serve.”

600 years later, Muhammad comes along. He taught his followers that pride is a sin and anyone with even an atom of pride in his heart will not enter heaven. So why are Muslims today beating their chests with pride instead of heeding the teaching of their prophet?

Did Muhammad practice what he preached? Was he himself humble or proud? There were many instances where he was the model of humility. But there were also a number of  occasions that he reacted angrily when his pride was hurt.

Here’s a list of people that were killed by Muhammad’s followers because they had either rejected his authority or disparaged or insulted the prophet of Allah. Abu Afak, Asma Marwan, Kab Ashraf, Abu Rafi, Ibn Sunayna, a half-blind shepherd, Kinana, a slave wife and mother, an old woman from Fazara, Abdullah Khatal and his daughter.

Why were they killed? Because they voiced out their opposition against Muhammad. They were not violent or threatening. They had no weapons.  Some of them were simply guilty of writing poems that insulted Muhammad. Some of them were very old like Abu Afak who was said to be over 100 years old and some were women like Asma Marwan who had 5 children. She was murdered in her sleep. Kab Ashraf was murdered because he did not believe in Muhammad. A slave girl was killed because she made fun of Muhammad.

Whereas, when Jesus was insulted and mocked and tortured, He never threatened or killed anyone. Rather, Jesus forgave those who insulted Him. Once, when people from a Samaritan village rejected Jesus, two of His disciples were incensed and on the verge of calling down fire from heaven to destroy them.  What was Jesus’ response? He rebuked His disciples for even suggesting such a thing!

 

Have you ever wondered where pride really come from?

One of Allah’s name is Al-Mutakabbir which means “THE MOST PROUD.”

What is this source of pride? It’s written in scripture in reference to Satan:  “Your heart became PROUD.”

 

The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished. Proverbs 16:5