بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Imam Muhammad Ibn Salih Al-Uthaymin [may Allah have mercy upon him] stated:

One of the trials and tribulations is that some students of knowledge are afflicted with self-amazement, being opinionated, dismissive of others, and not giving attention to their statements to the extent that a person portrays himself as if he is the scholar of the Ummah and its genius. This disease, I mean: the disease of self-amazement, is one of the most harmful things to a person, especially the students of knowledge because if a man is amazed with his own opinion, he becomes dismissive of others, gives no value to their opinions and have no qualms about opposing others, and you find him walking on the ground as if he were walking on the air due to the intensity of the self-amazement in him.

This reaches the point where a man holds a weak opinion without any validity, embraces it, and diminishes the value of others who possess the knowledge and insight that he does not possess because he encounters a hadith that he is unaware contradicts others, and he is unaware that it is weak or restricted by another hadith in meaning or ruling, but he embraces it. If only he would embrace it and others are safe from his evil, but instead he embraces it and (proceeds) to declare erroneous those who are better than him knowledge and devotion in religion. This is a grave ailment that inevitably leads the afflicted person – and we seek refuge in Allah from it – to be blinded from the truth, perceiving falsehood as truth and truth as falsehood.

Indeed, I have heard about some young individual among the seekers of knowledge who was once presented with Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal’s statement and told, “You say such-and-such, while Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, may Allah have mercy on him, said such-and-such”, so he stated, “And who is Ahmad Ibn Hanbal? He is a man, and I am a man.” Manhood in knowledge and religion requires knowledge and piety. Let us consider that you are a man and Imam Ahmad, may Allah have mercy on him, is also a man, however, are you on the same level as Imam Ahmad in terms of knowledge, his indifference to the permissible things of worldly life that are of no source of reward in the Hereafter, and his piety?! O my brother! Fear Allah, and recognise your own value. Whoever recognises his own value, the people will recognise it. Whoever is amazed by himself, their worth diminishes in the eyes of the people. This (self-amazement) is one of the major trials. That’s why you find a man speaking to you while he is a young student who is proud, and self-elevated, neither relents nor is truth clear to him because they are amazed by themselves. This is one of the trials and tribulations. We ask Allah to include us among those who recognise their true worth and keep it in its rightful place.

An Excerpt from “Mawqif Al-Muslim Min Al-Fitan”. page 18-19