“I Am Better Than Him”: The Ancient Disease We Renamed
“I AM BETTER THAN HIM.”
These were the words of Iblīs when he justified his arrogance before Allah.
أَنَا خَيْرٌ مِّنْهُ
— Surah Al-A‘rāf 7:12
He believed his origin made him superior.
Fourteen centuries ago, the Qur’an came to challenge this very disease of the heart.
Allah tells us:
“We made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another.”
— Surah Al-Ḥujurāt 49:13
Not so that we may despise one another.
Not so that one race may look down upon another.
Not so that our bloodline becomes a measure of human worth.
Yet look at us today.
We recite the same Qur’an.
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We face the same Qiblah.
We bow before the same Allah.
But some of us still believe our race, ancestry, or nationality makes us better than others.
Have we truly abandoned the arrogance of Iblīs, or have we simply given it a new name?
There is nothing wrong with loving our people, language, or heritage.
But the moment that love becomes a claim of superiority, we must examine our hearts.
Allah did not say the most noble among us is the one with the purest bloodline.
He said:
إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ أَتْقَىٰكُمْ
“Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you.”
— Al-Ḥujurāt 49:13
Perhaps the most frightening thing about arrogance is that we can recognise it in Iblīs while failing to recognise it in ourselves.
The Qur’an was not revealed merely to be recited by our tongues, but to guide and transform our hearts.
And before we point at another race, another nation, or another person, perhaps we should ask ourselves:
Does “I am better than him” still live somewhere inside my own heart?
Just a tadabbur. A mirror for myself first.
