"The pillars of Kufr (i.e. disbelief and disobedience) are Four:
1. Kibr i.e. arrogance, which prevents him from submission, (to the command
of Allah)
2. Hasad i.e. jealousy, which prevents him from accepting advice and giving
it.
3. Ghadab i.e. anger, which prevents him from being just.
4. Sha`wah i.e. lowly desires, which prevents him from devoting himself
totally to worship.
Hence, if the pillar of arrogance is removed then it becomes easy to submit,
and if the pillar of jealousy is removed then it becomes easy for him to
accept naseehah (i.e. advice) and to give advice. If the pillar of anger is
removed then it becomes easy for him to be just and humble himself and if
the pillar of lowly desires is removed then it becomes easy for him to be
patient, chaste and devote himself to worship. Every imprudent
characteristic derives from these four. And when these characteristics
settle in his heart they will cause him to see falsehood as truth and to see
truth as falsehood. To see Ma`roof (i.e. good) as Munkar (i.e. evil) and
evil as good, and it brings him closer to the life of this world and pushes
the hereafter further from him.
Uprooting strong and power mountains from their places is easier than
removing these four characteristics from the heart of an individual who is
tested with them. This proves especially true when these characteristics
become firmly rooted and embedded in an individual to the point they become
second nature, for when an individual reaches this point it is almost
impossible for him to do any good deeds, nor would he purify himself with
them if he were to perform any acts of good. The more he strives diligently
to perform acts of good the more his actions are corrupted by these four
characteristics.
If you reflect on the disbelief of the past nations, you will find that it
derived from one of these four pillars, and it was due to one of these four
that they were punished. However, the severity of the punishment was
dependant on the degree and extent of these pillars with those nations. So,
whoever adorns himself with these pillars then he subjects himself to all
types of evil consequences, in the life of this world and in the hereafter.
And whoever avoids them, distances himself from all types of evil, because
these characteristics prevent him from Inqiyad (i. e. submission), Ikhlas
(i.e. sincerity), Tawbah (i.e. repentance), accepting the truth, giving
advice to the Muslims and humbling himself to Allah and to His creation.
These characteristics emerge due to the slave`s ignorance of his Lord, and
his ignorance of his own self-worth or value. If he truly knew his Lord with
all of His lofty characteristics and was truly aware of his own
short-comings and deficiencies, he would not have a reason to be arrogant
nor seek retribution for himself, nor would he be jealous of anyone because
of what Allah has given them, because in reality, jealousy is a type of
enmity or hostility towards Allah, primarily because the slave hates the
fact that Allah has bestowed upon one of his servants a particular blessing
and he ardently desires that this blessing be taken away from him. So he
actually oppose and contests the decree of Allah and he deems the blessing
of Allah to this slave to be unjust and dislikes for him what Allah loves
for him. And it was because of this characteristic that Iblis became the
enemy of Allah, i.e. his arrogance and jealousy.
Hence, to replace these two hideous and evil characteristics with sound
knowledge of Allah and His uniqueness and being pleased with Him as your
Lord and turning towards Him for assistance in all of his affairs, and
replacing anger with true knowledge of himself and his value, and the fact
that he does not have the right to get angry and seek retribution for
himself, because in this is giving precedence to himself over the pleasure
of his Lord and expressing anger towards his Lord, who originated him.
And the greatest thing which would assist him in ridding himself of this
characteristic is to condition himself to get angry for the pleasure of
Allah and to be pleased for the pleasure of Allah. And every time he gets
angry or is pleased for the pleasure of Allah then anger and pleasure for
other than Him will be obliterated, and the opposite is the same.
However, the cure for his lowly desires is sound knowledge and understanding
that his obedience to his lowly desires is the greatest reason or hindrance
for him attaining satisfaction, and his abstaining from these lowly desires
is the greatest reason and means by which he can attain satisfaction. So
every time he sets out to attain satisfaction by following his lowly desires
he actually pushes himself further away from achieving this satisfaction,
and the more he avoids his lowly desires, the closer he is to attaining the
satisfaction he is looking for in the most complete manner.
So Ghadab (i.e. anger) is like a predator, the minute you turn your
attention away from it, it will eat you alive.
And Shah`wah (i.e. lowly desires) is like fire, the moment he ignites it, it
will begin to burn him alive.
And Kibr (i.e. arrogance) is like arguing with a king about his possession,
either he will kill you because of this, or just deprive you of it.
And Hasad (i.e jealousy) is like showing enmity and hatred towards someone
who is more powerful than you.
The one who can control his lowly desires and his anger will remove the
Shaytan from his midst. And the he whose lowly desires and anger overtakes
him deprives himself from the shade and protection of Allah.