Your brothers
Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī was one of the earliest and most devoted companions of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (peace be upon him). One day he quarrelled with a man and insulted him by mocking his mother. Some later reports say the man was Bilāl, whose mother was Ethiopian.
The man went to the Prophet. The Prophet turned to Abū Dharr and said: “Did you insult him through his mother? You are a man who still has something of the Days of Ignorance in you.” (He meant the time before Islam.)
Then he went further: “Your servants are your brothers. God has placed them under your care. So whoever has his brother under his care should feed him from what he eats and clothe him from what he wears. Do not burden them beyond their strength, and if you do, help them” (Bukhari 30).
Abū Dharr was humbled, and he took it to heart. Years later, a visitor saw Abū Dharr and his servant wearing identical cloaks, and asked why. Abū Dharr told him this story. Some reports add that, in shame, he laid his cheek on the ground and asked the man he had insulted to step on it. The man refused, they say, and raised him up instead.
That is the shape of al-Mudhill and al-Muʿizz together: pride brought low, and a person raised.
What each faith says
Judaism
“Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Proverbs 16:18 · JPS 1917
One of the most famous scenes in the Hebrew Bible is a humbling. After King David took another man's wife and arranged her husband's death, the prophet Nathan told him a story. It was about a rich man who stole a poor man's only lamb. David was furious at the rich man. Nathan said: “Thou art the man.” David confessed, and Psalm 51 is traditionally his prayer of repentance.
The book of Proverbs puts the principle in one line, still quoted in English today.
On Yom Kippur the whole congregation confesses together, in the plural: Ashamnu, ‘we have sinned’. And during the Aleinu prayer on the High Holy Days, many Ashkenazi Jews kneel and bow to the floor, the only time in the year they do.
Christianity
“God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
James 4:6 · WEB
The New Testament repeats the teaching of Proverbs: God opposes the proud. The Magnificat of Mary sings of the proud scattered and the mighty brought down.
For Christians, the model of humility is Christ himself, who washed his disciples' feet and told them to do the same (John 13).
On Ash Wednesday, at the start of Lent, Catholic, Anglican and Methodist Christians receive a cross of ash on the forehead, often with the words: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Islam
“As for that Abode of the Hereafter We assign it unto those who seek not oppression in the earth, nor yet corruption. The sequel is for those who ward off (evil).”
Qur'an 28:83 · Pickthall (1930)
Al-Mudhill comes from 3:26 and is always said together with al-Muʿizz. Scholars insisted it be explained with care: God humbles arrogance, tyranny and those who humiliate others; He does not delight in anyone's humiliation. It is never to be used as a threat.
The Qur'an promises the next world to “As for that Abode of the Hereafter We assign it unto those who seek not oppression in the earth, nor yet corruption. The sequel is for those who ward off (evil).” (28:83, Pickthall).
Same and different
All three faiths teach that God humbles the proud and lifts the humble. They use almost the same words: ‘pride goes before a fall’, ‘God resists the proud’, ‘do not walk on the earth with arrogance’. Judaism remembers Nathan humbling King David. Christianity looks to Christ washing feet. Islam names God al-Mudhill but always with al-Muʿizz, and treats the Name as justice for the humiliated. None of them teaches that God humbles people because He enjoys it.
A moment to reflect
- When were you last humbled, and what did you learn?
- Who has the courage to say ‘Thou art the man’ to you when you need it?
- Why might it be better to humble yourself than to wait to be humbled?
Watch
National Geographic on how the ‘unsinkable’ Titanic ended up on the seabed: the ‘In us’ rung.
The Met Office looks back at the Great Storm of 1987: the ‘In nature’ rung.
Historia Civilis on the Roman triumph: the ‘At our best’ rung.
Do it together
Tell the story of Abū Dharr and his servant's matching cloaks. Then plan one small act where the ‘top’ and the ‘bottom’ of your group swap roles for an afternoon: the leader makes the tea, the newest member chooses the plan.
Visit Knole Park or the Vine cricket ground in Sevenoaks, where new oaks were planted after the 1987 storm. Read Proverbs 16:18 and Qur'an 17:37 under the trees and talk about what a storm teaches.
Yom Kippur confession is said in the plural: ‘we have sinned’, not ‘they have’. Try it as a group: list three things ‘we’ get wrong together, as a family, class or street, with no names and no blaming.
Compare the whisper behind the Roman general, ‘Remember that you are a man’, with the words said on Ash Wednesday, ‘Remember that you are dust’. Talk about who, or what, reminds you of your limits.
Go deeper
- Met Office: the Great Storm of 1987 · article
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: Titanic · article
- Qur'an 3:26 on Quran.com · scripture
- 2 Samuel 12 on Sefaria · scripture
- James 4 (WEB): ‘God resists the proud’ · scripture
Sources (4)
- Titanic called ‘practically unsinkable’ (1911); sank 15 April 1912; over 1,500 died; lifeboats for about half; 1914 SOLAS: Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Great Storm of 1987 felled about 15 million trees; led to the National Severe Weather Warning Service: Met Office
- ‘Look behind you; remember that you are a man’: Tertullian, Apologeticum 33, c. AD 197
- ‘Your servants are your brothers’: Sahih al-Bukhari 30