An authentic Hadith regarding pride and arrogance

لَا يَدْخُلُ الْجَنَّةَ مَنْ كَانَ فِي قَلْبِهِ مِثْقَالُ ذَرَّةٍ مِنْ كِبْرٍ…الْكِبْرُ بَطَرُ الْحَقِّ وَغَمْطُ النَّاسِ

Whoever has an atom’s weight of arrogance in his heart, will not enter Paradise… Arrogance is to reject the truth and belittle people.

Narrator(s): ‘Abdullāh Ibn Mas’ūd.

Reference: Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim.

Commentary:

• When the Prophet (sal Allāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) informed the companions that a person who has even the smallest amount of pride in his heart will not enter paradise, they remarked: ‘What if a man likes his clothes to look nice and his shoes to look nice?’. He replied to them, ‘verily Allāh is beautiful and loves beauty; arrogance means rejecting the truth and belittling people.’
• The above narration shows us that Islām does not forbid taking pride in one’s clothing and appearance, rather it is being too arrogant to accept the truth and belittling other people that is rebuked
• The meaning of this Ḥadīth is that one who has arrogance and pride in his heart, will not enter into Paradise without the possibility of being exposed to punishment. The intended meaning of the Ḥadīth is not that such a person will never enter Paradise, as that is dependant upon a person accepting or rejecting Tawḥīd.
• Pride and arrogance was the first sin committed; it was due to arrogance that Iblis refused to prostrate in front of Ādam (‘alayhi as-salām), and it was the same reason why Pharaoh suppressed his people.

Related Āyāt:

• {[Allāh] said, “O Iblīs, what prevented you from prostrating to that which I created with My hands? Were you arrogant [then], or were you [already] among the haughty?” He said, “I am better than him. You created me from fire and created him from clay”} [38:75-76]
• {And [mention] when We said to the angels, “Prostrate before Ādam”; so they prostrated, except for Iblīs. He refused and was arrogant and became of the disbelievers} [02:34]
• {Qārūn, Pharaoh and Hāmān; Mūsa came to them with clear proofs, but they were arrogant in the land, but they were not outrunners [of Our punishment]} [29:39]
• {Thus does Allāhseal over every heart [belonging to] an arrogant tyrant} [40:35]
• {…and do not walk on the earth arrogantly. Surely you can neither crack the earth nor stretch to the height of the mountains} [17:37]
• {…and do not turn your cheek [in contempt] toward people and do not walk through the earth pridefully. Indeed, Allāh does not like everyone self-deluded and boastful} [31:18]

Related narrations:

• The Prophet (sal Allāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said, ‘Should I not inform you about the people of the Fire? Every cruel, greedy, and arrogant person.’ [Al-Bukhārī & Muslim]