Don't consider others as inferior

Looking down on others is a bad habit.  Hadhrat Muhaddith-e-Deccan (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) relates incidents involving Hadhrat Hasan Basri and Hadhrat Shaykh Abul ‘Ali Muhammad bin ‘Abdul Wahhab (May Allah shower His Mercy on them) in this regard:

 

Once, at the time of Salaat Ul Maghrib, Hadhrat Hasan Basri (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) came to the place of Hadhrat Habeeb ‘Ajami (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) when the latter had already started his Salaat.  Hadhrat Hasan (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) thought that offering Salaat in the lead of Hadhrat Habeeb (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) was not permissible as he made mistakes in the recitation of the Holy Quran.

 

Thus, he offered Salaat separately.  The same night, he saw the Lord Almighty in a dream.  He supplicated:  In what does your pleasure lie?  He was answered:  O Hasan!  You found Our pleasure and approval, but didn’t recognize it.  Hadhrat Hasan (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) supplicated:  O my Lord!  When did that happen?  He was answered:  That Salaat in the lead of Habeeb would have been excellent than all your other Salaat.  You were stuck in proper performance of worship and lost sight of proper intention.  There is a world of a difference between correction of the tongue and correction of the intention.

 

Hadhrat Shaykh Abu ‘Ali Muhammad bin ‘Abdul Wahhab Thaqafi (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) says:  I saw a bier which was being carried by 3 men and 1 woman.  I went to the side which the woman was lifting and started carrying the bier.  I went to the graveyard along with them.  I asked the woman:  Are there no men in your locality to shoulder the bier?  She said:  There are a lot of men in our locality, but this deceased is a eunuch.  That’s why people disparagingly stayed away.  Except these 3 who are the close relatives of this deceased, no one else came.

 

When I heard this, I felt pity for them and gave them some money and some wheat.  The same night, I saw person in my dream.  His face was shining like the sun and he was attired in beautiful garments.  He laughed and said:  I am the same eunuch.  The creation thought of me as inferior, that’s why Almighty Allah granted me superiority and forgave me.

 

[Excerpted from Mawaaiz-e-Hasana, Vol. 2, Pg. No. 144, 145]