الْمُتَكَبِّرُ

«المتكبّر» على «تفعّل» من الكِبر والكبرياء، وأصلُ هذا البناء في كلام العرب لمن تعاطى الشيءَ وليس من أهله، كقولهم: تحلّم فلانٌ وتعظّم؛ ولذلك كان التكبّرُ في الخلق مذمومًا، لأنهم يتكلّفون ما ليسوا أهلَه. فأمّا في صفة الله فالتاءُ فيه، كما قال الخطّابي، تاءُ التفرّد والتخصّص بالكبر، لا تاءُ التعاطي والتكلّف؛ فهو من الكبرياء التي هي عظمةُ الله، لا من الكِبر المذموم في الخلق. وقيل: هو المتعالي عن صفات الخلق، وقيل: الذي يتكبّر على عتاة خلقه إذا نازعوه العظمةَ فيقصمهم.

Mutakabbir is on the pattern tafaʿʿala, from kibr and kibriyāʾ, greatness. In Arabic this pattern first describes someone who takes on a quality he does not truly have — taḥallama, “he made a show of forbearance”; taʿaẓẓama, “he made himself out to be great”. That is why pride is blameworthy in creatures: they put on what is not theirs. But in Allah’s Name, al-Khaṭṭābī says, the pattern speaks of standing alone in greatness and owning it, not of putting it on; the word comes from kibriyāʾ, which is Allah’s own grandeur, not from the kibr that is blamed in people. It has also been explained as the One exalted above the qualities of creatures, and as the One who humbles the tyrants among His creatures when they contend with Him in greatness, and breaks them.

قال الغزالي: المتكبّرُ هو الذي يرى الكلَّ حقيرًا بالإضافة إلى ذاته، ولا يرى العظمةَ والكبرياء إلا لنفسه؛ فإن كانت هذه الرؤية صادقةً كان التكبّرُ حقًّا، ولا يُتصوّر ذلك على الإطلاق إلا لله، وكلُّ من رأى العظمة لنفسه على الخصوص فرؤيتُه كاذبة. فالكبرياءُ في حقّ الله إخبارٌ عن استحقاقه لنعوت الجلال وصفات الجمال، وهي في حقّ الخلق دعوى ما ليس لهم. ولهذا جعل الكبرياءَ رداءه والعزّةَ إزاره، فمن نازعه فيهما قصمه؛ ولهذا أيضًا افتُتحت الصلاةُ بقول «الله أكبر»، كأنّ العبد يخلع عند بابها كلَّ كِبرٍ في نفسه، ليقف بين يدي الكبير المتكبّر.

Al-Ghazālī says: al-Mutakabbir is the One who sees all things as small beside Himself, and sees greatness and grandeur as belonging to Himself alone. If that seeing is true, the grandeur is rightful; and it can be true without qualification only of Allah — anyone else who sees greatness as his alone sees falsely. So grandeur, said of Allah, is the statement of His right to every quality of majesty and beauty; in creatures it is a claim to what is not theirs. That is why He made grandeur His cloak and might His waist-wrap, and breaks whoever contends with Him over them. It is also why the prayer opens with “Allāhu akbar”: at its very door the servant takes off every trace of pride in himself, to stand before the Great, the Supremely Great.

قال الغزالي: المتكبّرُ من العباد هو الزاهدُ العارف؛ ومعنى زهد العارف أن يتنزّه عمّا يشغل سرَّه عن الحقّ، ويتكبّر على كلّ شيءٍ سوى الحقّ، فيستحقر الدنيا والآخرة جميعًا أن تشغلاه عن الله. أمّا زهدُ غير العارف فمعاملةٌ ومعاوضة، يترك الشيء عاجلًا طمعًا في أضعافه آجلًا. وأمّا مع الخلق فحظُّه من هذا الاسم ضدُّ الكِبر: فمن عرف علوَّ الله وكبرياءه لزم طريقَ التواضع وسلك سبيلَ التذلّل، لأنّ الكِبرَ من العبد تكلُّفُ ما لا يليق به؛ وقد قيل: هتك سترَه من جاوز قدرَه، ولا وصفَ أزينُ للخدم من التواضع بحضرة السادة.

Al-Ghazālī says: the mutakabbir among servants is the ascetic who knows Allah. The asceticism of the knower means keeping himself clear of whatever would distract his inmost self from the Real, and holding himself above everything other than the Real — so that he counts both this world and the next too small to take him away from Allah. The asceticism of one who does not know is a bargain, a trade: he leaves a thing now, hoping for many times its worth later. Towards people, though, the servant’s share of this Name is the very opposite of pride: whoever knows Allah’s height and grandeur keeps to the road of humility and walks the path of lowliness, for pride in a servant is putting on what does not suit him. It has been said: whoever oversteps his measure tears his own veil; and nothing adorns a servant more than humility in his master’s presence.

قال بعضُ المشايخ: هذا الاسمُ من الأسماء التي جُبلت الفِطرُ على الإذعان لمعناها، ولذلك اقترن في مبدأ الإحرام بالصلاة ذكرُ الاسمين: «الله أكبر». ومن عرف كبرياءَ ربّه لم يبقَ له في الكبر نصيب، وزالت دعاويه، فصمتت نفسُه وانطبقت للحقّ، وسكن وهجُها؛ فلم يكن له عن نفسه إخبار، ولا مع غير الله قرار. وكلّما صغُر العبدُ في عين نفسه كبُر ربُّه في قلبه، وكلّما كبُر ربُّه في قلبه صغُر الخلقُ في عينه، فلا يرجوهم ولا يخافهم. وسُئل يحيى بن معاذ عن المحبّة فقال: هي ما لا يزيد بالبرّ، ولا ينقص بالجفاء؛ وكذلك عبوديّةُ من شهد الكبرياء: لا يزيدها العطاء، ولا ينقصها المنع.

One of the masters said: this is among the Names whose meaning human nature was made to bow to, which is why the prayer is entered with two Names joined — Allāhu akbar. Whoever knows his Lord’s grandeur has no share left in pride: his claims fall away, his self falls silent and settles before the Real, and its fever cools; he has nothing to tell about himself, and no resting-place with anything but Allah. The smaller the servant grows in his own eyes, the greater his Lord grows in his heart; and the greater his Lord grows in his heart, the smaller creatures grow in his eyes, so that he neither hopes in them nor fears them. Yaḥyā ibn Muʿādh was asked about love and said: it is what neither grows with kindness nor shrinks with coldness. So too the servanthood of one who has witnessed grandeur: giving does not increase it, and withholding does not lessen it.