Al-Istikbar
Definition
Al-istikbar — arrogant self-exaltation — is the defining sin that Ibn Kathir identifies as the root cause of the destruction of both 'Ad and Thamud, and indeed of every destroyed civilization in the Quran. It manifests as using Allah's blessings — strength, wealth, architecture, political power — as grounds for rejecting the divine message, on the reasoning that those who have been given so much obviously do not need guidance from a mere mortal prophet. Al-Ghazali, in the Ihya, identifies kibr as the single most dangerous spiritual disease; Ibn Kathir, in the Qisas, shows what kibr looks like when it operates at civilizational scale — and what the civilizational consequences are.
As understood in the classical tradition of Ibn Kathir and the scholars of his school.
Appears in
1 book in the library
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