Ḥamd al-Nafs
Definition
Hamd al-nafs — self-praise and boasting — is the tongue's expression of the heart's disease of pride and self-conceit. Al-Ghazali notes that it takes many forms: the direct boast (explicit claims of one's achievements and superiority), the indirect boast (mentioning one's own virtues under the guise of gratitude or humility), and the comparative boast (praising others faintly in a way that implies one's own superiority by contrast). All of these are expressions of the same disease: the ego's need to establish itself as superior in the eyes of others. The person of genuine humility does not need others to know about their virtues — they already know that whatever good they have came from Allah.
As understood in the classical tradition of Imam al-Ghazali and the scholars of his school.
Appears in
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