Ibn Daud - A Handbook of Spiritual Medicine

CHAPTER 24
Seeking Reputation
السُمْعَة [Sum’a]
Islām is a ‘transactional’ way of life. The mature believer accepts that
ultimate success is dependant on Allāh’s favour: the Almighty
looks at all words, deeds, sacrifices and relationships, and rewards
or penalizes them accordingly, with His perfect justice. An individual
who outwardly professes that they wish to seek Allāh’s pleasure,
yet inwardly they crave admiration, respect and honour from others
in humanity, is walking a dangerous high-wire of hypocrisy. They
long to be in a permanent state of ‘high profile’, tiptoeing across the
peaks of spiritual or material endeavour, their hearts cheered by the
feeling that others are marvelling at their progress.
While walking this tightrope, they communicate their achievements
‘back to ground level’ by all manner of modes of communication,
whether obvious or underhand. People come to know about
them, and the hunger for ‘sum’a’ is fulfilled when tongues start
chattering, and compliments come cascading. Because of the ‘show’
of it all, the seeking of reputation is the close cousin of ‘riyā’a’, or
ostentation. The person who suffers from the affliction of ‘sum’a’ is
often sadly unaware or even dismissive of the fact that their position
on the high-wire is not secure, and that they can take a tumble at
any time.
The Prophet however said:
o “Know that if the nation were to gather to benefit you with
anything, it would only benefit you with something that
Allāh has already prescribed for you, and that if they gather
to harm you with anything, they would only harm you with
something Allāh has already prescribed for you. The pen has
been lifted and the pages have dried” [At-Tirmidhī 2516]
o “If the son of Ādam had two valleys of money, he would wish
for a third, for nothing can fill the mouth of the son of Ādam
except dust” [%a#ī# Al-Bukhārī 6436]
o “Two hungry wolves let loose in a flock of sheep do not cause
as much harm as the harm to a man’s religion wrought by his
desire for wealth and fame” [At-Tirmidhī 2376]
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SEEKING REPUTATION