So, if pretension in acts of worship is for the sake of the...

So, if pretension in acts of worship is for the sake of the Strongest, the One Who has the highest position in the world, that is, Allah, Praise and Exaltation belong to Him, there is no problem in this pretension, and it will be a treatment for itself. Traditions state that one who turns during the prayer to make a show to people will be herded by Allah in the form of a donkey. This in fact is the reality.

Is not the one who shows his deed to the policeman in the presence of the minister or the police commissioner a donkey?! Yes, he is a donkey in the human form to which he is accustomed. If you tell him that he is a donkey, he will be angry with you. But we must tell him not to be angry because his deeds all day and night long is like that; so, “Why are you angry?!” But Help, Help from ignorance, for it takes man to Turkistan instead of Mecca!

Since Day One, the ignorance of Iblis was the reason for Adam’s problem. Satan said, ***“* Then, by Your might, I will put them all in the wrong, except Your servants among them, the sincere and purified ones” (Qur’an, 38:82-83). Iblis was ignorant, although before then he used to be a worshipper but not a man of knowledge, and his deed was incomplete.

Did he not say to Allah Almighty when He ordered him to prostrate to Adam: “I am better than him: You created me from fire, and You created him from clay” (Qur’an, 38:76)?! This was the minor argument of Iblis. As for his major one, it is his reasoning that anything created out of fire is higher, whereas anything created out of clay is lower! We must ask: Why so and according to what proof?! This outward outfit is not angelic.

Look at the symmetry and beauty of the peacock and the difference between it and the other animals. Likewise, the soul of man cannot be compared with that of jinns or of the angels. The human soul can ascend to whatever Allah wills even if it is outfitted with an outfit made of clay. An outfit does not make an attribute. If one wears a mantle made in Naeen and another wears a mantle made in Afghanistan, will that be an evidence for one’s inferiority and the other’s superiority?

When we, too, become ignorant, we will then be like Iblis, and we will stray as he did. The characteristic of straying is that it transgresses; i.e. a staying person causes others to stray, too; so, beware of ignorance.