On Knowledge of Humility

What makes prophets humble?

In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate

It is a strange thing to encounter the self-adulation of great men (and sometimes women). Great poets will speak of their excellent skills. Rap artists seem to do it all the time. Artists will often extol their significance as artists.

Yet when I first heard the following narration of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (peace be upon him), I was confused. How could a prophet say such a thing about himself? He said:

"The best of you are the best to their families, and I am the best to my family."

There are numerous hadith and Qur’anic verses that say similar things to this i.e. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is the best of all creation. (This is an established belief in Ahl-us-Sunnah-wal-Jamah and Twelver Shiism.) Moreover, it is evident that Prophet Muhammad ﷺ  was surrounded by people who adored him and thought similarly of him. 

So, the question I wish to address in this essay is: what is humility and how can prophets be humble? 

I will argue that humility is not only a virtue that is present within prophets, but is perfected most fully in prophets. Moreover, I will argue that humility is based in knowledge of reality — both one’s own reality and of cosmological reality.

A clarification: I do not mean to suggest that Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was not modest or humble. Evidently he was. It goes without saying that he lived very modestly, did not needlessly extol himself, did not boast, repeatedly referred to himself as a servant of God, etc. I wish to understand how we can understand his humility given his awareness of his greatness.

What is the difference between modesty and humility?

The terms modesty and humility are often used interchangeably. Indeed, in this essay I will more or less use them equivalently. However, there does seem to be a subtle difference.

The term ‘humility’ comes from humo acclinis, i.e. inclined to the lowest place. Thomas Aquinas described humility as follows (the following quotes are from Summa Theologica, 2.2, Q160–161):

“[H]umility, considered as a special virtue, regards chiefly the subjection of man to God, for Whose sake he humbles himself by subjecting himself to others.”

In contrast, he considers modesty to be a part of temperance (i.e. moderation) regarding weaker passions:

“Modesty is to be taken there for the general moderation which is necessary in all virtues.” 

It seems to me that when one is properly humble, i.e. subjected to God, then one must become modest. There can be no virtue, including humility, that does not include modesty, taken to be moderation*.  

Aquinas also links humility to knowledge in the following way: when one is humble, she restrains herself from movement towards that which is above her. In order to do this, she “must know [her] disproportion to that which surpasses [her] capacity. Hence, knowledge of one’s own deficiency belongs to humility.”

In summary, we have come to the following:

• Humility involves: lowering oneself to one’s appropriate place, subjection to God, not ‘aiming above one’s station,’ and knowledge of one’s appropriate place and deficiencies in order to restrain oneself from seeking higher stations than are appropriate to herself
• Modesty involves: moderating one’s passions, a type of temperance

For the purposes of this essay, I will be using these terms relatively interchangeably, as we seem to do in normal usage. 

(*Aquinas also considers humility to be a part of modesty or temperance. To read more, please refer to his Summa Theologica, 2.2, Q.161, article 4.)

The paradox of humility

What is it about humility that is so strange? It seems to be that self-attribution of humility undermines its own claim. For example, if I were to say: “I am a humble person,” you would immediately think that I am not, in fact, as humble as I would like to think. 

This tells us that there is something about humility that involves one’s self-image of herself. Moreover, because humility is a moral quality, self-attribution seems to be a self-evaluation. I look into my character and my behaviour and make a moral evaluation on whether I am humble or not.

Should one simply not evaluate themselves for humility but maintain an agnosticism toward whether they have this quality or not? I would argue that this is not correct. If self-knowledge is required for virtue — a different argument, but hopefully intuitive — one needs to be able to at least assess whether they are closer to or further from humility. If someone refuses to evaluate their lack of humility, for example, then she would not be able to determine it to be a flaw. 

Thus, a person ought to be evaluating whether they are indeed humble. But we then encounter the following issue: does humility require an underestimation of one’s goodness? Do humble people have to be blind to their own greatness? Does their self-evaluation have to be wrong?

Does humility require ignorance?

Let us return to the idea of humo acclinis. In what ways can one be brought to the lowest place i.e. humbled?

One may be humbled by an extrinsic factor, e.g. a punishment which would bring one to ‘the lowest place.’ 

Conversely, one may be humbled by something intrinsic to herself. Intrinsically, one can either correctly assume the lowest place, for example when she considers her personal failings and knows her appropriate relative place and worth in light of them. This seems to be a humility that is in line with all the facts. It is based in knowledge. 

Crucially, however, one can also incorrectly assume the lowest place. One may underestimate herself and so be humbled incorrectly. Consider the case of Simba in The Lion King. He was raised as royalty and expected to be a king. However, he finds himself frightened and underestimates his own abilities; he does not wish to live up to his station. So he shirks his responsibilities. He has lowered himself to a point beyond what was appropriate to him. What motivated his false humility?

False humility seems to be of two major types: 

1. False humility based in ignorance: This is the type of humility where one does not know her proper place in the scheme of things or is unaware of her deficiencies. Hence, she does not behave appropriately to her station because of her ignorance. This is a type of delusion, i.e. one is not aware of the reality of things.
2. False humility based in knowledge: This is the type of humility where one knows her proper place in relation to all things and her deficiencies, but does not behave in a manner appropriate to this. I link this to the sin of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a very difficult cognitive state to maintain. Often, one will try to get out of it by creating a false self-image, by trying to become ignorant. Hence it is often converted into delusion. 

Delusion:

I take there to be two forms of delusional humility: 

1a. delusional pride: This seems to be a type of narcissism or haughtiness. A person is unaware of their true station and therefore continuously overestimates herself. She has an inflated sense of self. (Narcissists, when encountering the reality of their inflated self-image, i.e. when they lose their ignorance, will be struck by periods of radical insecurity as they try to reconcile themselves to the ‘baseness’ of their reality.) 

1b. delusional self-abasement: This is when someone is insecure. Insecurity is not necessarily a virtue. What distinguishes insecurity from humility is that an insecure person does not know her true ‘worth’ and therefore abases herself lower than she ought to. This is the type of person who seems to be referenced in Psalm 49:13: 

"Nevertheless man, though in honor, does not remain;
He is like the beasts that perish."

An insecure person will have doubts that she is not fully aware of her deficiencies. This hint at her own ignorance will cause her to consistently underestimate herself, rather than achieving a self-knowledge that is based in equanimity. This is normally taken to be a form of humility, but it is clearly not as it is based in ignorance. (The motivations for insecurity can be many, and they are much examined in psychological literature.) The issue with insecurity is that one does not have to deal with the trial of arrogance. What I mean by this is that an insecure person is, effectively, attempting to avoid arrogance by avoiding the reality of her situation. She is better than she thinks, and she has to learn that without becoming arrogant.

(Note here that I am only drawing a comparison with pathological insecurity based off of, say, one’s appearance. However, the insecurity that we are concerned with is insecurity regarding one’s existential situation. A person may be insecure about her looks but still have a decent appreciation of her existential reality.)

Hypocrisy:

Hypocrisy can also be of two types: 

2a. hypocritical pride: When a person knows her proper place in relation to things, but tries to come across as greater than she is (to an audience or even to herself!), this is a form of pride. Of course, this often results in a type of dissonance — one knows that she is not as good as she tries to come across — and so it is a difficult position to maintain without beginning to engage in lying to herself. An example of someone like this was Mr Pecksniff in Martin Chuzzlewit. He had begun to ignore the obvious implications of the contradiction between his self-righteousness versus his immoral behaviour. Hence, he was utterly insufferable, as one had the sense that he knew he was exaggerating but also that he would never admit to such a thing. In general, this seems to be the issue with religious self-righteousness. 

2b. hypocritical self-abasement: A person who knows her station and worth but abases herself is dishonouring herself. This seems to be either motivated by fear or by a weakness of one’s will. Simba’s self-abasement was based in fear of living up to his true worth. He was only shocked out of his constructed self-ignorance and distractions by news of the immense suffering that was being endured by his people. 

People can clearly develop between these types of false humilities. For example, the Pharaoh in the Holy Qur’an seems to have developed from a delusionally proud person (presumably when he was young and/or before encountering Prophet Moses) to a hypocritically proud person when Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) confronted him. Hence, the Holy Qur’an says of him (Qur’an 20:56): 

"And We certainly showed Pharaoh Our signs — all of them — but he denied and refused."

Motivations for false humility

Considering the above cases, there seem to be at least two major reasons one may have for being falsely humble: 

1. Desire for greatness or praise: This is when someone overestimates their worth. Most of the time, we dislike people who are falsely humble because we sense that they are inflating their self-importance.
2. Fear or weakness: This is when someone underestimates their worth. Much of self-abasement seems to be based in a fear to live up to the responsibility that one’s station or position requires. Rather than admitting that one is weak or is not living up to what she knows to be her duty, one prefers to presume a false humility. This type of self-abasement is often criticised by existentialists, who see it as a form of cowardice. In their view, people are too cowardly to embrace their radical freedom in the face of absurdity, and so abase themselves by living like automatons. Another type of fear is fear of loss, such as being afraid to lose one’s position or wealth. 

The analysis above suggests that humility cannot be based in ignorance, because then it would be false. It would not be correct to the facts of the case.

The reason that the paradox of humility seems so stunning is because most of our thoughts about false humility only look at it from the perspective of prideful false humility. Hence, any self-attribution of humility is taken to be a type of boast. As mentioned, though, prideful false humility can be based in either ignorance of one’s station or in knowledge of it.

Regardless, when someone says: “I am humble,” it cannot be taken to just mean that she is boasting. Perhaps she is, but perhaps she is stating something about her absolute self-knowledge. It is a very rare and difficult thing to maintain one’s appropriate place vis-a-vis the rest of things, as we have seen when considering hypocrisy. But that does not mean that it is impossible. Most of the time, we encounter people who mean to ‘humblebrag,’ but that does not mean that it is necessary that they are bragging when they state they are humble. 

The motivations for false humility don’t necessarily share the same culpability religiously/ethically. It would take us too far afield to discuss culpability for each type. Suffice it to say that a perfect person would display none of the false humilities, regardless of whether imperfect people are morally responsible for their false humilities or not.

What is the knowledge that constitutes humility?

Now that we have determined that humility cannot be based in ignorance, we must consider what sort of knowledge we need in order to be humble. 

Evidently, one needs to be aware of her moral deficiencies and strengths. If she is unaware of the latter, she will have a tendency towards delusional pride. If she is unaware of the latter, she will tend to be insecure.

In addition to that, one needs to be able to place things within the correct cosmology in order to avoid thinking herself better or worse than she is from the point of view of her existence as such.

Imagine a person who had never encountered a single animal or plant. She would not consider her own rationality to be special because there would be no other living being to contrast it to. 

Consequently, she would perhaps not be suitably impressed by the uniqueness of her intellect. She would underestimate herself out of ignorance. 

Imagine a second person who does not believe in any higher beings. She is anthropocentric in the true sense of the term: her worldview is suffused with the appreciation of humanity’s capacities. However, because she is ignorant of the entire celestial realm, and in particular of God, she is not able to appropriately evaluate her capacities vis-a-vis their dependence on and deficiency compared to God. (Again, this pride can be based in delusion or in hypocrisy, and it is not clear that both are equally culpable.)

Thus we have decided upon two pieces of knowledge a humble person must have:

1. Knowledge of her moral deficiencies and strengths - knowledge of her ethical worth
    
2. Knowledge of beings both lower to her and higher than her - knowledge of her existential worth

Awareness of humility

The central concern regarding self-attribution of humility seems to be that the speaker ought not be so aware of her goodness. She ought not be speaking of it or attending to it. Yet this does not seem to be correct. Clearly, one ought not always be mulling over their positive qualities or station.

Yet there are times when one must do so. If someone has a special quality, or has to be a role model, or has a duty to lead, then that is a time to acknowledge their positive position and perhaps even speak about it. A mother cannot, when her child is making a bad decision, suddenly become plagued by self-doubt. She has to seize her own responsibility as the adult/parent and establish herself as knowing better than the child.

Similarly, if the Queen states — correctly — that she is the Queen of England, this statement in itself does not mean that she is not humble. She may be saying it as a matter-of-fact, or to clarify a point, although there would be some other situations when such a statement would be pompous or overestimating her position.

Considering the position of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, we see that he would discuss his position and moral qualities in order to teach, model, or establish what was correct. When it was more appropriate to emphasise his humanity and similarity to others, for example when disbelievers would mock him as simply being a man and not an angel, he would do so.

Why are prophets the most humble of beings?

When we consider the characteristics for true humility, we see that prophets —  and arguably only prophets — fulfill this criteria. 

1. Humility requires knowledge of one’s moral status: prophets have the keenest awareness of their own deficiencies and strengths. Hence, they do not overestimate or underestimate themselves. They need to be able to be aware of their strengths because that is how they are able to be role models for their people. They are aware of their deficiencies more keenly than other people because they are most aware of what they owe God, and how much they fall short of it (as do we all)*. We are told in a narration that Prophet Muhammad ﷺ would repent many dozens of times a day. Hence they are not only aware of their personal ethical deficiencies (if they have any, which is a point of contention), but also of the existential deficiency that all humans have: none of us can be sufficiently grateful to God for His Mercy upon us.
2. Humility requires knowledge of cosmology and metaphysics: prophets have the most knowledge of the celestial realm, and a sufficient knowledge of the terrestrial realm, to be able to place themselves within a just and appropriate place within it. Similarly they have the most profound appreciation of their existential dependence on God. Prophets know this best as they have the deepest appreciation of God’s greatness and majesty. Similarly they have knowledge of their place within the scheme of things — that they are meant to guide, that they are human, that they are close to God, etc. Because they have an accurate self-knowledge, their lack of pride and lack of self-abasement is all the more humble because it is based in reality. They are not deluded.
3. Humility requires subjection to God: Needless to say, prophets are taken to be the most perfect worshippers of God — note how prophets do not have a choice in becoming prophets, but must accept their chosen place. Their humility is perfected by their ability to be modest/moderate, and behave in a way that is most humble and appropriate towards both creation and God.
4. Humility entails service to others: By subjecting themselves to God, prophets live in service to others. Hence, they are humble in the most manifest sense: they behave humbly. Aquinas explains why this does not result in their own spiritual detriment: "Humility, like other virtues, resides chiefly inwardly in the soul. Consequently a man, by an inward act of the soul, may subject himself to another, without giving the other man an occasion of detriment to his spiritual welfare."

(*of course, normally we do not emphasise the deficiency in prophets when it comes to being grateful to God, because it is a deficiency on the basis of their existence, not their ethics/morality. Metaphysically speaking, no creation of God can ever be proportionately grateful to God for existence.)

Humility in the Holy Qur’an

The Holy Qur’an has many verses that speak about humility. I wish to focus on the following (Quran 17:107–111)

“Say, ‘Whether you believe it or not, those who were given knowledge earlier fall down on their faces when it is recited to them, and say, “Glory to our Lord! Our Lord’s promise has been fulfilled.” They fall down on their faces, weeping, and [the Quran] increases their humility.’

Say [to them], ‘Call on God, or on the Lord of Mercy- whatever names you call Him, the best names belong to Him.’ [Prophet], do not be too loud in your prayer, or too quiet, but seek a middle way and say, ‘Praise belongs to God, who has no child nor partner in His rule. He is not so weak as to need a protector. Proclaim His limitless greatness!’”

Note the correspondence between these verses and our analysis above: 

• There is an emphasis on knowledge (primarily of God, but also what is generally contained in the Holy Qur’an) being prior to humility
• There is a relationship between humility and subjection to God (i.e. prostration) — knowledge of His Glory (greatness/majesty compared to us) increases humility, as though to put us in our rightful place in relation to Him
• Humility relates to modesty, or to behaving in moderation — once one knows of God and is humbled, one is in a position to be modest
• There is a suggestion not to be too loud in prayer, lest one’s initially true humility converts into ostentation. (Perhaps there is a connection to not being too quiet in prayer, but I cannot see it.)
• There is an ongoing need to remind oneself of God’s superiority to us, especially with regards to His independence (and therefore our dependence) 

In the last analysis, then, humility is made most firm by knowledge of God with regards to His independence, and our dependence on Him. Evidently, it is prophets who act most according to their knowledge of our complete dependence on God. Many of the prophetic tribulations appear to be tests of their humility: they must be humble enough to do enormously difficult acts because it shows that they bear witness to God’s superiority and knowledge over them.

What about other people?

Our analysis of humility has left out something that would seem quite fundamental: comparison of oneself to others. It appears that true humility does not have much to do with comparing oneself to other people, either to judge oneself as worse or as equal to them. These judgments seem to be of a secondary nature, deriving from one’s knowledge of and subjection to God. At that point, one assesses God’s creation and realises that she is existentially in the same position in relation to God as them. 

A premature consideration of other people is more likely to lead to pride or self-abasement than to humility. Consider that the false humilities seem to be generally outward-facing, i.e. directed at others. Focussing on other people seems to be a way to alternate between underestimating or overestimating oneself, rather than turning one’s gaze upwards. A program of developing humility would need to be careful not to convert pride into self-abasement. 

However, humility clearly results in certain behaviours. The Holy Qur’an speaks of humble people speaking in moderate voices, not walking haughtily on this Earth, preferring to keep their good deeds a secret, praying to God, behaving well towards one’s parents, and so on. A full compendium of suggestions to develop humility is outside of the scope of this essay, but is one of the major goals of tasawwuf (self-purification).

Conclusion

An account of humility based in our relation to God is an uplifting one: it allows for us to acknowledge our lowliness compared to God, but our honour in being created by Him. This corresponds to humans being the servants of God, but also the viceregents of God. Ultimately, humble people must be able to bridge both of these relations in the knowledge of their dependence on God. This results in duties and responsibilities that we may fear, but that are ultimately necessary to avoid cowardly hypocrisy. Prophets are deeply aware that with every honour comes a responsibility; their knowledge of this results in a balanced self-evaluation, even as they are aware that they have been ennobled by God. 

I pray that God helps us be truly humble and close to Him. And God knows best.

-MM, March 9th, 2019

Update: I was advised - correctly - that humility also includes knowledge of limitations in one's ability to know, i.e. it is not just one's knowledge of her moral and existential states, but also her epistemic state. Without detailing the entire argument, I believe that prophets show this very well in their submission to God. Thank you to @teletour on Twitter for pointing this out to me!