Love of status (hubb al-jah)

The love of status is the subject of the first half of the Book of the Censure of Status and Showing Off, the eighth book of the quarter of destructive things in Ihya' 'Ulum al-Din; its second half concerns showing off, that is, seeking standing through acts of worship. ^{4 5 6} Al-Ghazali defines status (jah) as "possession of the hearts whose veneration and obedience are sought", just as wealth means possession of useful things. ¹

Al-Ghazali opens the book with the hadith that the thing most feared for the community is showing off and hidden desire; al-Iraqi notes in the footnote that Ibn Majah and al-Hakim transmitted it. ^{5 7} He then has chapters on the censure of fame and the merit of obscurity before he reaches the censure of status and its meaning. ^{8 9 10}

He makes an exception to the censure of fame for the strong. The weak, he says, is like a drowning man among others drowning: better that none of them know him, lest they cling to him and he perish with them. The strong is better known, so that they cling to him and he saves them and is rewarded for it. ¹⁰

Al-Ghazali cites the hadith that love of wealth and status makes hypocrisy grow in the heart as water makes herbs grow; al-Iraqi says he did not find it. ^{11 2} He cites the hadith that two ravenous wolves let loose in a sheepfold do no more damage than love of honour and wealth do to a Muslim's religion. ² He cites a saying attributed to the Prophet ﷺ, addressed to Ali, that people perish by following desire and loving praise; al-Iraqi says he did not see it in that wording, and that al-Daylami has from Ibn Abbas, with a weak chain, that loving people's praise blinds and deafens. ^{11 1}

Al-Ghazali says the rich man is one who owns dirhams and dinars and reaches his aims through them; likewise the man of status is one who owns people's hearts, that is, is able to act on them so as to use their owners for his purposes. ¹ Hearts are subdued only through what they know and believe: whenever a heart believes someone has an attribute of perfection, it yields to him in proportion to the strength of that belief. The attribute need not be a perfection in itself; it is enough that the heart believes it to be one. ¹²

He holds that what the man of status seeks goes beyond what a slave-owner seeks: the owner possesses the slave by force, and the slave by nature resists, while the man of status wants free people to be his servants by nature and willingly, rejoicing in obeying him. ² In sum, status for him is a standing in people's hearts, their belief that he has one of the qualities of perfection; his power over hearts and his delight in status are in proportion to it. ^{2 13}

Among the fruits of status he lists praise and flattery, service and help, being preferred and not contended with, and veneration shown by being greeted first, given the place of honour in gatherings and put first in every matter. ¹³

Al-Ghazali has a chapter on why status is loved by nature "so that no heart is free of it", and another on true perfection and illusory perfection, where he cites a line of Abu al-Tayyib (al-Mutanabbi) on one who spends his hours amassing wealth for fear of poverty. ^{14 15 16}

He then states that status is judged as wealth is: it belongs to the passing goods of this life and ends with death, and one may take provision from it for the hereafter. ¹⁶ Just as a minimum of wealth is needed for food and clothing, a minimum of status is needed for living among people: wanting to have enough place in the heart of one's servant, companion, teacher and ruler to move them to serve, help and guide one and to defend one from injustice "is not blameworthy". ³ He illustrates this by saying that one who loves a thing only as a means to something else does not truly love it. ¹⁷

He holds that loving status and wealth for their own sake is blameworthy even when it does not lead to sin; what is forbidden is to reach status through lies, deceit or acts of worship, and seeking status through worship is the meaning of forbidden showing off. ¹⁸

Al-Ghazali links the love of status with the love of praise and acclaim, to which he gives the next chapter, and makes it one of the ways self-delusion enters scholars. ^{19 20}

• Page numbers are from the Shamela file; in the 1982 Dar al-Ma'rifa edition the second half (on showing off) begins on printed p. 293, as its contents list shows. ⁶
• Judgements on hadith are attributed to al-Iraqi.