A Moral Vice that Distorts Realities
Conceit is among moral vices disapproved in the Holy Quran. Conceit refers to everything that deceives humans and lead them to negligence and oblivion.
It can be considered as the first vice that affected man’s destiny. Iblis (Satan) was ordered by God to prostrate to Adam, the first man, but he disobeyed God out of conceit, saying he was superior to man because “You created me from fire, but created him from clay.” (Verse 12 of Surah Al’A’raf)
Adam and Eve are not the only human beings affected by conceit (not their own but that of Satan). According to the Quran, there were many peoples in history whose conceit led to their destruction.
The people of Noah (AS) were one of them:
“The disbelievers among his people said, ‘We do not believe that you are any better than the rest of us; we see that only the worthless hasty ones, the lowliest among us follow you. Thus, we do not think that you are superior to us, rather you are all liars.’” (Verse 27 of Surah Hud)
People usually follow their intellect to avoid possible harms but this conceited people rejected Noah’s call although they saw his truthfulness through the miracles he showed them. They even encouraged Noah to call for divine punishment for them.
In the Holy Quran, God tells us about the fate of conceited people so that we avoid this moral vice.
“They will call out to them, saying: ‘Were we not with you?’ ‘Yes,’ they will reply, ‘but you tempted yourselves, you waited (for problems to befall the believers), and you doubted, and were deluded by your own fancies until the Command of Allah came, and the deluder (satan) deluded you concerning Allah.’” (Verse 14 of Surah Al-Hadid)
