The Fate of the Greats
Believers live in the greatness of God, considering all human beings as mere servants of God. Therefore, they do not react adversely to criticism as the criticism of one human being by another does not diminish anything from the greatness of God.
As Caliph Umar Ibn Khattab delivered a speech in Madinah, an individual amongst the congregation rose and administered him this warning:
“By God, Umar, if we detect any crookedness in you, we will put you straight with our swords.” (Al-Tarikh al-Kabir by Al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 1819)
Audacious and insolent though these words appear, Umar did not object to them; neither did anyone in the congregation challenge the man’s right to address Umar in this way. On the contrary, criticism was a regular occurrence amongst the Companions. As a result, an atmosphere of healthy criticism, where people had every right to speak their minds, endured for two generations after the Prophet. There was no restriction on what people said, as long as they carefully looked into a matter before pronouncing judgment: only criticism without prior investigation was disapproved.
There can only be one reason for the atmosphere of tolerance that prevailed during the time of the Companions and the generations that immediately succeeded them: for those people, only God was great. They lived in awe of His greatness alone. As far as they were concerned, all human beings were God’s servants. Why should they object, then, when one person criticized another? They were conscious of only God’s greatness, and criticism of one human being by another did not diminish anything from the greatness of God.
In modern times, however, things have changed. Try criticizing any leading personality; it does not matter how intellectually sound and well-researched one’s criticism is; that person’s followers will rise in anger. People attribute greatness to humans, and to see the objects of their veneration brought low is more than they can bear. It is true of Muslims just as much as others. “God is great” are just words they utter in prayer: in practice, the greatness of others besides God dominates their lives.
The aura of greatness surrounding humans in this world is just a facade put on for the test of men. Those who can see through this facade and realize that no one besides God has any real greatness will be successful in the next world. As for those who let the greatness of mere mortals rule their lives, their greatness will perish, and they will be left out in the cold: the ones in whose shadow they had lived will no longer be there to shield them.
