Tradition

إذا رَأيْتُمُ الْعَبْدَ يَتَفَقَّدُ الذُّنُوبَ مِنَ النّاسِ ناسِياً لِذَنْبِهِ فَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّهُ قَدْ مُكِرَبِهِ

Imam al-Sadiq (‘a) is narrated to have said: “Know that when someone is seeking out the sins of the people and criticizing them, but has at the same time forgotten his own sins, that he has been entangled in divine punishment.”1

Brief Commentary

There are many people who are quite brazen in criticizing others and pointing out their faults, but at the same time, they are completely unaware of their own negative characterics and issues. They may criticize others for their small faults while ignoring their own major problems. Such people have been afflicted with selfishness and egoism due to the veils of arrogance and unawareness, which have covered their eyes from seeing their own reality. The superior individual is the one who first removes his own defects before even looking at the defects of others.

• 1. Taken from the book: Tuhaf al-’Uqul, p. 271.