In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
He is the one who honors and the one who humiliates.
In honor and humiliation there is the implication of raising and lowering. The one who has honor has received a state of pride and dignity ('izzah). But this state of pride and dignity obtained from Allah, the One who Honors, is very different from the pride that human imagines he/she deserves (kibr). The pride and dignity of the one who is honored by Allah is not pride in him/herself, but respect paid to the honor given him/her, and to the One who gives honor.
Indeed, he is still a human being. He needs to eat and drink-and he does that lawfully, and in good measure. For Allah, as part of the honor He has bestowed upon him, has given him the wisdom and joy of obtaining the necessities and enjoyments of this world with His good pleasure.
Such a servant of Allah will not stray from Allah's permission and pleasure even if it means death for him/her, because within the gift of the Honorer to the honored is a safeguard against the disgrace of the divine gift. However, the honor that one attributes to oneself or that is attributed to one by other creatures of Allah is a curse that distorts one's reality, making one imagine that one is in a state other than one's own.
Knowledge of oneself leads one to one's Lord. But imagining oneself to be other than one's real self leads one to the Devil. His feature is arrogance, the cause of his expulsion from Allah's presence. That was the first act of Allah in His manifestation of the Humiliator. Then there are those who have neither the dignity and honor awarded by Allah nor false pride that they make up themselves, but who are undignified, shameless and disgraceful.
Their hearts are on fire with the ambition of the world. No good comes from them to anything or anyone because they are selfish and stingy. There is a limit to the degree to which they will humble themselves to beg for the goods of this world. They are guilty of shirk, attributing equals to Allah, because they take those temporal hands that throw bones to them as their gods.
The one who asks and hopes from Allah alone knows that all honor is His and can come only from Him. Those who think that they are the fashioners of their own destinies and can get what they want by themselves, who seek the praise of creatures and are arrogant-these are the followers of Devil. They will receive the punishment of the Devil, and will be expelled from the presence and the care of Allah.
The ones who lower themselves and worship creatures, hoping to receive good from them, will be further humiliated by Allah, and tyrannized by those creatures whom they take for their temporal gods.
'Abd al-Mu'izz is honored with the friendship of Allah, thus rising to the highest summit of honor and fortune, and appearing so to the whole creation.
'Abl al-Mudhill is he who is made an example of degradation. Often Allah manifests His attribute of abaser in His enemies.
