Humbleness or humility means the quality or state ‘of being modest and lacking in pride or arrogance’ or ‘of being courteously respectful’ or ‘the good quality of not being proud or not believing that you are important’. In simple words, humbleness means the absence of pride and arrogance and the ability to be down to earth. Humbleness is showing respectful behavior toward other beings—those whom we face in our day-to-day life. A humble person never considers himself superior to others and he avoids arrogance and self-praise. In short, being humble is a great virtue and a blessing; rather we can call it the ‘mother of all blessings’.
Humbleness is accompanied by virtues and qualities like kindness, gentle behaviour, power of understanding, broad vision, showing respect to elders, and affection for youngsters. Benjamin Franklin rightly said: “To be humble to superiors is a duty, to equals courtesy, [and] to inferiors nobleness”. When a humble person listens, he listens not only by ear but by heart. A humble person decides or judges not quickly but after giving proper thought to whether it is right or wrong. When a humble person speaks, he speaks pure words—words filled with sincerity, truth, sweetness and affection. Everyone wants to listen to a humble person because his words are taken as ‘motivation’ for he speaks with sincerity and from the heart; his words are true and real. A humble person never acts with deceit, dishonesty or duplicity and that’s why people believe them unconditionally. A humble person takes respect from every corner of society.
A humble person is a thoughtful person who thinks of every aspect in a positive way. Only a noble person can recognize himself/ herself. A humble person can make his personality well-disciplined because he/she performs every activity on time—without any delay and lame excuses.
The desires of a humble person are also less and he neither becomes a burden on anyone nor does he allow anyone to become a burden. A humble person is very strong, mentally and intellectually; he has a ‘unique’ way of thinking; he takes everything positively; he has the capability of facing criticism; and he gets lessons and implements them in his life. Humbleness is an outward expression of an appropriate inner or self-regard. Humbleness gives you all-round development because a humble person is always in quest of learning. In a Prophetic tradition, it is stated that the “best of people is the one who humbles himself the more his rank increases”.Mahatma Gandhi rightly said, “I am a humble but very earnest seeker after truth”. “Humility and openness”, says George Hickenlooper, “are the key to success without compromising your beliefs”.
If there is no humility in a truth-speaking person, he/she becomes arrogant. Their misunderstanding that they are truth-speakers without humbleness leads them to the heights of arrogance, and arrogance is absolutely forbidden. Even a person cannot claim to be noble or humble without having truth in him/her because the most important part of being noble or humble is truth. “A mistake that makes us humble is better than an achievement which makes us arrogant”.
Humbleness is like a candle by which you can identify your Creator and recognize who you are. It is true that an arrogant person neither listens to anyone nor is anyone willing to listen to him because that person has no humility and way of talking at all. The victim of “I”— I know everything; what I know no one knows it —this kind of attitude means lacking real wisdom and a way of learning. The attitude of “I” leads to damage, destruction and downfall. Come and think how much humility is needed for a successful person. With humility, you can learn everything positively. That is why someone has rightly said: “Learn from womb to tomb”. If this is true, why have we become victims of ‘I’?
An arrogant person has always anger inside him; his mind is filled with anger and that is why someone has well said that anger eats up the intellect and eventually an arrogant person loses his endurance and the precious gift of humbleness.
It is a well-known fact that in this world all human beings are dependent on others in one way or other; then why we should claim “I” or walk with the cap of arrogance? If we know and understand the universal reality that time is not the legacy or birthright of anyone, then why do we remain in this misconception that time is ours? Therefore, each person should wait for his/her own time; when their time comes, they should deal with everyone with great humility and with their best, because time does not belong to only one; it belongs to everyone; tomorrow was yours and today is mine. Keep this in mind go ahead: be humble and do your best because nothing remains forever; only goodness remains. I conclude with these two beautiful quotes from Harvey Mackay and Angela Lee, respectively: “Talent is God-given; be humble. Fame is man-given; be thankful. Conceit is self-given; be careful” and “Be humble, don’t have too much pride and think you’re too good for anything”.

The writer is a BA 6th Semester student of Government Degree College Sogam (Lolab), Kupwara.

Fayaz Ahmad (Faiz)