Pride and humility: do not walk the earth exultantly

In brief

In the Qur'an arrogance is not only an inner state; it descends all the way to how a person walks, how loud they speak, and how they hold their face. The text places human self-inflation next to two impossible claims — tearing open the earth and reaching the mountains in height. On the opposite side stands the walk of the servants of the Most Merciful: upon the earth with hawn, that is, unhurried and unassuming. This article follows the text's own line, from the first scene of arrogance to Luqman's advice to his son, and on to the question of whom the final home is prepared for.

Verses discussed

• 2:34 — Iblees refuses to prostrate: refusal and arrogance in one sentence.
• 7:13 — Arrogance rejected as something not his to claim.
• 38:75 — The source of arrogance is questioned.
• 17:37 — Do not walk the earth exultantly; you will not tear it, nor match the mountains.
• 31:17 — The first link of Luqman's advice: prayer, enjoining good, patience.
• 31:18 — Do not turn your cheek from people; do not walk exultantly.
• 31:19 — Be moderate in your pace; lower your voice.
• 25:63 — The servants of the Most Merciful walk the earth easily.
• 7:146 — The arrogant are turned away from the signs.
• 16:23 — He does not like the arrogant.
• 4:36 — The self-deluded and boastful, named after neighbours, orphans and the needy.
• 57:23 — The same phrase, in the context of not exulting over what is given.
• 40:60 — Arrogance that abandons supplication ends in humiliation.
• 40:75 — Exulting without right is named as a ground for punishment.
• 28:83 — The final home is for those who desire no exaltedness and no corruption.
• 59:23 — Greatness is named as an attribute of God.

The first scene of arrogance

Before defining arrogance, the text gives it a scene. The first arrogance is not about wealth, lineage or office; it appears in front of a command.

وَإِذْ قُلْنَا لِلْمَلَائِكَةِ اسْجُدُوا لِآدَمَ فَسَجَدُوا إِلَّا إِبْلِيسَ أَبَىٰ وَاسْتَكْبَرَ وَكَانَ مِنَ الْكَافِرِينَ

"And [mention] when We said to the angels, 'Prostrate before Adam'; so they prostrated, except for Iblees. He refused and was arrogant and became of the disbelievers." (2:34)

The reply is notable: arrogance is rejected not as a crime but as a lack of standing.

فَمَا يَكُونُ لَكَ أَن تَتَكَبَّرَ فِيهَا

"for it is not for you to be arrogant therein." (7:13)

أَسْتَكْبَرْتَ أَمْ كُنتَ مِنَ الْعَالِينَ

"Were you arrogant [then], or were you [already] among the haughty?" (38:75)

(interpretation) In this scene arrogance does not sit as one more item on a list of bad traits; it stands as a claim to a position. The one who is arrogant demands a place that is not his. The answer, accordingly, is not a moral scolding but a statement of limit: this is not your place. If that reading holds, the opposite of arrogance in the Qur'an is not self-abasement but knowing one's actual place.

Ethics written into a walk

In Sūrah al-Isrā', in the middle of a string of counsels, ethics suddenly becomes bodily. What is at issue is not intention but gait.

وَلَا تَمْشِ فِي الْأَرْضِ مَرَحًا ۖ إِنَّكَ لَن تَخْرِقَ الْأَرْضَ وَلَن تَبْلُغَ الْجِبَالَ طُولًا

"And do not walk upon the earth exultantly. Indeed, you will never tear the earth [apart], and you will never reach the mountains in height." (17:37)

(interpretation) The reason given is not moral but physical: you will not tear the earth, you will not match the mountains. The text seems to treat arrogance less as a sin than as a claim that does not fit reality. The strutting person imitates a greatness he does not have, and the verse silences him by measurement — against the size of the earth and of the mountains.

Luqman's advice to his son

The chain of advice in Sūrah Luqmān begins with worship and then, in the very same breath, returns to the body.

يَا بُنَيَّ أَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ وَأْمُرْ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَانْهَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ وَاصْبِرْ عَلَىٰ مَا أَصَابَكَ

"O my son, establish prayer, enjoin what is right, forbid what is wrong, and be patient over what befalls you." (31:17)

وَلَا تُصَعِّرْ خَدَّكَ لِلنَّاسِ وَلَا تَمْشِ فِي الْأَرْضِ مَرَحًا

"And do not turn your cheek [in contempt] toward people and do not walk through the earth exultantly. Indeed, Allāh does not like everyone self-deluded and boastful." (31:18)

وَاقْصِدْ فِي مَشْيِكَ وَاغْضُضْ مِن صَوْتِكَ

"And be moderate in your pace and lower your voice." (31:19)

(interpretation) The order of the three verses says something on its own: prayer, enjoining good and patience belong to the same chain as "do not turn your cheek, walk moderately, lower your voice." No gap is opened between the vertical relation (worship) and the horizontal one (dealing with people). All three of the concrete markers are visible from outside: the set of the face, the speed of the step, the volume of the voice.

The walk of the servants of the Most Merciful

In Sūrah al-Furqān the opposite of arrogance is again described as a walk.

وَعِبَادُ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الَّذِينَ يَمْشُونَ عَلَى الْأَرْضِ هَوْنًا وَإِذَا خَاطَبَهُمُ الْجَاهِلُونَ قَالُوا سَلَامًا

"And the servants of the Most Merciful are those who walk upon the earth easily, and when the ignorant address them [harshly], they say [words of] peace," (25:63)

(interpretation) The same verb (to walk) and the same ground (the earth) appear in both verses; only the manner changes. The arrogant walk is maraḥ, the walk of the Merciful's servant is hawn. The second half of the verse also shows what humility is not: not silence before rude speech, but an answer that refuses the quarrel.

The cost of arrogance: an eye that closes

The heaviest consequence of arrogance is described less as a punishment than as a loss of perception.

سَأَصْرِفُ عَنْ آيَاتِيَ الَّذِينَ يَتَكَبَّرُونَ فِي الْأَرْضِ بِغَيْرِ الْحَقِّ

"I will turn away from My signs those who are arrogant upon the earth without right;" (7:146)

إِنَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ الْمُسْتَكْبِرِينَ

"Assuredly, Allāh knows what they conceal and what they declare. Indeed, He does not like the arrogant." (16:23)

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَسْتَكْبِرُونَ عَنْ عِبَادَتِي سَيَدْخُلُونَ جَهَنَّمَ دَاخِرِينَ

"Indeed, those who disdain My worship will enter Hell [rendered] contemptible." (40:60)

(interpretation) What 7:146 describes is not a lack of information: the person sees every sign and still does not believe. Arrogance here stands not in front of knowledge but in front of accepting it. In 40:60 arrogance is positioned as the opposite of supplication — to ask is to admit one's own insufficiency, and the arrogant will not.

Who is not loved, and next to which sentence

"God does not love the self-deluded and boastful" never stands alone in the Qur'an; it is appended to a context of dealings with others.

إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ مَن كَانَ مُخْتَالًا فَخُورًا

"Indeed, Allāh does not like those who are self-deluding and boastful," (4:36)

وَاللَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ كُلَّ مُخْتَالٍ فَخُورٍ

"And Allāh does not like everyone self-deluded and boastful" (57:23)

ذَٰلِكُم بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَفْرَحُونَ فِي الْأَرْضِ بِغَيْرِ الْحَقِّ وَبِمَا كُنتُمْ تَمْرَحُونَ

"That was because you used to exult upon the earth without right and you used to behave insolently." (40:75)

(interpretation) In 4:36 the sentence comes after parents, relatives, orphans, the needy, the near and the far neighbour, the companion at one's side and the traveller. In 57:23 it comes while describing not grieving over what is lost and not exulting over what is given. Read together, two faces of arrogance appear: swelling over people, and mistaking what is in one's hand for what one has earned.

Whom the final home is prepared for

Sūrah al-Qaṣaṣ, immediately after the story of Qārūn, gives the criterion in a single sentence.

تِلْكَ الدَّارُ الْآخِرَةُ نَجْعَلُهَا لِلَّذِينَ لَا يُرِيدُونَ عُلُوًّا فِي الْأَرْضِ وَلَا فَسَادًا

"That home of the Hereafter We assign to those who do not desire exaltedness upon the earth or corruption. And the [best] outcome is for the righteous." (28:83)

(interpretation) The criterion is not the act but the desire: those who do not want exaltedness and corruption. Here the text goes underneath outward behaviour. Greatness itself, by contrast, is named as an attribute of God rather than of a human being.

الْعَزِيزُ الْجَبَّارُ الْمُتَكَبِّرُ

"the Exalted in Might, the Compeller, the Superior." (59:23)

Root and word note

The counts below are taken from this platform's word-by-word database of the Qur'an.

Two things stand out. First, mukhtāl and fakhūr always occur together, in three verses (4:36, 31:18, 57:23) — self-conceit and boasting are named as a pair, not as two separate faults. Second, 17:37 and 31:18 share the same phrase (wa-lā tamshi fī l-arḍi maraḥan): one inside a general chain of counsels, the other inside a father's advice to his son.

Different readings

(interpretation) A linguistic reading. The root h-w-n mostly occurs in the semantic field of "easy, light" and "humiliating" (for example 30:27, "easier"). The hawnan of 25:63 sits between those two poles: not self-abasement, but walking without weight or display. On this reading humility is a lightness, not a humiliation.

(interpretation) A moral-psychological reading. Because the criterion in 28:83 is "not desiring," arrogance is defined primarily at the level of want; outward behaviour (gait, voice, face) is the visible surface of that want. On this reading 17:37 and 31:18-19 are lists of symptoms.

(interpretation) A social-political reading. In most places the subject of istikbār in the Qur'an is not an individual but a group holding power. In 28:83 arrogance is set beside fasād (corruption); in 40:75 the qualifier "without right" is added. On this reading the target of the text is not personal pride but the institutionalisation of a claim to superiority.

The three readings do not exclude one another; they read different levels of the same cluster of verses.

An honest boundary

What the text states plainly: Walking exultantly is forbidden (17:37, 31:18). Moderation of pace and lowering of the voice are commanded (31:19). God is said not to love the self-deluded and boastful (4:36, 31:18, 57:23, 16:23). The home of the Hereafter is said to be prepared for those who desire neither exaltedness nor corruption (28:83). Arrogance is named as the first refusal in the story of Iblees (2:34, 7:13, 38:75).

What remains interpretation: The exact behavioural equivalent of maraḥ and hawn — which speed, which tone of voice — is not measured in the text. How much of "turning the cheek" is a concrete gesture and how much a picture of an attitude is debated. Where the line falls between confidence and arrogance cannot be derived directly from the verses; it is a judgement bound to context and intent. Nor does the text explain how the "turning away from the signs" of 7:146 operates.

What this article is not: It is not a checklist for labelling other people arrogant. The measure in these verses is largely for looking at oneself; used to weigh someone else, the verse itself becomes an instrument of the very arrogance it names.

Conclusion: The Qur'an treats arrogance not as an abstract flaw but as a claim exceeding one's own measure, and it catches that claim in the most concrete places — the walk, the voice, the set of the face. Humility, correspondingly, is not making oneself small but carrying one's weight correctly upon the earth: walking with hawn, answering ignorance with peace, and not wanting to be above.

Source: Qur'anic verses (Saheeh International rendering; Turkish edition uses M. Okuyan). Presented with a text/interpretation distinction; this is not a legal ruling.