SYCOPHANCY IS NOT IN A BELIEVER'S CHARACTER

Jan 15, '13 1:00 PM for everyone

The spirit of encouragement and appreciation arises from personal maturity, self-reliance and a healthy spiritual state, whereas flattery is a sign of low self-respect, baseness, fear, and a decadent personality. Undeserved praise of others is the practice of those who want to compensate for their inadequacies by this means, or are cunningly after their own interests. The compliments paid by self-seeking persons are devoid of any kind of worth, because they are not based on good faith or conviction but are aimed with a particular motive. These self-seeking sycophants are like skilled hunters who set traps of flattery to catch the passing prey.

"Those who exercise their rhetorical skills have often impious intentions in their hearts."

'Ali-may peace be upon him-said:
A compliment that exceeds a person's merit is flattery; if lesser than the merit, it is either due to incapacity or envy. [13]

The Noble Messenger-may peace and God's blessings be upon him and his Household-said:

Sycophancy is not in a believer's character. [14]
Undue praise and compliments give rise to pride, and if the proud person be a man of influence and power, he will not find it easy to listen to sincere advice and exhortations or heed truth and reality.

In the aforementioned directive, 'Ali-may peace be upon him-writes to Malik al-Ashtar:

Make the people get accustomed to refraining from flattering you and from praising you unduly for something you haven't done, for excessive flattery brings about self-conceit and leads to pride and haughtiness. [15]

Hence if you pay someone a tribute exceeding what he merits and extol him beyond his real worth, you will not only add nothing to his personality but will harm your own personal dignity by your flattery and sycophancy. And if you commend someone with a compliment that falls short of his merit, that is an indication of your weak and unbalanced spirit or envy. But if you honour and praise someone according to his real worth, that preserves both your own personality and his, and, as a result, neither he would fall into the trap of vanity, nor would you compromise your respect and worth. Moreover, as exaggerated compliments are not based on fact and do not arise from within the heart, one cannot depend on someone's hypocritical praise and compliments, for if he praises one in one's presence with a certain purpose he might also indulge, behind one's back, in any kind of backbiting or defamation for some other end of his.

'Ali-may peace be upon him-describes this repulsive characteristic of sycophants in these words:

One who compliments you for some merit that you do not possess will have no qualms blaming you and accusing you of some vice that is not in you. [16]
In the same way as appreciation and encouragement are one of man's psychological needs whose fulfilment leads to progress and development, constant and undue blame and censure produce a detrimental effect on one's psyche and lead into vice and deviance. The Commander of the Faithful-may peace be upon him-said:

Abstain from frequent reproach for such a practice has vicious consequences and makes censure ineffective. [17] Bringing joy to one's children is an effective way of winning their love and is beneficial for strengthening their emotional ties with other people. The Noble Messenger (s) said:

Whenever a father looks lovingly at his child and makes him joyous, he receives a reward from God that is equal to that of setting free a slave. [18]