Adapted From Writings By Khalid Baig ...

We need to appreciate the difference between adab or manners ... 
On the one hand and akhlaq or morals on the other ... 

While adab deal with ones external disposition ... 
Akhlaq as defined by Islam deal with our inner thoughts, feeling and attitudes ...

In a healthy personality,the manners and morals are in harmony ... 
But it is also possible to have the former without having the latter ... 

The first concerns itself with how a person deals with others ... 
The second is concerned with what a person thinks of himself ... 

Two persons showing humbleness in their dealings with others, may have exactly opposite ideas in their minds ... 

One may do it out of his or her generosity ... 
The other may do it because he genuinely thinks that he is not better than the other person ... 

The first person only has a shell of humbleness
Which will crumble when tested ... 

It is the second person who is really free of arrogance ...

Real greatness belongs only to Allah, our Lord, Creator and Master ... 
Human beings are just a creation of Allah ... 
And a very small creation in comparison to the unimaginably vast universe ... 
Anyone who understands this will realize that our proper status is only that of servants of Allah ... 

In fact for a Muslim the real human model is none other than Prophet Muhammad (SAW) who is the greatest of all human beings ... 
His greatness lies in being the humblest of all servants of Allah ... 
It is impossible for any person who has this consciousness to entertain any notions of his own greatness ...

Islams teaching is that one should never consider oneself greater than other people ... Because that Judgment will come from Allah, and Allah alone ... 
On the Day of Judgment ... 

None of us knows what our end will be ... 
Whether we will end up being a winner or loser over there ... 

The person who appears to be nobody here
May end up with eternal bliss because of his goodness that only Allah knew ... 

The person who is a big shot here 
May end up among the sinners who will be punished there ... 
Because of his evil that only Allah knew ... 

How foolish, it is then to congratulate ourselves over our fleeting "superiority" ...

What if a person does have edge over another person in measurable worldly terms ??? How then can he not consider himself superior than the other person in that respect ??? 

The point is sometimes made in half jest ... 
It is difficult to be humble when you are so great ... 
Islam does not ask us to reject reality and imagine we dont have what we really do ... 

Rather it asks us to take a deeper look at the reality 
And not be misled by a superficial perception of it ... 
And the simple reality that escapes many is that our 
Health
Wealth
Talents
And power 
Are not of our own creation ... 

God gave those to us as a test ... 
And He can take them back whenever He wills ... 
Those who are conscious of this reality 
Their blessings will produce gratitude in them ... 
Those who are blind to it will develop pride and arrogance ...