Kibr has three stages: a) Istikbaar b) Fakhoor and c) Muhtaal. These three words are mentioned at various places in the Quraan. It is very important for us to understand these terms and see under which category we fall, and whether we’ve made Tauba from all these stages. What is the Tauba of Kibr? It is that we don the garments of humility and simplicity wherever we are. This Kibr is very subtle you will not be able to detect it easily. One subtle form of Kibr is that we will not announce it verbally or by way of our actions and deeds but the heart inside is filled with Kibr, so in our small little heart we think the world of ourselves. this is termed as istikbaar such people are termed mustakbireen.
The second type of Kibr is that due to some reason or the other you feel shy to verbally announce the Kibr. However, Kibr flows from our walk, garments and appearance. The person who behaves like this is called Muhtaal.
The third type of Kibr is that we announce the Kibr verbally wherever we go and act as if we are superior to others. The person who does is this is termed fakhoor. These three terms are used in the Quraan and the applications are different. We now look into our lives and see which one of these types do we have. We make Dua to ALLAH to protect us from all forms of Kibr.
Let us look at the Hadeeth Qudsi where ALLAH speaks himself: “Kibr is my cloak and honour is my trouser, whoever opposes me and tries to adopt my garments of pride, I shall crush him”. It is mentioned in the Ahaadeth that the people of pride will rise like little ants (on Qiyamat Day). People will wonder who they are. It will be said that these are the people who developed pride on the earth. In another Hadeeth it is mentioned that a person shall not enter Jannat as long as he has an atom’s worth of pride in his heart. Now from this we gain the importance of safeguarding ourselves against Kibr.