Al-Mutakabbir — The Dominant One
الْمُتَكَبِّر
Name 10 of the ninety-nine. The One who is clear from the attributes of the creatures
Al-Mutakabbir (in Arabic: ٱلْمُتَكَبِّرُ) means the supremely great one.
The root
From the root kaf-ba-ra (ك ب ر), which in Classical Arabic means: to be great in size, rank or dignity to be great in size, to be vast, formidable to be great in age, oldest to be great in dignity, noble, majestic to be great in learning, most known to have rights above all others.
Reflection
A lesson to be learned is as you grow skilled in a field, it's natural that you'd get more confident. " It's the strong swimmers who take more risks and, as a result, face fatal accidents. It's too late for them, and their fate is sealed. Similarly, what's better for the believer is to focus on finding truth. To avoid arrogance in thinking that they already know.
The human condition is a desire to know, expand, and have power. It's hard to renounce all things - which, if you could, would be better. But that's the road less traveled. It's difficult and discomforting to assume you don't know or to admit you are uncertain. It feels reassuring to think you know something. But in this facade, you deprive yourself of going further.
The tricky part of having poor judgment is you don't know when you have it. It's far better to find evidence in reality to support your view - and even then, not to draw conclusions. The moment you feel you know something, you allow yourself to stop searching. We all likely share a similar experience in studying for a test.
You may have gone over a homework problem, looked at the answer, and thought, "yeah that make sense" or "that's easy," and moved on. But when a similar question appeared on the test, we "blanked out" and couldn't answer it. Really we just fooled ourselves into thinking we knew and never got evidence to support that we really did.
It would've been wise to test and practice, space out some time, and do it again. This way, we would not fool ourselves into thinking we knew something when we really didn't. To try and characterize oneself as being great and as feeling proud of their achievements in a non-conceited way, we can simplify it to the basic philosophy of doing your best.
Be clear and deliberate in understanding what's important to you, and then try your best to live up to that standard. If you could go to bed every day knowing you've done your best, how can you not say you succeeded in what you set out to do? As a result of doing this over an extended period, you will surely get recognition from those closest to you, and perhaps it will shine through for others to see as well.
But that part is something that will happen as a by-product, not as the goal for attainment. More important to ask how to be deserving of greatness rather than a desire for greatness.
Where it appears
[1] Sahih (Al-Albani) Sunan Abi Dawud 4090 & Sahih Muslim 2620