There is a deeply flawed definition which causes devastation in one’s path to Allah. That is to believe that:

being “good” = being “perfect“

and

being “imperfect” = being “bad“

The result of this flawed notion is either self-hatred or arrogance. If a person believes that having flaws means they are “bad”, seeing their own imperfections leads to self-hatred and despair – which block them in their path to God. The only way someone who carries this notion can feel okay with themselves and feel that they are ‘good’ is if they believe that they *don’t* have flaws (are perfect). But to believe this is arrogance (ujub) and self-deception (ghuroor) which likely leads to kibr (looking down on others who aren’t as ‘perfect’ as them). But the whole problem is rooted in the faulty definition. If instead we had the correct Islamic definition, this wouldn’t happen. If instead we knew that “good”= “imperfect, but striving and repenting”, we could learn to be more forgiving of ourselves and others, and protect ourselves from both dangerous tools of shaytan: despair and arrogance

— Yasmin Mogahead