There is a saying from Star Trek 8 that goes like this: “don’t try to be a great man. Just try to be a man.”
An apt tweak may be as follows: Don’t try to be ‘Uthman. Just try to be a man.
Perhaps, don’t try to be modest; try, instead, to be aware of the presence of nobility around you.
In my own personal inspiration, I would insist that for whatever reason in this day and age there is an emphasis by the angelic realms less on the need to be modest than there is the need to avoid arrogance and haughtiness. Why modesty is lesser a factor is beyond me. But I feel strongly that the honoring of precedents for modesty, however beautiful and noble, are a distant second to the need to diminish arrogance. (Without an overarching political and martial power for Believers, what arrogance could there possibly be?)
Perhaps we are in a crisis. This late in the stage of the Earth, centuries after the dawning of this faith tradition, ever closer to The Hour, perhaps there is an urgency more important than proper appreciation of the nobility around us. Is it the weaponry and information technology that extends our minds and personalities across great distances? Does computerized technology raise the risk we are losing our humanity? Perhaps we are in a crisis because we are in the nuclear age.
It is reported that on The Day of Judgment, men and women will be naked and yet notice nothing of each others’ nakedness. The severity of the Divine Presence will be so awe-inspiring that it will draw all attention.
Al-Hasan related that the modesty of ‘Uthman was mentioned in his presence. He said, ‘If he were in the middle of the house–and the door locked—then he put off his clothes in order to pour water over himself, modesty would prevent him from raising (straightening) his backbone.