Zakaullah Saleem – S 01 Ep 06 Aqeedah Showing Off In Worship
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the confusion surrounding Islam's stance on religion and the harm it causes, including injuries and disunity among Muslims. They stress the importance of praying behind the Prophet sallali and avoiding false accusations. The speakers also emphasize the importance of protecting one's privacy and protecting one's health, and encourage people to practice sh matter and not forget about their deeds. They stress the need for protecting one's privacy and health to avoid confusion and mistakes.
AI: Summary ©
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu, bismillahirrahmanirrahim,
alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen, wal aqibatul muttaqeen, wassalatu wassalamu
ala rasulihil kareem, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi
ajma'een, amma ba'd.
In the previous
lessons we have covered a few topics related
to the aqeedah and the last two sessions
were about the definition of ibadah, the worship
and various types of ibadah.
And we also went through the acts that
are contrary to ibadah or the acts that
are considered as shirk in ibadah, shirk in
the worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And today we are going to discuss a
very important topic which is also a form
of shirk and it is called ash-shirkul
khafi and ash-shirkul asghar, minor shirk and
in another hadith it is said that this
type of shirk is hidden shirk, it is
hidden and hidden shirk sometimes can destroy your
iman and there are various levels within this
type of shirk and this is none other
than the riya, showing off, as we briefly
discussed previously the showing off is a form
of shirk because if you remember when we
defined the worship we said the worship, does
anyone remember the definition of worship?
Yeah, any statement that you utter or any
action that you perform with the intention of
what?
Pleasing Allah, meaning if you say something or
if you do something not with the intention
of pleasing Allah or with the intention of
pleasing Allah as well as pleasing other than
Allah then it is shirk and it is
not ibadah, if it is purely for the
sake of other than Allah then it's complete
shirk and if it is with the intention
if you do if you say something or
you do something with the intention of pleasing
Allah and pleasing people then it means you
have associated partners with Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala and you have committed shirk in ibadah,
in the worship of Allah, that is why
shirk as shirkul asghar, the minor shirk or
hidden shirk is a showing off, this is
something that is serious and it has various
levels, it has various levels, the evilest or
the worst level of riya is that you
do riya in iman, showing off in iman,
meaning you do not believe in Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala but you show as you
are a believer as the hypocrites and the
munafiqeen did as Allah says in the Quran
amongst the people are those who say we
believed in Allah and we believed in the
last day in reality they are not the
believers and something very important here we need
to understand this these ayat were revealed in
the Quran when when the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam was alive yes and we believe according
to the hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam that was the best time in the
history of mankind and Allah says in that
best time they were people who said they
said we believed in Allah and we believe
in the last day but in reality they
are not believers if this is something that
happened in that time then what about this
time 14 plus 100 years after the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam do we now have people
within our society who claim that they are
believers but in reality they are not believe
although it is not for me and you
to point out anyone or to blame anyone
without any clear cut evidence to say that
so and so is hypocrite and but the
reality is that these people always exist they
were during the time of the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam and they continued and even today
and it is going to get worse and
worse there will be people who say claim
to be Muslims but in reality they are
not Muslims in fact they do not believe
in Allah they do not believe in the
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam they do not believe
in the Quran they do not believe in
the Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
they do not believe in the last day
but they claim to be Muslims they claim
to be believers Allah also says whenever
these people when they meet with the believers
they say we are believers as well we
are also Muslims we are believers and here
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala used the word
Iman that when they show off and when
they pretend and when they claim they do
not say we are Muslims rather they say
we are believers and the level of Iman
the level of belief is higher than the
level of Islam and submission to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala so they do not say
we are Muslims rather say we are believers
but in reality they are not believers and
when they go in the privacy and exclusion
when they go towards their their chiefs when
they meet with their own people they say
in reality we are with you we were
making fun of the believers we were actually
deceiving them and Allah says they try to
deceive the believers and they try to deceive
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala but in reality
they are deceiving themselves without realizing they do
not realize verily the hypocrites they
try to deceive Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
they try to cheat by claiming to be
Muslim but in reality they do they are
not Muslims they do not believe in Allah
they do not believe in the Prophet they
do not believe in the Quran they do
not believe in the last day they do
not believe in the hadith of the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
keeps them busy with that with their deception
so they continue doing this but in reality
they are deceiving themselves they're not doing any
harm to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala rather
they are harming themselves so this is the
worst type of riya and showing off and
such people they do not simply claim to
be believers or Muslims they mix with Muslims
as I just mentioned they sit with believers
they mix with them they may trade with
them they even attend the masajid with them
they pray along with them again this is
something that happened during the time of the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Abdullah ibn Ubayy
and other people within his circle all of
them they were munafiqeen they used to pray
in masjid an-nabwi that we call it
as haram the second haram the second most
sacred place in the religion of Islam behind
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and the
imam is who muhammadur rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam the best of mankind he is the
imam and they are praying behind the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam yet they are munafiqeen
which means which indicates what that such people
always exist they do exist in this age
and time they do exist in our masajid
and we should accept that fact as I
said without pointing out without blaming anyone it
is not for me or you to say
you are hypocrite and you are munafiqeen you
are kafir no no I'm not saying this
but the reality is that these people do
exist if they existed during the best time
during the life of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam in madina al-munawwara praying behind
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and Allah
made the mention of them in the Quran
then we must believe that these people exist
and unfortunately their aim is what their aim
is to cause harm to the religion of
Islam and to cause harm to the Muslims
and they always did that throughout the history
throughout the history and even this age and
time and unfortunately because of the power of
the media and the social media such people
they pretend to be Muslim they they may
appear with the Muslim ID simply and a
person may grow a beard may wear a
thobe and attend the masjid in fact he's
a kafir he's a kafir he does not
believe in Allah he does not believe in
the religion of Islam but he prays he
stays he stands in the row along with
the Muslim but you don't know and these
people have always caused harm or they try
to damage the religion of Islam that is
why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when he
mentioned such people he exposed them they were
the ones who tried to damage the cause
of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam they
tried to harm the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam even physically they tried to harm they
tried to cause disunity amongst the Muslims they
tried to cause disunity amongst the Muslims and
these people are doing the same even in
our time when they are on their own
they used to sway the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam they used to speak ill about
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and whenever
they would come in the gathering with the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam along with the
companions they used to swear they used to
say we are believers Allah exposed them in
the Quran by revealing a complete surah that
is named as surah al munafiqoon these munafiqeen
they come to you and they say we
testify that is used for emphasis in a
verily without a doubt they say we testify
that without a doubt verily you are the
messenger of Allah and Allah say Allah knows
that you are his messenger and Allah testifies
that verily these hypocrites are the liars so
these people they try to cause harm to
the religion of Islam and they try to
damage the the cause of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala and they try to cause disunity
amongst the Muslims this is what they did
during the time of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam as Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
has made the mention of many of their
characteristics or evil actions in surah al tawbah
one of the names of surah al tawbah
is that this surah is the surah that
is known as faduha the surah that humiliates
the hypocrites and the munafiqeen if you were
to go through the translation of surah al
tawbah one after the other actions or the
characteristics or evil acts they did and one
of them was that Allah says a
part of their agenda was to establish even
masjid to establish masjid in order to cause
disunity amongst the Muslims amongst the believers their
purpose or the intention was not to worship
Allah because they did not believe in Allah
they did not believe in the Prophet in
the first place that they wanted to establish
masjid and on top of this they invited
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam to be
there for the opening of their masjid look
at the agenda this is how these people
play and unfortunately this continues this continued through
the history happened through the history so we
as a believers the true believers we need
to be vigilant and we need to be
wise enough to understand the agenda of such
people and we got to be very very
careful within our community amongst us are such
people who are trying to cause damage to
our cause to the deen of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala and they try to give
a bad reputation or sometimes they even spy
they may spy and they attend the masajid
so we got to be very careful so
this is the first type of in Iman
and because this is the worst type of
this is the worst type of showing off
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has mentioned in
the Quran on the day of judgment they
will be suffering from the worst type of
punishment the hypocrites they will be in the
lowest level within the fire of * within
the * they will be in the in
the deepest level because such people deserve the
one who does not believe and he's open
someone who is not someone who is not
a believer someone who does not believe in
Allah in the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
in the Quran they are open they they
may cause they may try to cause some
harm not every single non-believer disbeliever tries
to cause harm to Islam or the Muslim
but there are some who try and this
is the agenda but at least they are
open and you know them you know them
but the hypocrite the munafiqeen are those who
pretend to be Muslims and yet they cause
more harm because they go in they go
into the masajid they may go into the
Islamic schools they may go into the community
and to understand everything and then they report
back to the authorities in order to cause
harm to Muslims unfortunately so Allah says such
hypocrites they are in the deepest level within
the within the * and you you will
not find any helper for them on the
day of judgment so this is the worst
type of riya the second level of riya
is very similar to this that the person
does not believe in Allah or he does
not believe in the religion of Islam yet
he he may perform some acts of worship
as I just mentioned the the munafiqeen during
the time of the Prophet ﷺ and the
question here is why would they attend the
masjid why would they pray behind the Prophet
ﷺ even the Prophet ﷺ knew Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala had revealed to the Prophet
ﷺ the Prophet ﷺ knew that those people
are the hypocrites and the munafiqeen and many
Muslims within their society they also knew them
so why were they doing so why were
they attending the the masjid of the Prophet
ﷺ why were they praying what was the
motive what was the reason right yeah praise
is one of them yeah to get protection
yes so they had various purposes Allah has
mentioned all of them in the Quran to
be saved from the harm of the Muslims
and in order to deceive in order to
cause damage and harm to the Muslims and
the religion of Islam ultimately their purpose was
what not to please Allah rather worldly gain
worldly gain so they used to worship but
in reality that was not worship so the
the salah they prayed in the masjid it
is what not salah because they did not
believe in the salah they did not believe
in the salah they even gave in charity
but they thought that charity is a burden
as Allah says in surah al-mujadila what
these people did whenever the companions of the
Prophet ﷺ whenever they would gather around the
Prophet ﷺ to learn the religion of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala these hypocrites they tried
to attend those circles along with the companions
and they would ask the Prophet ﷺ unnecessary
questions with the ill intention of causing some
kind of doubts amongst the Muslims as Allah
says in surah Ali Imran so
one of their game or their agenda or
their trick was that they would attend the
gathering with the companions they would say we
are believer and then by evening they say
no no we are not content with the
religion of Islam we don't think the religion
of Islam is right or the is the
correct religion okay so they would leave the
religion of Islam but they were not Muslim
in first place and the agenda was in
order to cause and cause doubts in the
hearts of those who have newly converted to
Islam and they would ask some necessary question
as an unnecessary question as well so much
so that they would not give chance to
the companions of the Prophet ﷺ to learn
the religion or to ask the question to
the Prophet ﷺ and then some of the
companions they kind of complained to the Prophet
ﷺ that these people they always come into
the gathering and they do not give us
chance to learn or to ask you question
Allah ﷻ revealed an ayah in the Quran
Allah says and some even say they would
come to the Prophet ﷺ and they would
say I would like to have a secret
conversation with you can I have a couple
of minutes as people do and I have
a couple of minutes with you and they
would take up all the time of the
Prophet ﷺ and they would not leave any
time for the Prophet ﷺ to discuss any
other matter with his companions to waste time
basically so Allah revealed the ayah all you
who believe whenever you want to have a
separate private conversation with the Prophet ﷺ every
single time you have to give something in
charity in order to have a private discussion
with the Prophet ﷺ that is going to
be something that is going to purify you
and your intention obviously then it became difficult
for some of the poor companions and particularly
the muhajireen and then Allah ﷻ lifted this
order and it was forgiven but the purpose
of this revelation was to make it difficult
for the hypocrites because it was hard for
them to give anything because they did not
believe in the pleasure of Allah ﷻ they
did not believe in charity Allah says in
the Quran Allah says say to them say
to these hypocrites you spend with the pleasure
of your heart meaning you know willingly or
unwillingly Allah is not going to accept from
you anyway Allah says they whatever they spend
minor or major little or a lot whatever
they spent Allah did not accept that from
them why because they did not believe in
Allah they did not believe in the Prophet
ﷺ so these people they used to give
in charity as well they used to pray
they used to give in charity they used
to spend their wealth but Allah ﷻ did
not accept anything from them because whenever they
gave they gave in order to pretend or
to show off that they are Muslim but
in reality they were not Muslims so they
did show off in their iman and also
riya and showing off in the actions in
good deeds such as salah such as giving
in charity such as going out along with
the Prophet ﷺ for jihad so they did
all of these good actions but not believing
in those good actions rather in order to
show off so this is the second worst
type of riya or showing off the third
one is that the person does believe in
Allah ﷻ he does believe in the Quran
he believes in other good deeds but he
performs a good deed and the motive behind
that good deed is nothing other than riya
and showing off that is in the this
is the third level of riya third level
of showing off the person gives in charity
say 100 pound and the sole purpose or
the sole motive behind giving that 100 pound
is to show off to show people that
a person is so generous and it can
be any act of worship it can be
in salah can be can be the restoration
of the Quran saying something uttering anything or
doing anything it can be any act of
worship it can be any good deed so
if the motive behind the good deed or
the good action is riya then there is
no reward for such action that is why
the Prophet ﷺ said whoever
offered the salah and the motive behind the
salah is show off and riya he has
committed shirk and whoever gives in charity and
the motive behind giving the charity is riya
and showing off then he has committed shirk
and whoever fasts with the intention of showing
off he has committed shirk which when it
is shirk then obviously there is no reward
at all then the entire good action or
that act of worship is completely destroyed and
it has gone into vain and there is
no reward whatsoever for that action so this
is third worst level of riya and the
fourth one is that you perform a good
deed you conduct a good action for the
sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala but
while doing it shaitan whispers in your mind
of showing off and the shaitan because shaitan
is your enemy and tries to destroy your
deeds and you while you are performing that
good action you have that riya while performing
that good action and what is the ruling
with regards to such action initially at the
start your intention is to please Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala but once you have started
then shaitan whisper in your mind the riya
and then you show off would you be
rewarded for that action you have iman you
started with good intention for the sake of
Allah okay what if the person renews his
intention okay
let me give you an example you made
a wudu and you stood up to offer
the salah your intention is to please Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala while offering the salah
you saw that there are some people who
are looking at you you want to prolong
the qiyam okay and the intention shaitan whispering
you initially your intention was correct you started
your salah and during your salah you prolong
your qiyam long ruku long sajda long tashahud
okay and you complete the salah like this
would you be rewarded for that okay what
if you renew your intention within the salah
yes okay so the scholars have discussed that
and the ulama have said that as long
as you begin the good deed with good
intention with pure intention and then while you
are doing this while you are performing good
deed it is very very difficult for you
to be saved from the whispers of shaitan
this is a reality this is a reality
and that is why some of the scholars
such as Sufiana Thauri they've said the most
difficult part in the religion of islam is
to keep my intent to keep to keep
my intention pure all the time i always
struggled it's very difficult it's not easy we
all struggle with whether we accept or we
don't accept the shaitan whispers our mind because
he's our enemy so shaitan plays various tricks
and he tries to cause obstacles in your
way when it comes to performing good deeds
okay the first few obstacles you have defeated
shaitan he wanted to prevent you from believing
in allah you destroyed you believed in allah
and then you enter in the fault of
islam shaitan whispering your mind as long as
you stay within the fold of islam it
doesn't matter even when even you pray you
don't pray as long as you believe in
allah you believe in the prophet you believe
in the quran it's okay you are within
the fold of islam jannah is for you
eventually you're going to enter into jannah all
these whispers even if i don't pray even
if i don't recite quran even if i
don't do any good deed even if i
commit major major sins as long as i
do not i'm going to enter into jannah
all these whispers so you stay many muslims
like this they stay they call themselves i'm
not practicing but i'm muslim not practicing muslim
okay they are deceived by shaitan okay so
they are happy with this but for those
who have defeated shaitan on this stage as
well okay no i want i would like
to practice the religion of islam i would
like to offer my five daily prayers then
shaitan is not going to leave you alone
because he is the one who took an
oath when allah subhanahu wa ta'ala cursed
him he said he said to allah i
will definitely come to your slaves from the
from their front from their back from their
right from their left i will try to
attack them from all over the place from
from every single angle okay so shaitan is
not going to leave you alone so he
tries to destroy your good deeds by causing
these kind of whisper by casting these these
type of whispers once you have started doing
a good action a good deed then when
you suffer from this you need to straight
away renew your intention you need to renew
your intention a companion asked the prophet a
question and oh my senior of allah sometime
i begin salah with good intention in order
to please allah then shaitan whispered in my
mind that people are looking at me and
people are observing my salah so what should
i do shall i cut off my qiyam,
ruku, sujood and rush into the salah so
that i avoid and i i protect myself
from falling into minor shirk from falling into
riyah the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said to
him what no prolong your qiyam this is
another trick of shaitan this is another trick
of shaitan because you began your act of
worship your good deed with good intention in
order to please allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
that is why it is important that you
purify your intention before beginning a good deed
the start has to be pure the start
has to be pure and if the start
is pure then while you are doing good
deed shaitan will definitely will definitely whisper in
your mind and will try to cause that
riyah in your heart in your mind okay
you renew your intention okay and you know
each one of us we know ourselves better
than anyone else so if this is the
case while you're offering the salah if shaitan
whispering in your mind no no no don't
continue with long recitation with beautiful recitation rather
you know shorten the salah shorten your qiyam
shorten your ruku and sujood in order to
save yourself from riyah no here you attack
shaitan you retaliate and you attack shaitan by
prolonging qiyam long qiyam long ruku long sujood
so that you defeat shaitan at the same
time you keep renewing your intention within the
salah within the salah okay if you continue
like this shaitan keeps whispering your mind the
riyah and you keep renewing your intention you
will be rewarded inshallah for your good action
and your action will be accepted by allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala because you try your
best to fight against shaitan but if you
began your good deed with pure intention and
then you were led astray by shaitan shaitan
whispering in your mind and the rest of
your action rest of your good deed was
all based on showing off then the complete
good deed is gone it is destroyed there
will be no reward okay so that is
why renewing intention constantly is very very important
whenever you give in charity renew your intention
whenever you recite quran renew your intention whenever
you do the zikr of allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala renew your intention whenever you make
dua renew your intention many people they don't
uh they don't make dua by raising hands
why because they think if i raise hands
sitting in the masjid i have arrived in
the masjid half an hour 15 minutes before
salah i have time but i don't raise
my hands making dua because what because shaitan
whispering his mind no no if you raise
your hands people around you they're gonna say
you know they may think you are so
pious and righteous i want to avoid that
showing off no this is a trick of
shaitan shaitan shaitan wants to deprive you from
one of the best times in which the
dua is answered as the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam said uh uh that the dua that
is done between the adhan and iqama is
never rejected allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accepts
that dua and another solution for that for
that type of riya is that you try
to perform that good deed that particular good
deed secretly as well as much as you
can as i just gave you an example
when it comes to the matter of dua
in order to keep yourself safe from from
riya and showing off and from the whisper
of shaitan you should try to make dua
when you are on your own in your
privacy so if you have a habit if
you have a daily routine and practice of
making dua by raising your hands when you
are on your own say in the latter
part of the night before salah after salah
when you're at home whenever you get a
time at your work you raise your hand
and you make dua if you have the
habit then it will be difficult for shaitan
to whisper in your mind the riya because
that has become your habit your normal because
this is something that you normally do when
we come to the masjid in order to
offer our salah in congregation is very few
people may be suffering from riya that i'm
going to the masjid so i'm not going
to the masjid because people gonna look at
me and i it may be seen as
riya and showing off no why because we
know it is important and we it is
our practice normal routine and practice so it
means the same action the same good deed
you do in your privacy okay when people
are not uh looking at you likewise when
it comes to reciting the quran many reciters
many reciters they suffer from showing off and
riya okay and doesn't mean that you stop
reciting quran in public no rather you increase
the recitation of the quran on your own
time when you are on your own in
your privacy if he that is the case
then for example you recited one entire juz
in your privacy and it is your daily
routine and then reciting few verses in public
shaitan will be defeated and shaitan is not
going to get any chance to whisper in
your mind the riya and showing off or
it will be very little chance for shaitan
to play that trick okay so that is
the solution so that is another type of
riya another the fifth type of riya is
that you have done something good from beginning
until the end for the sake of allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala can there be riya
afterwards can there be afterwards yes it can
be something you did for the sake of
allah subhana when you did it you did
it for the sake of allah but later
you go out and you tell people later
you go out and you tell people that
you know i have done this i've done
that i've performed these many nawafil i have
recited these many examples of the quran i
have made these many type of the many
times dua and i've done you know such
a good deed and this and that or
you give in charity and you go out
and you say you know i gave these
many hundred pounds or this and okay so
this is this is a riya after you
have completed your actions okay so for that
what is the ruling on this what is
the ruling is your good deed is going
to be destroyed because of riya yes
so the answer is that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is just because when you did
the good deed you did that with pure
intention intention allah is not going to destroy
that but the reward may discontinue the reward
may discontinue for example you set up a
direct debit in order to sponsor an orphan
or to help the house of allah or
to any good cause and your intention is
pure when you did it you did it
for the sake of allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala you have been doing it for the
past entire year you never mentioned to anyone
or you never mentioned with the intention of
showing off you are receiving the reward but
then shaitan will spray your mind okay and
you go out and you start telling people
in order to show off then the reward
would stop there okay until the point when
you were doing it or when you did
it for the sake of allah you will
be rewarded for that that is why it
is also important what do we learn from
this we learn from this is that not
only performing good deeds for the sake of
allah and even after you have done good
deeds and by the help of allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala you try your best to
conceal them and to hide them to hide
them as much as you can that is
why there is a great reward in concealing
your good deeds not only performing your good
deeds in privacy rather after you have performed
you try to conceal it and hide it
for the sake of allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala and note it down such deeds will
be your one of the biggest helpers in
times of hardships and difficulties such deeds would
be very very helpful for you in times
of calamities and hardships as we know from
the hadith of those three people who were
stuck in the cave they did those three
good deeds solely for the sake of allah
they never mentioned to anyone and they were
in the very difficult situation and they made
dua to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala by
making the mention of those good deeds that
they had done for the sake of allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala and allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala answered their dua so the scholars
and the ulama always say that obviously we
do a lot of good deeds alhamdulillah by
the tawfiq of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
in public but you should always try to
have some good deeds only between you and
allah there must be some secrets between you
and allah whether it is in the form
of reciting quran doing the dhikr of allah
or giving in charity or showing any kind
of kindness or showing mercy towards someone any
good deed that something that is between you
and allah no one knows at all at
all even the closest person to you your
mother your father your wife your husband your
children your son daughter your brothers no one
knows it something that is between you and
allah only and whenever you are stuck in
a difficult situation and you afflicted by a
hardship and calamity you raise your hands make
dua to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and
you make them you made the mention of
that good deed in your dua allah will
answer your dua and we find many hadiths
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam encouraging us
to try to conceal our good deeds such
as the hadith that is collected by imam
al-bukhari ma muslim rahimahullah on the 30th
of abu hurair radiyallahu ta'ala that the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said on the day
of judgment there will be seven types of
people who will be granted the shade of
allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and amongst them
is the person the person gives in charity
and he gives in charity so secretly that
he gives away from his he gives away
by his right hand and his left hand
does not know likewise within the same hadith
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said a person
who remembers allah in his privacy in his
exclusion and his eyes are flooded because when
you remember allah on your own in your
privacy that is more beloved to allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala than remembering allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala in public and this is one
of the reasons that the night prayer and
particularly in the latter part of the night
when you offer the salah in the latter
part of the night your dua is answered
because you are closer to allah everyone is
asleep and you are having secret conversation with
allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala answers your dua and one
of the reasons is that this is something
there's a very little chance for you to
show off and no one is seeing you
and it is not easy for you to
get up from your bed and make wudu
and stand before allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
if you do so it means you are
doing for the sake of allah in order
to please allah subhanahu wa ta'ala which
also shows us that in order to save
us and protect us from riyah we need
to seek all the means by which we
can please allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and
protect ourselves from riyah anything that can potentially
lead to riyah we should try to avoid
it close all those doors okay let me
give you an example some people may not
like it you would like to go for
umrah or hajj try to keep a secret
try to keep a secret you don't need
to take selfies while on heathrow airport wearing
ihram i'm sitting in the plane now and
now in front of and i ask someone
request someone please take my picture while i'm
raising my hands in front of and then
what is the purpose you got to ask
yourself you actually no matter how many times
you say that i'm not doing it for
the you know in order to show off
that this is how shaitan plays tricking this
is how shaitan plays with your mind you
think that shaitan when shaitan whispers in your
mind the riyah is going to make you
believe that you are showing off no shaitan
when he whispers riyah in your mind he
teaches you that he teaches you he teaches
you the justification as well shaitan gives you
justification as well this this is how shaitan
tricks you okay so try to close all
those doors and all the avenues and the
channels that can potentially lead towards riyah okay
so this this this is uh the protection
okay lastly uh something that can potentially lead
to riyah we can be seen as riyah
is that when people praise you because of
a good action you have done or good
deed you have performed you become so happy
Allah says in the quran about the munafiqeen
لا تحسبن الذين يفرحون بما أتوا ويحبون أن
يحمدوا بما لم يفعلوا فلا تحسبنهم بمفازة من
العذاب do not consider those people يفرحون بما
أتوا ويحبون أن يحمدوا that they become happy
because of their good actions and they love
people they love people to praise them Allah
says فلا تحسبنهم بمفازة من العذاب don't think
that such people are going to be saved
from the punishment of Allah okay so if
people praise you because of your actions and
you become so happy and you go out
and you even tell people that you know
these many people have praised me these people
are happy with me and this and that
then this is another way that can another
avenue that can lead potentially towards riyah okay
so what do you do in this case
what do you do in this case you
ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for acceptance
you ask Allah subhan if someone praises you
because of your actions because of your good
akhlaq because of your charity because of any
good deed that you have done then ask
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to accept it
and ask Allah that their good deed is
not destroyed because of your happiness happiness is
something that is natural natural a person came
to the prophet and he said oh messenger
of Allah he said oh messenger of Allah
what if a person does a good deed
and people praise him because of that good
deed the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam answered he
said if if people praise him because of
his good action that this is mediate glad
tiding from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala okay
it can be seen in good way as
long as you yourself do not want people
to praise you that is not your intention
okay and you're not looking for people to
praise you you put something good on social
media and you don't keep checking how many
people have liked and you don't keep checking
how many people have commented okay because that
that can destroy it to be honest it
can destroy because that can lead towards riyah
okay so if people have praised you then
alhamdulillah okay say alhamdulillah and ask Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala to give you tawfiq and
ability to continue with that good deed and
may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept and
finally the dua it is very important never
ever forget the dua that Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi
wasallam has taught and the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam taught this dua to Abu Musa al
-Ashari radiyallahu ta'ala anhu he said to
Abu Musa and another narration is mentioned that
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said to Abu
Bakr Siddiq the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said
shirk amongst you is hidden
and more hiding or secret than the the
movement of the ant okay the Abu Bakr
Siddiq radiyallahu ta'ala he said oh messenger
of Allah how can that be a shirk,
shirk is to associate partners with Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
repeated he said shirk referring to riyah and
showing off he said the shirk is more
hidden than the movement of the ant and
in order to safeguard in order to protect
your good deeds from showing off and from
being destroyed you should say the following dua
Allahumma inni aoodhu bika oh Allah I seek
your refuge from what that I commit a
shirk I associate partner with you while I
know while I know that I'm committing shirk
wallah save me from such shirk wallah and
I seek your forgiveness for what I do
not know for what I do not know
meaning that the shirk that I may commit
unknowingly and that is the shirk that is
riyah riyah comes you have riyah and showing
off in your mind without knowing without even
realizing oh as I just said but you
know you have riyah but you try to
justify it okay unknowingly so you make this
dua Allahumma inni aoodhu bika oh Allah I
seek your refuge and your protection from committing
shirk with you while I know and I
seek your forgiveness from what I do not
know the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam used to
say another dua although the chain of narration
is weak but the meaning of the dua
is correct so that dua can be read
Allahumma tahhir qalbi minan nifaq wa amali minar
riyah oh Allah purify my heart from nifaq
and hypocrisy wa amali minar riyah oh Allah
purify all my actions from showing off and
the dua is long so you can make
dua in your own words okay in your
salah whenever you do a good deed ask
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to accept it
and try to hide it and ask Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala to save you from
riyah and showing off may Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala accept our good deeds whatever uh
good we have said it is by the
permission of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala through
subhanahu wa ta'ala if I have said
anything wrong that is from me and shaitan
may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us
from the evil attack of shaitan and may
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept our good
deeds and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
grant us ikhlas and sincerity in our actions
in our saying in our statements