The Danger of Riyaa (Hidden Shirk) - Shaykh Aqeel Mahmood

The Danger of Riyaa (Hidden Shirk)

Alhamdulillah, we praise Him, we ask His help and we ask His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our actions. Whom Allah guides, none will misguide him, and whom He misguides, none will guide him.

And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.

O you who believe, fear Allah as He should be feared, and do not die except as Muslims.

O you people, fear your Lord, Who created you from one soul. And He created from her her husband. And He spread among them many men and women. And fear Allah, with whom you ask for mercy. Indeed, Allah is ever watching over you.

O you who believe, fear Allah and say the righteous word. It will correct your deeds and forgive your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has won a great victory.

The Hadith of the Three on the Day of Judgment

The hadith says that the first people to be held to account on the Day of Judgment will be a man who is a shaheed in this world. This person will be brought forth on the Day of Judgment. And he will be reminded of the favors of Allah upon him. And he will acknowledge those favors.

And Allah will say to him, "What did you do in this life?" And the man will say, "I fought for You until I was made a shaheed." Allah will say, "You have lied. Rather you fought so that the people will say this man is a brave man." And some people did say this. Then he will be taken by his face and he will be dragged face first until he is thrown into the hellfire.

And then another man will be brought forth. This man sought knowledge and taught knowledge. And he was somebody who recited the Quran. And again, he will be reminded of the favors of Allah. And he will acknowledge those favors. And then he will be asked by Allah, "What did you do?" And the man will say, "I sought knowledge and I taught and I recited the Quran for Your sake, O Allah." And Allah will say, "You have lied. Rather you sought knowledge and you recited the Quran so that the people will say what a knowledgeable man he is, what a nice voice he has." And some people did say this. And then the same thing will be commanded for him — that he will be dragged face first until he is thrown into the hellfire.

And then a third man will be brought forth. This man, as the Messenger of Allah said, found no avenue by which he could give charity except that he would give charity. And Allah will likewise remind him of His favors. And he will acknowledge those favors. And then he will be asked, "What did you do?" And he will say, "O Allah, there was no way in which I could give charity for Your sake except that I gave charity." And again Allah will say, "You have lied. Rather you gave charity so that the people will say what a generous man he is." And some people did say this. Then he will be taken and he will be dragged face first until he is thrown into the hellfire.

(Sahih Muslim, Book 33, Hadith 4923)

What is Riyaa?

This hadith, brothers and sisters, shows us the dangers of riyaa, which is the act of showing off with regards to somebody's good deeds. And it was also called hidden shirk by the Messenger of Allah.

And Allah speaks about riyaa in the Quran — this act of showing off, doing deeds for other than the sake of Allah. Allah says:

O you who believe, don't invalidate your charity by reminders and injury — like the person who gives charity just to show the people that he is giving charity. He is showing off. And he doesn't believe in Allah and the Last Day. Because if he believed in Allah, then he would know that Allah is ever-knowing, all-seeing, all-watching, all-hearing. Allah knows our intentions. If he truly believed in Allah, he wouldn't be showing off when it came to his good deeds. And also the Day of Judgment — if he truly believed in the Day of Judgment, he would know that there will come a day where he will be accountable for his actions. There will be a day where he will realize that those deeds that he was doing for other than Allah's sake are invalid. They're not going to benefit him. If he truly understood this, then he wouldn't have been doing these deeds for other than the sake of Allah.

And Allah gives an example. The example of this person is like the example of a stone upon which there is dust. And then rain comes on this stone and the dust is dispersed, leaving the rock exposed. Just like the person on the Day of Judgment who thinks he has good deeds, but those good deeds in reality are worthless. They're going to be exposed — just like the dust was removed from the stone, his deeds are also going to be exposed on the Day of Judgment and they're going to end up worthless, of no benefit.

Riyaa as an Attribute of the Munafiqeen

And Allah speaks about ar-riyaa and mentions how it is from the attributes of the munafiqeen. Allah speaks about the munafiqeen — the munafiqeen try to deceive Allah, and He ends up deceiving them. When they stand for salah, they stand lazily, only to show the people that they're praying. And they don't remember Allah in the salah except for a small amount.

Cursed are those who pray — those who are neglectful with their salah, those who are only doing it to show other people that they pray. This is from the attributes of the munafiqeen. The munafiqeen are those who, when they do good deeds, they only do it to show other people.

Riyaa as Minor Shirk

The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, told us in a hadith that verily the thing I fear for you the most is minor shirk. And the companions said, "O Messenger of Allah, what is minor shirk? What is shirk al-asghar? What is shirk al-khafi?" And the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, told them:

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 23630)

A person who shows off — Allah on the Day of Judgment will tell that person who used to show off in this world: "Go to those people that you used to show off to in the dunya. And seek your reward from them. See if you will get your reward from those people instead." Because a person wasn't doing things for the sake of Allah.

And so brothers and sisters, we need to be aware and conscious with regards to our ibadah and our worship of Allah — that showing off does not enter into our hearts when we are worshipping Allah.

Ways to Overcome the Disease of Riyaa

Brothers and sisters, we were speaking about the dangers of ar-riyaa — minor shirk — a person who does deeds just to please other people instead of pleasing Allah. And I want to speak about some of the ways in which a person can overcome this illness and disease of the heart of riyaa. What can a person do to ensure that he doesn't fall into the trap of committing this evil act, this sin, this disease of the heart.

1. Seek the Reward of Allah Alone

Number one, brothers and sisters — one should want and love to have the reward from Allah alone. A person, when he does good deeds, his aim and his goal shouldn't be the praise of the people. Regardless of what type of ibadah he's doing — whether he's praying or reciting Quran or giving charity or doing some other good deed — a person's sole intention and objective should be the love of the reward that he will receive from Allah alone. And nobody else. Regardless of what anyone may say or praise the specific act that you may be doing. Our goal ultimately is to earn the reward of Allah.

Whomsoever hopes to meet his Lord, let him do righteous deeds — good deeds — purely for the sake of Allah.

2. Continuously Renew Your Intention

Number two, brothers and sisters — a person needs to continuously renew his intentions when he does acts of worship. It's something which he should be improving and reminding himself of on a continuous basis. It's not a case of hearing this reminder and then just forgetting about it. A person should have the constant intention — renewing his intention, continuously reminding himself that he is doing these things purely for the sake of Allah and nobody else. Purifying one's intention is a way in which a person can prevent himself from committing riyaa.

They were not commanded except to worship Allah purely and sincerely for His religion — meaning for the sake of Allah.

3. Do Not Stop Doing Good Deeds Out of Fear of Showing Off

Number three, brothers and sisters — one should not stop doing good deeds for fear of showing off. A person thinks that people are watching. He's worried about what people might say if he does a specific good deed. Shaytan enters his heart and tells him, "Don't do that good deed," and stops him completely from doing the deed which he intended to do. A person shouldn't stop doing good deeds because of the fear of showing off.

Al-Fudayl ibn 'Iyaad, one of the scholars of the past, he said:

A person doing deeds for the sake of the people is shirk. And a person leaving deeds for the sake of the people is showing off. And sincerity — true sincerity — is when Allah has protected him from both. Neither does he prevent himself from doing good deeds, and neither does he do good deeds for the sake of showing off. Rather he purifies his intention and he has this sincerity, and he does the good deed that he intended to do.

Other scholars would say:

Whoever leaves a deed for fear of committing riyaa has left sincerity and has left the action also. Meaning, if you're questioning whether or not to do a good deed because you're afraid of showing off, then you've left the sincerity that you're supposed to have. Rather, what a person should do is purify his intention, remind himself that he's doing things for the sake of Allah, and then do that good deed.

And the scholars say that if a person is praying and he's concerned that he may be doing it for other than Allah's sake — instead of shortening the salah, which some of us may do, a person may think that he'll speed up his salah and won't prolong it like he intended to because people may say he's prolonging the salah just to show off — a person shouldn't shorten his salah. Rather, the scholars say that if a person is praying and he's concerned about what people might say, instead of shortening his salah he should prolong his salah even more. And if he still has those feelings and those whisperings, he should continue to prolong the salah until he has this surety in his heart that he's doing things for the sake of Allah. But he shouldn't go the opposite direction and shorten his salah.

4. Keep Some Good Deeds Secret Between You and Allah

And the fourth point, brothers and sisters, with regards to ways we can prevent ourselves from committing riyaa — always keep some good deeds between you and Allah. Always have some good deeds that nobody knows about except Allah. Your family members, your friends, your neighbors, people at work — this is something that is between you and Allah. So that by the grace of Allah, it won't be contaminated with riyaa or evil intentions or the feelings he may have in his heart of doing things for other than Allah's sake. He keeps them private. Only Allah will know about them.

If you give charity openly in public, this is something which is good — you encourage others. But Allah says:

And if you hide it and you give it to the poor, then this is better for you. Doing good deeds secretly is something which will help one's sincerity.

And the scholars of the past — how many incidents and stories do we have of them keeping good deeds secret that no one knew about. One of the scholars said:

A person won't taste the sweetness of the Day of Judgment, nor the sweetness of the Akhirah, if his only goal in this world is for people to know who he is. A person who does good deeds and this is his mindset — how is he going to purify his intentions with regards to those good deeds for the sake of Allah?

The Example of Umar ibn al-Khattab

Some of the companions — Talhah, may Allah be pleased with him, mentioned that once he saw Umar ibn al-Khattab during the night, in the darkest part of the night, going to some houses, and he would do this for a number of days. Later, Talhah went into one of those houses, and there was an old lady in the house who wasn't able to walk. He asked about the man who used to come into the house, and she said, "He comes regularly, and he takes care of my things, takes care of my needs, does whatever needs to be done in the house." And Talhah, may Allah be pleased with him, left the house and said to himself, "May your mother be bereaved of you, O Talhah. Will we be going to have the likes of people like Umar after he's gone?" An individual who did these deeds not for the sake of the people — no one even knew what he was doing — but he used to do it for the sake of Allah.

The Example of Ali ibn al-Husayn

It is said that the people of Madinah used to have provisions, and they never knew where those provisions came from. And then, when Ali ibn al-Husayn, the grandson of Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, when he passed away, they realized that he was the one who had been giving them the provisions in secret. No one knew it was him. Because after he passed away, they lost everything that they had — the provisions that they used to receive, they never received anymore. And they realized it was because of Ali ibn al-Husayn, rahimahullah.

So brothers and sisters, there are many many examples of the scholars and the righteous of the past who would keep their good deeds secret. And if a person wants to have sincerity with regards to his good deeds, and have his worship of Allah sincerely for the sake of Allah, then he should try to do some of those good deeds in secret where no one knows about them except Allah.

We ask Allah that He keeps us sincere with regards to our good deeds, and that Allah protects us from riyaa.