What Is Considered as Show-Off in the Prayer?
Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel
Question
Is that show-off if you add something in prayer and you do it, so someone is not angry with you?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate
It will not be considered showing off (riya) but a weakness we humans sometimes make, but nothing to worry about. It is human nature. A person realizing that his action is or can be ostentation or showing off is an acknowledgment of his humility.
Apart from your fard (obligatory) prayers, perform all or most of your other actions privately. We are the shepherds of our hearts; we do not worry about others; we know what is inside. Optional prayers, Quran recitation, and remembrances (dhikr) are excellent works to do in private, train yourself to do things in secret, so when something is done publicly, it is just you and your pure, sincere action.
Make the following du’a regularly:
Al-Hasan reported: Umar, (Allah be pleased with him) used to say:
اللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْ عَمَلِي صَالِحًا وَاجْعَلْهُ لَكَ خَالِصًا وَلَا تَجْعَلْ لِأَحَدٍ فِيهِ شَيْئًا
“O Allah, make my deeds righteous, make them purely for Your sake, and do not let anyone else have a share of them.” [Ahhmad ibn Hanbal, Kitab al-Zuhd]
One of the duas (supplications) of the Sh. Abul-Hasan al-Shadhili, (Allah have mercy on him) was O Allah, I ask You for faith (iman) with your Protection, a faith through which my heart finds rest from concern for sustenance or fear of men.
Keep this in mind, do not allow your mind and heart to fall into Shaytan’s whispers and what others will think or say.
Check these links:
Is It Permissible to Show off If It’s Not Done Out of Contempt? – SeekersGuidance
Showing off Archives – SeekersGuidance
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I pray this helps with your question.
[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Mawlana Ilyas Patel is a traditionally-trained scholar who has studied within UK, India, Pakistan, Syria, Jordan and Turkey.
He started his early education in UK. He went onto complete hifz of Qur’an in India, then enrolled into an Islamic seminary in UK where he studied the secular and Alimiyyah sciences. He then travelled to Karachi, Pakistan.
He has been an Imam in Rep of Ireland for a number of years. He has taught hifz of the Qur’an, Tajwid, Fiqh and many other Islamic sciences to both children and adults onsite and online extensively in UK and Ireland. He was teaching at a local Islamic seminary for 12 years in the UK where he was a librarian and a teacher of Islamic sciences.
He currently resides in UK with his wife. His personal interest is love of books and gardening.
