Part 9 (a): Riya’ and its Types- Heart Therapy

Riya’ is of many types and can be considered from different perspectives, a number of them include:

Riya’ with respect to One’s Intention

Intending only other than Allah: The person solely intends other than Allah in his worship. As such were he to be left alone, he would not care to fulfill the obligation.
Example:

The one who prays only when he is with other people; if they were not there, he would not pray. He may even pray without Wodhu, as his sole aim was to show the people and not to receive reward from Allah. Likewise, the one who gives charity out of fear of being rebuked if he did not do so falls into this category. If it was left to him, he would not give any charity; in fact, he does’nt intend any reward.

This is the greatest type of Riya’ and the person who falls into this category is earning the wrath of Allah and his deeds will be in vain.

Weak Intention seeking Allah’s reward, real motivation is mainly from the praise of others: The person does intend reward from Allah but this intention is weak in him. Instead, what motivates his worship is people watching him. So if he was alone, his aim of receiving reward from Allah would not motivate him enough to produce his act of worship. However, if he did not have this weak intention of pleasing Allah, his ostentation would prompt him to perform the action.
This type of person is not far off from the previous type: he will be earning the wrath of Allah and his deeds are rendered void.

Desire for praise and reward are equal to each other: His intention for reward and his intention to show off both are equal in weight. So if one of these intentions were not present, he would not perform the act of worship. In other words, both intentions combined produce this act of worship. Looking at the texts of the Qur’an and Sunnah it seems that, again, this person’s deeds are in vain and he will be earning Allah’s wrath.

Desire for praise, i.e. Riya is less that one’s desire for reward: His intention for showing off is less than his intention for seeking reward from Allah. That is, if there are no people present, he would still be motivated by his correct intention to perform the deed. Conversely, his ostentation alone would not produce his act of worship. This type of person will be rewarded for the essence of his action- and Allah knows best- but his reward will be deficient and or he is liable to be punished according to the weight of ostentation in his action.