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

Read the Table of Contents of Heart Therapy

Read Part 9 (a): Riya and its Types  (Riya with respect to One’s Intention)

Riya with respect to the Essence of the Act of Worship or its Qualities

Riya in the essence of the Acts of Worship

This is when the person does the act of worship solely due to his Riya’:

1. Riya’ in the essence of Iman such a person openly exhibits His Islam whilst there is no Iman in his heart. This is the worst type of ostentation and, in reality, this person is a hypocrite.

   The punishment for such a person is that he is promised an eternity in the lowest level of Hell- may Allah protect us.

   Indeed, the hypocrites will be in the lowest level of the fire and you will not find for them a helper.

2. Riya’ in the Obligatory acts of worship such a person only performs his obligatory prayers in the presence of people, when left to himself, he does not pray. Likewise, the one who only gives zakat or fasts in Ramadan when people see him. Such a person’s focus is the pleasure of others above that of Allah’s and he fears their judgment and thoughts more than what he fears Allah.
3. Riya’ in the Supererogatory acts of Worship: This person is constant in his acts of obligatory worship and he does these regardless of whether people witness them or not, however, with regards to any supererogatory acts of worship that he performs then he only does them within sight of others.

Riya in the Outward Performance of the Act

When a person shows off, not in the essence of the act of worship (i.e. he would have performed the action even if no-one was watching him) but in the outward performance of the act of worship. This means that the person does the action, in essence, for Allah. However, he beautifies his action in front of others out of ostentation. This is also of three categories:

1. Displaying Ostentation through a deed the abandoning of which constitutes a deficiency in the act of worship. An example could be when a person who intends to shorten his prostration or bowing during his prayer such that the prayer becomes deficient by his shortening them. However, what stops him from doing that is that people are watching him so he improves his bowing and prostration. This is also a form of prohibited ostentation because it gives precedence to the creation over the Creator, but it is less serious than ostentation through the principles of entire supererogatory acts.
2. Displaying ostentation through a deed the leaving of which does not constitute a deficiency, but if a person does that deed, it is considered to complete and perfect his act of worship, ssuch as prolonging the bowing and prostration, and reading more from the Qur’an than he normally does.
3. Displaying ostentation through the acts which do not belong to the supererogatory category such as arriving at the Masjid well before other people, standing in the first row during the prayer.

These are, then, the degrees of ostentation which relate to the objects through which ostentation is undertaken. Some of them are worse than others; but all are blameworthy.

Read the next Part 9 (c): Riya’ and its Types (Riya’ with respect to why someone is showing off)