Minor Forms of Shirk - Corrected Khutba by
By Yasir Qadhi | 2026-01-07T22:17:54.815758+00:00 | Topic: Iman
Minor Forms of Shirk
By Sheikh Yasir Qadhi
Opening Remarks
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. You know people who study speech giving, they say that after 30-40 minutes the brain basically shuts down and you can't really pay any more attention. So mashallah, IKNA has arranged a two and a half hour marathon and they expect us all to be completely alert and even though mashallah we have a stellar lineup, I know that I'm facing this battle against the 30- 40 minute, if you like, peak.
So if you don't mind, before I begin, I'd like to ask something very, very controversial at a professional convention and that is may I ask all of you to please stand up. All of you, please stand up. We need some blood rushing around. We need some blood getting back to the brain. Stretch out, feel free to stretch out. IKNA will teach you how to exercise, don't worry.
Stretch out, yes, bismillah, good, bismillah. And put your hands on the person next to you as long as they're the same gender. Put your hands on the person next to you and give them a nice brotherly squeeze. We want to squeeze and massage their backs. Make them feel a little bit enthused and energized. Alhamdulillah, okay, you can sit down now.
We have the blood coming up to our brains now, we have a little bit of activity. Okay, alhamdulillah, great. You know, IKNA is always something that I look forward to. It's one of my favorite conventions in all of North America. And I say this with all respect to the panelists on our talk who do represent other organizations as well. They're all great, alhamdulillah, but IKNA does have a special place in my heart for many reasons.
One of them is, of course, the environment, the vibe. I mean, you feel a sense of the ummah here, really like this. Just walking around in the marketplace, seeing the people outside. And one of the reasons that I really like IKNA is because it emphasizes pure Islamic talks on its main session, such as today. And this is something, wallahi, it's a very beautiful thing for IKNA to come and say, look, from 6 to 8 p.m., prime time, Saturday, we're going to discuss Tafsir Rasulul Uqman. This is a very, very positive message and image.
And alhamdulillah, it shows that the character of IKNA, the character of the people here, alhamdulillah, it is a pure and sincere character, and I really appreciate it being told that you have to give a Tafsir of Rasulul Uqman on main stage, and you have to talk about the ayah of Uqman in which he tells his son not to commit shirk. This is a beautiful, beautiful sign, and I'm really thankful to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and then to the people at IKNA for having arranged such a beautiful seminar.
Introduction to Minor Shirk
The topic that's been assigned to me is minor shirk. Minor shirk. And before we talk about what exactly is minor shirk, let us begin by talking about a simple incident that occurred in the life of the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ)
One day, the companions were sitting in the masjid, talking about Dajjal, or the Antichrist, Dajjal. And they were telling whatever they had heard, whatever the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) had told them, and the stories grew into legends, legends grew into myth, as you know how it goes. And the companions became a bit scared, a bit terrified.
When the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) came to see what they were doing, he saw a group of people who looked a little bit scared. So he said, what is the matter? Why are you so terrified? So they said, we were talking about the coming of Dajjal, the coming of the Antichrist. We're talking about the coming of Dajjal, and we were very terrified, we got very worried and concerned.
So the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) said, do you know something that is more terrifying for me, that will afflict you, than the Antichrist himself? Do you know something that terrifies me more than Dajjal? They said, what O Messenger of Allah? He said, minor shirk.
Minor shirk here means polytheism, and by the way I'd like to really thank our translators and interpreters here. They're doing a really difficult job of trying to translate and interpret Arabic phrases, but Wallahi once again this is a shine that we're really appreciative of the efforts that they're doing, and we'll try our best to translate for them as well. And we thank Allah subhana wa ta'ala for this opportunity to be able to help our Muslim brothers and sisters who have these types of hearing problems. It's a high time that we finally opened up the door and we started letting in people of all different backgrounds and all different, if you like, problems and issues.
The Nature of Human Limitations
We will show them that we have our problems and we are disabled in our own ways. Many of us, we think we're fully able, Wallahi we have mental disabilities, that's the fact. And every single one of us is fully abled and also disabled in our own ways. This is how Allah created us. He gives us one thing and He gives other people other things. For every positive that you have, you have a negative. And for every positive somebody else has, he has a negative. And put together we form a complete society.
Definition of Minor Shirk
Now, getting back to the point at hand. So the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) said, I am worried about something more than the Antichrist, and that is minor shirk. And shirk here means polytheism, but in this sense it's not that type of polytheism. So the companion said, what do you mean by minor shirk? What is minor shirk, O Messenger of Allah?
He said, it is when a man stands up to pray, and then he sees somebody looking at him, and so he beautifies the prayer, because he sees somebody looking at him. So the man is praying, he says Allahu Akbar, he's intending Allah (جَلَّ جَلَالُهُ) and then he finds somebody staring at him in the masjid. All of a sudden he straightens his back. And then he begins with tilawah and tajweed
(Quran 1:2), and when he finishes the Fatiha, he gives a long Ameen, and then he knows the guy is looking, so he says, begins with Baqarah,
(Quran 2:1), typically he reads
(Quran 108:1).
But now the guy is looking, so he begins with Surah Baqarah. This is how the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) defined minor shirk, beautifying the prayer. And that is changing your intention, or I should say, corrupting your intention.
Understanding Riya (Showing Off)
This is what minor shirk is. It is to corrupt your intention, and to add others besides Allah, in order to gain praise of other people. So you're praying to Allah, you're not praying to an idol. Had you prayed to an idol, this is major shirk, right? This is not major shirk, this is minor shirk. You're not praying to an idol, you're not prostrating to a false god. You are praying to Allah, you're giving charity for Allah, you're doing what you're doing for Allah, and then your niyyah is corrupted.
Your niyyah transforms, your intention transforms. What does it transform into? To gain a little bit of recognition, a little bit of praise from the people. So there's a dual intention. There is deep down an intention to please Allah, that's why you're praying. But there's also an intention to gain recognition, to gain fame, to make people think that you're holy and pious. And this is what we call showing off, or riya.
The Arabic word is riya, which is showing off. And this is exactly what the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) defined minor shirk to be.
The Severity of Minor Shirk
Now, do realize that excessive minor shirk, continual minor shirk, is actually a sign of a hypocrite, a sign of a hypocrite, a pure munafiq, a hypocrite. Everything that he does, he does for the people. Why does he come to the masjid? He wants to impress the people he's praying. Why does he give charity? He wants the people to think he's giving charity.
If a person's entire life and entire deeds suffer from riya, from showing off, this person is a hypocrite. This person is a hypocrite because his entire worship was dedicated for the sake of his fame, his recognition, his prestige, his ego.
Hadith Qudsi About Partnership
And our Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) said that Allah said, Allah said, I am the entity that is least in need of any association. I don't need partnership. This is a hadith qudsi, the famous hadith. I am in least need of partnership. I don't need to share anything with anybody. So anybody who does something to please me and to please someone other than me, notice this is minor shirk here. He's not doing it for an idol. He's not doing it for some other entity. Anybody who does something to please me and other than me, I leave him to his partner. Let his partner reward him. I'm not going to reward him.
So this man who stands up to pray and he straightens his back and he recites Surah Al-Baqarah and he wants to impress the people, does not realize that his whole salah, his whole prayer will be thrown back at him.
Examples of Minor Shirk
Come time for the fundraiser. Somebody writes that magnificent, massive cheque and his intention for writing the cheque is so that it's announced on the podium, oh mashallah, Dr. so and so gave half a million dollars. Takbeer! Everybody says takbeer. Now his ego is larger than the room in which the takbeer was said.
When this happens, we have a serious problem and that is the problem of minor shirk. That is the problem that the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) said, I am more worried about this problem than the Antichrist.
Why Minor Shirk is More Dangerous Than Dajjal
Do you know why? Even though according to our tradition, the dajjal is the most terrifying event that will ever happen to humanity. When the Antichrist comes, the seas are going to split and the moon is going to, all of these things are going to happen. Why is the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) more scared for the existence of minor shirk than he is for the coming of the Antichrist?
It's an element of pragmatism and reality. The Antichrist, the dajjal is only going to come once and when he comes, may Allah help the people at that time. But until he comes, there will come hundreds of generations, thousands of generations, they're all suffering from this disease, from this calamity of insincerity, of mixing their purity for Allah with wanting the praise of the people. And this is a real and present danger.
So why, oh companions, this is his point, why are you talking about something that is far away when you have a clear and present danger right here and now? And that is insincerity. So he said, I am more worried about insincerity, about showing off, about riyah, about minor shirk than I am about the coming of the dajjal and it's going to be more harmful to my ummah than the coming of the dajjal.
The First People Called to Account on Judgment Day
Now the timing of riyah, when can showing off occur, and before I move on by the way, there's a very powerful hadith that shows us the dangers of showing off, the dangers of showing off your good deeds to other people. And that is a hadith reported in Bukhari and Muslim (Bukhari hadith 2510, Muslim hadith 1905), in which we learn that the very first people who will be called to task on the day of judgment, and the very first people who will be rewarded or punished on the day of judgment, will be the hafidh of the Qur'an, the martyr, the shaheed, and the one who gave up his money all the time for the sake of Allah.
These are the first three people whom Allah will call in front of him. The memorizer, the hafidh of the Qur'an, and the martyr who died in a legitimate expedition, and the charitable person. And as everybody is looking at them, they will think Allah is honoring them, Allah is rewarding them, Allah will give them the first share of the pie of Jannah.
So Allah will ask this hafidh, why did you memorize the Qur'an, and why did you recite at these gatherings and at these masajids, why did you go and do this? So the hafidh will stand up with pride and he will say, oh Allah, I did it to bring honor to your book, I did it for the izzah of the religion, for the glory of the religion, I did it for your sake, oh Allah. And Allah will say, you're lying, and the angels will agree and say you are lying, and the books will be brought forth and it will be clear that his intention, Allah will say, your intention was not to please me, you recited the Qur'an so that people would call you qari, hafidh, shaykh, and they did. So get your reward from them.
And then the second person, the martyr, the one who waged a legitimate expedition, and he gave his life for the cause of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He will be asked, why did you spend your life in the way of Allah? And the man will say, because I wanted to bring help to the religion, I wanted to bring i'la al- karima as we call it, or bringing help to Islam, glory to Islam, I wanted to defend the religion, defend the weak and the homeless and the poor. I did it for your sake, oh Allah.
And Allah will once again say, you're lying, and the angels will testify you're lying, and Allah will say, you only did it so that people could call you masha'Allah mujahid, masha'Allah brave man, masha'Allah you've done so much, and the people did. You got your reward from them, none from me.
And the same with the third person, that he will say, I gave of my money to be a generous person for your religion, and Allah will say, you only did it so that you could be known in the community, so that people would call you generous, and that is exactly what they did.
And then Allah will punish these three in front of all of the creation, and they will be the very first people to enter the fire of hell. And Abu Huraira was listening to this hadith, and the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) tapped his knee, and he said, Ya Abu Huraira, these are the first three people who will taste the fire of hell. The hafidh and qari, and the, in one riwayah it says the scholar and the orator, may Allah protect all of us. And the one who was a shaheed, the martyr, and the third one is the one who is generous.
HEADING
Why? Because their intentions were not correct, they had this mixing of intentions, they wanted to show off their deeds. And imagine brothers and sisters, imagine the fate of the person, he's doing good his whole life, and he thinks he's going to meet Allah with all of this good, and then he is told you didn't do it for my sake. You did it for your own ego. You did it to inflate your own prestige on the people. Why are you wanting me to reward you when you didn't do it purely for my sake?
Imagine the fate of that person, and therefore brothers and sisters, we need to make sure we are not that person. We are not that person on the Day of Judgment who is told you wasted your whole life, and all of your deeds will be thrown back at your face.
Two Types of Showing Off
So in order to understand what is this showing off, what is this riya, we need to discuss it in a little bit of detail, I only have 10 minutes left so inshaAllah I'll summarize now. When does this showing off occur? When does this intention come into our heart? Well there's two timings when the intention can come into the heart.
First Type: Before the Deed
The first is before you do the deed. So you only do the deed in order to show off. So you're only going to the masjid in order to show the people you're coming to the mosque. You're only giving that check because you want your name to be recited out loud and everybody praises you. You're only doing something for that fame and recognition. This is the worst type of showing off.
And it is a symptom of being a pure hypocrite, a munafiq. It is a symptom because Allah says in the Qur'an
when they stand up to pray, they're only standing up in order to show off to the people. This is the only reason they stand up to pray.
, Allah says. The hypocrites are those who are doing what they do to show off. They're doing what they do to show off.
So somebody who notices this in his heart or her heart, it is high time that you check your intentions. And it is high time that you seize and desist in allowing this intention to corrupt your heart. This is a sign of hypocrisy and it does not emanate from the heart of a mu'min. The mu'min can never imagine doing a good deed solely for the sake of the people. This is not a sign of iman.
Second Type: During the Deed
The second time that the intention can be corrupted is during the act itself. And during the act itself, this is more common for the intention to be corrupted. And this afflicts every single person, good Muslim, bad Muslim, mu'min, every single category of iman is afflicted with this. That you did the deed for the
sake of Allah but while you're doing it, in the midst of the action, your intention begins to cloud. And this is the example the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) gave, exactly this example.
He said, the man stands up to pray. He didn't intend the people, he intended Allah. The man stands up to pray and then he notices people are looking at him. And then he changes the niyyah, right? This is a very common disease that every single believer is afflicted with. Even the greatest believer, even the scholar, the hafidh, the worshipper, no one is free of this. So the issue is to battle it because everyone is afflicted by it.
How to Handle Showing Off
Now, if this feeling of showing off enters the heart and you concentrate on eliminating it, you battle against it and you cleanse your heart of it, alhamdulillah, you've succeeded. You've succeeded. Because shaitan will try to corrupt your intention. Shaitan, the devil will try to corrupt your intention. And when he tries to corrupt it, your job is to push that corruption away. If you succeed, you're fine, you're scot-free.
The fact that for a few milliseconds, for a few seconds you let the riyadh stay is overlooked because eventually you kicked it out of your heart. You made your heart sincere to Allah. So this amount is forgiven.
However, if you allow this insincerity to seep into your heart and you allowed it to remain and you let it grow, this is when the hadith applies, the tradition applies, when the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said that Allah says, I have no need of any deed that is done for two. I have no need of this. I don't need shared.
You know, just like one of us, would you like to have half a sandwich, right? Half of an apple? No, we're gonna be... No, that's fine, you can keep it. Allah is saying,
Allah belongs the perfect example. Allah is saying, I have no need of any partner. If somebody is gonna give me half, I don't need that half, you corrupted it. You corrupted, I want the full sincerity. And that's exactly what our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said in one of the most famous hadith ever, you all know it.
(Bukhari hadith (1)
Actions are judged by... By what? Intentions. Actions are judged by intentions.
When Praise Comes After Sincere Deeds
Now, suppose somebody did a good deed completely and totally for the sake of Allah. Suppose you built a masjid. Suppose somebody memorized the Qur'an. Suppose somebody, mashaAllah, did something great, whatever it was. And his intention was sincere throughout, and he finished the good deed. And now somebody comes and says, mashaAllah, brother, you built that masjid, mashaAllah, that was great. Or somebody finished memorizing the Qur'an, mashaAllah, you became hafidh, mashaAllah, that was really great.
And you help, you cannot help but feel a sense of happiness, a sense of joy. Somebody asked the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) about this. He said, O Messenger of Allah, sometimes I do something good and then the people praise me. Meaning I didn't do it for them. I didn't do it for them, I did it for myself, but then the people praise me. The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said, these praises, these, in Arabic,
(Muslim hadith )2642(.
These are the, if you like, preliminary blessings that Allah is giving the believer and there's gonna be more awaiting him in the next life. These are the heralds of the blessings. These are the callers of more blessings.
The fact that society likes you once you've done a sincere deed is not insincerity. You didn't do it for their sake. The fact that you gain respect when you do something for the sake of Islam, if you didn't do it for that respect, this is a blessing Allah is giving you. Don't feel guilty about that. You did it, now everybody knows his or her own intention. You know your intention.
Did you do it so that the people praise you? Well, then you had better correct your intention. If you did it for the sake of Allah and then the people praise you, thank Allah. Because that's overlooked and forgiven and it is a sign that there's more blessings later on.
The Difference Between Worldly Benefits and Praise
And we're gonna come to this point that one of the blessings that Allah gives to any sincere action is that He causes the people to love that action. And He causes that action to be accepted by the people. In other words, sincerity opens up the sincerity of other people. Sincerity in one heart is like a key that unlocks the sincerity in other hearts. So when a person does something sincerely, people appreciate that from him. Whereas when another person does maybe even more than that insincerely, people don't appreciate that from him.
So the fact that people appreciate what you're doing, not a problem as long as you're doing it for the sake of Allah and you're not doing it for the people.
Also realize as a footnote before we move on, also realize that getting some worldly benefits for a religious deed is not the same as getting praise for a religious deed. And in Allah's mercy, Allah has allowed the former and not the latter.
In other words, let me give you an example. A worldly benefit is like money, okay? Whereas praise is a person saying something about you. If you did something religious for the sake of Allah and for some money, this is overlooked and accepted.
Let me give you an example. The imam of the masjid, he needs to get a salary and the ummah needs to provide him a salary. The school teachers, the Sunday school teachers and the full-time Islamic school teachers. The imam, the maulvisahib that comes, teaches the Qur'an to the children. Now of course he's
dedicated his life to teaching and preaching. He's dedicated his life for the cause of Islam, surely he deserves remuneration, he deserves money.
Now if the person has the dual intention, look, I need to pay my bills, I need to take care of my wife and kids, and I also am happy that I'm a Qur'an teacher, I'm also happy I'm teaching the kids Islam. This dual intention has nothing to do with shirk, it is 100% halal. And this is the mercy of Allah that he allowed this dual intention when it comes to our dunya.
Quranic Evidence for Dual Intention
Because he knows that we need a dual intention in this case, and the Qur'an is very clear about this. People wanted to come for hajj. People wanted to come for the pilgrimage. And they're coming from all the corners of the globe, so they're wondering, this is a prime time for a marketplace, an international bazaar. People are coming from China, from Tunisia, from Timbuktu, from Indonesia, they're all coming, and they're all together. What a beautiful time to have a bazaar.
And by the way, hajj has always been a bazaar as well. There are places in Mina to this day, in the plains of Mina, there are places where people from all corners of earth are selling their stuff over there. So the question came amongst the companions, am I allowed to go for hajj and also take my business with me? I'm selling leather, I'm selling grain, I'm selling whatever I'm selling.
Can I go for hajj and also take my business? And there's no question that when you go as a businessman, you're also going and you want to gain some profit, and you're also going for hajj. Allah revealed in the Qur'an a verse
wanting some blessings from Allah, i.e. money through your business from the hajj. There is no sin on you from wanting the blessings of Allah.
Similarly in our times, nobody would organize a hajj caravan unless he made his profit off of that caravan. Isn't that true, right? There's a lot of effort involved in organizing a hajj travel tours. Believe me, I've been involved in enough hajj to know that it's such a headache, I don't ever plan to get involved with organizing a hajj trip.
That's how much of a headache it is. You spend eight months just for those one week in Makkah and Medina. So people have to dedicate their whole lives to organizing hajj groups. Surely they expect a profit. Is there a problem? No, there's not. Allah has allowed a dual intention for the dunya and for His sake.
However, there's a caveat, there's a disclaimer. Your reward in this case will be proportional to the percentage of your sincerity to Allah. In this case, your reward will be proportional to how sincere you were to Allah.
So suppose there was 50-50, you want your business and you're happy you're going for hajj. Well, your reward was not going to be like the one who went purely for the hajj, but your hajj is still accepted. And the same applies for the Qur'an teacher, for the Islamic studies teacher, for anybody, that if they have a pure intention for Allah and the money is a side thing for them, then they get 100% reward.
And the less their intention goes, then the less their reward. But having a dual intention does not destroy the good deed, unlike the one who intends Allah and the praise of the people. This, there is no excuse. You want your ego, you want your prestige, there is no excuse in this regard.
How to Avoid Showing Off
So to conclude now, I talked a little bit about what is riya and the dangers of riya and showing off. How do we avoid showing off? How do we avoid going down this dangerous path, the path that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said I am more worried about this path than I am about the Antichrist himself, about the Dajjal.
Number of things, we'll mention only four or five of them.
1. Constantly Check Your Intentions
Number one, number one, constantly check your intentions, always doubt your sincerity. One of the scholars of the past said, a sign of sincerity is to always doubt your sincerity. And a sign of insincerity is to be sure about your sincerity. I repeat, a sign of sincerity, you're sincere. What is a sign that you're sincere? You're worried, am I sincere or not? Am I doing this properly or not? To be conscious, to be worried shows that you have a problem and you're battling it.
And that's good. To recognize the problem, to be battling the problem, to be worried about the problem is a sign that you care and you want to be sincere. Isn't that true? Now, if you're not worried, you're like, yeah, whatever. You're certain, inshallah, it's for the sake of Allah. When you're completely certain, this is a problem. When you don't even care, this is a bigger problem.
Another scholar of the past, Sufyan ibn Uyaynah, the famous muhaddith, scholar of hadith, he said, the most difficult disease that I'm still trying to cure is my intention and I still haven't cured it. And it is an ongoing battle. Every day I have to battle my intention.
Now, this is one of the greatest scholars alive and he admits and every scholar will admit and I will admit that you never win the battle against insincerity. It is an ongoing battle. You will battle it till the day that you die. Anybody who thinks that he's done with the battle is only lying to himself. You must always purify, be conscious. So number one, constantly check your intention.
2. Knowledge
Number two, how do you avoid showing off? Knowledge. Knowledge of what is showing off, of what is tawheed, what is la ilaha illallah, who is our Lord, what rights does He have upon us. The more knowledge you have, the more difficult it is for shaitan to cause you to go astray.
And Allah says in the Qur'an,
"that it is only the scholars who truly have the fear of Allah in their hearts. It is only the scholars who truly have the khashya, the fear of Allah in their hearts. So number two, gain knowledge of everything, of the Qur'an, of the tradition, of the life of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم of the reality of tawheed, all of it will help you combat against the disease of showing off.
3. Constantly Asking Allah
Number three, constantly asking Allah to cleanse your heart, constantly begging Allah for sincerity, constantly seeking forgiveness for any lapse in insincerity. Dua is the weapon of the believer, praying is the weapon of the believer, raising your hands up to Allah and always begging and pleading, and always asking, O Allah, I ask You for sincerity, O Allah, I ask You for sincerity, O Allah, I seek Your refuge in insincerity.
Once the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said to Abu Bakr, O Abu Bakr, beware of minor shirk, of showing off, because it is more hidden than an ant crawling on a stone. In one version it says, on a dark ant crawling in the middle of the night, in the black moonless night, crawling on a stone, you're not gonna detect it. So Abu Bakr said, O Messenger of Allah, how can I possibly protect myself against showing off when it is as inconspicuous as an ant crawling under a stone.
The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, by making this dua to Allah, and this is a dua that we should all memorize and write down, and I will say it in Arabic, and inshaAllah if anybody wants it more, I can give it after and write it down for him.
(Ahmad hadith 19830)
Allahumma inni a'udhu bika, O Allah, I seek refuge in You. Allahumma inni a'udhu bika, an ushrika bika shay'an wa ana a'lamuhu, that I commit shirk with You while I know it, while I'm conscious of it. I seek Your refuge in committing shirk with You while I'm aware.
wa astaghfiruka lima laa a'lamuhu, and I ask You to forgive me if I did this unintentionally. In other words, I seek refuge in You from committing shirk intentionally, and I ask You to forgive me from committing shirk unintentionally.
This dua should be memorized by every one of you, and it should become a part and parcel of your daily routine to Allah. O Allah, cleanse my heart of any insincerity. O Allah, bless me with everything that I do that it is purely for Your sake. O Allah, do not give any share to any other being.
This should be a regular part of your daily dua. So that was number three. Once again, number one is constantly checking intentions, number two is knowledge, number three is dua.
4. Increasing Private Deeds
Number four, increasing one's private deeds. Doing good when nobody is watching you. Because you see, one of the signs of showing off is that you live dual lives. In front of the people, masha'Allah, you are so high and mighty. But when you go to your private self, when you go and hide behind closed doors, you live a different life. So what do you do? You make up in the private time by doing extra deeds.
You make up by doing things when nobody's looking at you. You gave charity a thousand dollars, everybody said takbir. The next day you log online and you donate and dedicate to a charity nobody knows you gave.
So that you know, O Allah, my private and my secret, my public and my open and my apparent, it is all the same. And the true believer, his open and his secret, his apparent and his hidden is exactly the same. Because he doesn't care who is in front of him and who isn't.
His lifestyle will be exactly the same because the real audience that he's interested in is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah is watching him, he couldn't care less about the people. So by increasing your good deeds in secret is one of the ways to battle insincerity.
5. Reflect on Your Own Shortcomings
And the final point that we'll mention is to reflect upon your own shortcomings. To think of the private side of you that nobody else knows. To know your sins in a way that every one of you, even your spouses, don't know some of the sins that you have done.
They don't know some of the thoughts that come into your mind. They don't know some of the evil waswas, whispers that shaitan points it to you. When somebody praises you and tries to boost your ego up, throw this mud onto yourself, inside of yourself.
And remind yourself who you really are. Remind yourself that you know your sins and nobody else knows them. Having an ongoing battle.
And that is why when one of the scholars of the past saw so many people around him taking notes and writing with their pens and their scribes, he paused for a while and he said, if you truly knew who I am, instead of taking notes, you would be pelting me with stones. You're giving me so much respect if you truly knew who I am. Now this scholar is a great scholar.
Sufyan al-Thawri is a great scholar. But he realized that the people are putting him in a pedestal above what he deserves. And wallahi if such a great scholar said this, then I am a hundred thousand times more appropriate to have this said.
Another person said, that if sins had a smell, then the smell coming from my body would get rid of every single audience that I preached him. This is once again one of the greatest scholars of Islam. That if sins had a smell, I know who I am. If sins had a smell, then none of you could possibly bear to stand me. This shows us, by the way, their own sincerity. There's no doubt that these scholars, their sins were trivial compared to the masses.
There's no doubt. But they felt so much guilt. They felt so much shame that they kept on reiterating this to their students.
And this is what Abu Bakr al-Siddiq himself said. Abu Bakr al-Siddiq himself said, when the people praised him, he said, O Allah, forgive the people for the side of me that they don't know. I have a side they don't know. O Allah, forgive me for that side that they don't know. And make me better than what they think of me. He would make this du'a when the people praised him.
The Opposite Extreme: Avoiding Good Deeds
The final point that I want to mention is the opposite of riya is also a problem. And it would not be fair to talk about riya showing off without talking about the flip side opposite. And that is to avoid doing the good deed out of a fear of showing off.
So you're at a fundraiser. Is the fundraiser tonight or tomorrow? Tomorrow? OK, tomorrow's fundraiser. OK, I have to be practical now. OK. And you want to give $1,000. Then you remember my talk of today and you say, no, no, no. Let me close the checkbook and put my pen back. And then all of the ikna guys are going to come to me and say, Sheikh, what did you do? You ruined the whole fundraiser. They didn't want to give anything.
So I have to put this disclaimer on as well. And that is. If you were to want to write a check, you wanted to write that that donation, you wanted to do something good and then you realize, oh, my God, I might be showing off. And then you close the checkbook or you sit down and don't pray or you don't build the masjid. You know what? In the end, Shaitan has won because you didn't do the good deed. And that's the goal of Shaitan that you don't do the good deed.
And the opposite of riya is its own type of failure. We don't call it riya, but it is a failure. Shaitan wins in the end of the day because you didn't do the good deed.
The believer does not shy away from this battle against Shaitan. The believer is always going to be battling Shaitan. So tomorrow, inshallah, when the fundraiser happens and not just for tomorrow, but every single time when you feel a little bit of showing off coming in, realize you're not alone.
I feel it. You feel it. Everybody feels it all the time. It's human nature to feel it. It is as inconspicuous as an ant crawling on a stone as the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said. What is the solution? Get rid of it, cleanse
it.
Don't sit down and say, oh, I can't do anything. I'm scared of showing off. Don't continue and allow that evil to persist in your heart. No. Be a believer. Stand up and face Shaitan face to face.
Take your sword of tawheed out. Take your sword of la ilaha illallah out. And you kill with it any shirk, any paganism, any idolatry. And get rid of any insincerity by turning to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Balance in Public and Private Deeds
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala also says that it is good that deeds are given in public and it is good that deeds are given in private. Both are good.
It is also good. And if you give charity in public, it is good. And if you hide it, it is also good.
Both have their positives and negatives. And the believer has a healthy share of both.
The Story of the Prostitute and the Dog
I conclude by quoting one hadith of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. It is a famous hadith that all of you know. And it really shows us the blessings of sincerity. A hadith that you've all read hundreds of times. It's a very famous hadith.
It is a tradition reported in Bukhari and Muslim (Bukhari hadith 3467, Muslim hadith 2245) that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم told us about a prostitute from the children of Israel, one of the nations before us. There was a prostitute that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said that she got thirsty and she was panting from thirst.
There was no water to drink. And so she came across a well which did not have any rope, any string, any bucket. So she took off her shoe and she climbed down the well to... Oh, excuse me. She climbed down the well to drink the water.
She came back up. Excuse me. Jumping the gun here. That she drank from the well, she came back up. When she came back up, she saw a dog who was thirsty and panting and licking the sand because it didn't have any water. The prostitute had just drank her share, her full.
She went down, she drank, she came back up. She thought to herself, this dog is suffering even worse than I am suffering. Let's pause here.
In our religion, a dog is not considered a noble animal, is it, right? A dog is not considered a pure animal even. Yet, it is still a creation of Allah. And it is still a life that Allah has given. And it is still a blessing that Allah has given to the world. Even if it is unpure and unclean from a fiqh perspective, nonetheless, it is a creature that Allah has created. Back to the story.
So the prostitute says, this dog is suffering worse than I was suffering. Let me give it some water. So she went back down. There was no bucket, there was no string. So she put her shoe in her mouth and she climbed down. She picked up some water in that shoe, in that leather shoe.
She put it in her mouth, in between her mouth and she climbed back up to give to the dog. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, Allah appreciated that from her to the extent that He forgave all of her sins. Now, this is a prostitute, somebody who is selling her body for a miserable price.
She's ruining families, spreading corruption in the world. And she sees a creature that is by and large not a noble creature. And all that she does, she gives it one sip of water.
It is not the dog or the prostitute that brought about Allah's forgiveness. It is that sincerity that happened to be in her heart. Nobody is watching her. She's not gonna get any praise from anybody. She knows she's a sinner. She knows she needs Allah's help.
She knows she needs Allah's forgiveness. So the only thing that she can do, an act of desperation that only Allah is watching, is that, oh Allah, all I can do is to help this creature. You know I'm a sinner, help me just like I help this creature.
So Allah took that sincerity, that iman, yes, from the heart of a prostitute. Because even prostitutes can have iman. Even people with evil can have faith in Allah.
So He looked at that iman and He looked at that sincerity and it was so sincere and so powerful that her entire evil was forgiven. Brothers and sisters in Islam, we have opportunities every day, every day, similar to that prostitute and that dog.
Surely you and I are better than that prostitute. Surely we have more opportunities than feeding a dog. We need to make sure that every action that we do, every action has that same level of sincerity. Perhaps, perhaps, that one deed that I've done, that Allah is watching me, is so pure, so sincere, that Allah will overlook all of my sins and cause me to enter jannah.
Conclusion
Brothers and sisters in Islam, la ilaha illallah. There is nothing, no deity, no being that is worthy of our worship, our veneration, our love, our prostration, our sajda, other than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Let us exemplify this kalima. Let us live this kalima. Let us put this word into actions and then and only then will be true representatives of the religion of Allah on this earth.
Wa jazakumullahu khairan. Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.