Riya: A spiritual disease and compromiser of Ikhlas
Rats in the house are easy to spot and to clean but those small ants which quietly creep inside the house in the dark and feast on the sugar jar may never get noticed. These are how sins are, some are easy to spot and some are deceivingly hidden. A lie, clearly feels heavy on heart and the heart is more likely to repent for it but Riya is a sin like those creeping ants on the black stone, whose arrival are barely noticed but they devour the intention of good deeds and leave the jar of rewards empty.
So what is Riya? The concept of Riya means performing acts of worship to impress someone other than Allah. It is framed as a spiritual disease that compromises sincerity (Ikhlas) of an act and is treated as a threat to the integrity of worship.
A prayer which becomes longer in public, or a charity which becomes louder when others are around reflect on a heart which desires praise from the Creation, instead of a heart which desires the reward from the Creator.
Umar bin Al Khattab RA said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), say, actions are according to intentions, and everyone will get what was intended…”- Sahih Muslim and Bukhari.
This hadith is one of the foundation of the religion. Actions are only the physical component of the act, but intentions are the spiritual component. According to the above hadith, the spiritual component drives the result of an act. An act of body devoid of the soul in it’s right place is an empty action. So a heart which desires praise gets that and a heart which desires Allah’s pleasure gets that.
Abu Hurairah RA narrated a long hadith from the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) in which three people- a martyr, a scholar and a generous donor were brought to Allah on the Day of Judgment. The Martyr said, “I fought for you until I died as a martyr”. Allah said: “You have told a lie. You fought that you might be called a brave warrior”. The scholar said, “I acquired knowledge and disseminated it and recited the Quran, seeking your pleasure”. Allah said: “You have told a lie. You acquired knowledge so that you might be called a scholar”. And the generous donor said, “I spent money in every cause in which you wished that it should be spent”. Allah said: “You have told a lie. You did it so you might be called a generous fellow”. And so it was said for you all. Then Allah passed orders and all of them were dragged with their faces downward and thrown into Hell. – Sahih Muslim
Above hadith hits very deep and hard. Even a martyr is not saved from fire because his intentions were contaminated with Riya.
Imam Ghazali Rahimullah said that Riya spoils deeds as vinegar spoils honey.
This hadith emphasizes that riya is not simply a moral flaw, it is a theological distortion. It shifts the axis of worship from the divine to the human.Riya does not simply destroy reward,it offends the very essence of tawheed, the pure worship of Allah alone. Ibrahim al-Khawwas, a famous sufi said, “Riya splits the heart between two masters.”
The Prophet Muhammad(ﷺ) described Riya explicitly as a form of shirk:
“The thing I fear most for you is minor shirk.”
They asked, “What is minor shirk?” He said, “Riya.” (Musnad Aḥmad, graded Hasan)
Shirk, in its simplest meaning, is giving something or someone a share of what belongs to Allah alone. Intention is among those things. Riya is not only when an act of worship is done purely for the purpose of praise from people, it is also when devotion is to Allah but there is a desire for praise as well.
Once, a student asked Junayd al-Baghdadi: “If I am sincere, but someone praises me, should I fear that praise?” Junayd replied: “The one who finds sweetness in that praise has already lost some of his reward.”
Ibrahim ibn Adham, the king-turned-saint, was known for giving charity secretly. Once, a beggar approached him in the market, and he gave him food silently.
A man nearby praised him, saying: “O ascetic king! You are generous.”
That night, Ibrahim wept and said:“O Allah, I fear I have taken my reward in full today — let me never hear praise again for what I do for You.”
Sometimes an act of devotion starts with the right intention but the Nafs can corrupt sincerity somewhere in between due to its constant craving for validation. One who started with the intention to please Allah may start enjoying the praise which comes his way. Imam Ahmad said if someone starts a deed for Allah then drifts into Riya, they should fight the urge but not quit the deed entirely.
sometimes it happens the other way as well, an act is started with the intention of Riya but the heart gets guided in between the act when one tastes the sweetness of sincere devotion to Allah.
Ibn Taymiyyah Rahimullah writes that believers may correct their intention in the middle of an act, the presence of Riya does not automatically invalidate a deed if the person resists it.
“Actions are only judged by their endings.”- Sahih Bukhari. So a believer has to constantly guard his soul and his intention more than his action.
The believer’s task is not perfection but vigilance—continuously returning the heart to its rightful direction, seeking Allah alone. Riya comes to heart so quietly and stay inside so subtly that one needs to be on a constant vigil against it. The urge to talk about your tehajjud, to post a story about your charity or a selfie inside the mosque, these are the acts, which unless done purely for the purpose of inspiring others, may feed into the Nafs in a way to inflate it. And inflated egos come in way of long and sincere prostration.
“So woe to those who pray, who are heedless of their prayer, those who display their worship.”
(Surah Maun: 4–6)
