Showing Off as a Way of Destroying One’s Deeds

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A person can receive great rewards from Allah on account of his good intentions alone, even if he is prevented from carrying out the intended deed. On the other hand, the deeds that he performs can become bereft of blessings if they are not accompanied by a good intention. Such deeds can actually be sinful.

There are many hadîth that warn us against destroying our good deeds. Showing off is one of the most serious causes of our deeds going to waste.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) relates to us that Allah will say: “Go to those who used to show off in the world and see if they found their reward.”13

He also relates that Allah says: “I am in no need of partners. Whoever does a deed for the sake of others as well as me, I leave his deed for those others.”14

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “A man will be brought forward on the Day of Resurrection and thrown into the Fire. His entrails will come forth from his throat and he will hang from them going around like a donkey goes around a mill. The inhabitants of the Fire will gather around him and ask: ‘What is with you? Didn’t you used to enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong?’ He will reply: ‘Yes, I used to enjoin what is right but not do those things myself, and I used to forbid what is wrong but not refrain from them myself.’”15

Some people might get the idea that this man was punished because he enjoined what is right and forbade what is wrong while he had many shortcomings in his own deeds. This is a big mistake, because the task of enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong is inherently worthy of reward as long as the person engaged in it is sincere and has the right intention. This man was being punished because he did the very evil deeds he
forbade others from doing and spurned the very duties he called others towards. He was merely beautifying his outward conduct while his inner being remained corrupt. His punishment was for his sins, not because he enjoined what is right and forbade what is wrong.

As for the verse: “Do you enjoin right conduct on others and forget to practice it yourselves and yet you recite the Scripture? Do you not have any sense?” [Sûrah al- Baqarah: 44], it means that Allah rebukes them and punishes them because they turned away from the truth though they knew it full well. This makes them different from those who are ignorant of the truth, who if they come to know it would most likely follow it.

Therefore, we should know that enjoining what is right is something we owe to the people, even if we fail to do what is right ourselves. The same goes for forbidding what is wrong. A poet once said:

If no sinner exhorts others to righteousness,
Then who will exhort the sinners after Muhammad?

No one after Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him) is divinely protected from
committing sins. It is, however, the duty upon every person to accomplish the following four things:

1. To do what is right.
2. To enjoin others to what is right.
3. To abstain from what is wrong.
4. To forbid others from doing wrong.

Failure to perform one of these four duties does not give us the right to neglect any of the others. Therefore, someone who commits a sin still has the duty to call others to avoid it.

Showing off in words and deeds is a sickness that can get a person thrown into the Hellfire. Such a person, on the outside , appears to be righteous. His concern for what others think of him earns him the reward of their high esteem but not the pleasure of Allah. The praise of the people is sufficient for him.

This is the type of hypocricy that the earliest Muslims were afraid of falling into. Al-Hasan al-Basrî said , speaking about the tendency to show off: “I swear by Him in whose hand is my soul. No one feels safe from it except for a hypocrite and no one fears it except for a believer.” They were afraid that it would creep unnoticed into their deeds as Allah says: “…lest your deeds become vain and you perceive it not.” [Sûrah al-Hujurât:2]16

Al-Bukhârî placed in his Sahîh a chapter entitled: “A person being afraid that his deeds will become vain while not perceiving it”. In this chapter, he mentions a hadîth related by Anas b. Mâlik that Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him) inquired of the whereabouts of Thâbit b. Qays. A man said he would go and find out about him. The man found Thâbit sitting in his house with his head hanging down.

The man asked : “What is the matter with you?”

Thâbit replied: “It is very bad. A person used to raise his voice above the voice of the Prophet (peace be upon him) so his deeds have become vain and he is now one of the people of the Fire.”

The man returned to the Prophet (peace be upon him) and informed him of what Thâbit had said. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said to the man: “Go back to him and say to him: ‘You are not from the people of the Fire but from the People of Paradise’.”17

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Since the tendency to show off is so dangerous, we must be very wary of it and know its causes and the ways that it can come about. With this in mind, we will discuss twenty different ways that this tendency to show off can manifest itself.

1. Publicizing one’s good deeds:

Some people go around intentionally taking about the things they have done, boasting about their virtues. They cannot sit with others without saying: “I did this and I did that… I spent so much in charity.” Sometimes they can be a bit more subtle, saying things like: “Actually, I cannot stay up in prayer at night more than two hours…” or: “Unfortunately, I cannot cope with fasting every day, so I must suffice with fasting on Mondays and Thursdays…” In this way, they want to show others just how much they are praying and
fasting.

They only publicize their good works and make sure to perform them in front of others in order to earn the people’s praise. This is why it is preferable for most acts of worship to be done in private. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “O people! Pray in your homes, for truly the best prayers are those that a person prays at home, with the exception of the prescribed prayers.”18 It is, therefore, preferable for voluntary prayers to be made in the privacy of one’s own home. This protects the worshiper from the whispers of Satan
and makes certain that the prayers are not being performed for show. It also prevents the home from becoming like a graveyard where no prayers are made. A further benefit of praying at home is that it impresses upon the children of the house the importance of prayer. However, voluntary prayers that are supposed to be made in congregation are an exception to this rule, like the eclipse prayers, the prayer for rain, the Tarâwîh prayer, and
the two `Îd prayers (if we deem the `Îd prayers to be voluntary).

The same goes for charity. Allah says: “If you make public your charity, it is well, but if you conceal it and give it to the poor, then it is better for you.” [Sûrah al-Baqarah: 271] A person should always give charity in secret and not give it publicly unless he can make sure not to fall into showing off and sees that making it public will bring about some greater good. Sometimes public charity can encourage others by example. In the case of spending on the war effort, it can make the enemy cower.

Some people do charitable works publicly to get their names printed in the papers or to receive official recognition for their works. If the intention of such individuals is to garner more public support for the charitable efforts in question, then it is good. Otherwise, it is merely showing off. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “Actions are but by intentions, and every person will only get what he intended.”19 Allah says: “Whether you hide your words or make them known, He certainly has full knowledge of what is in the hearts. Should He who created not know, and He is the Subtle, the Aware?” [Sûrah al-Mulk: 13-14]


2. Making false claims:

There is a type of person who likes to boast about things he never did. He may claim that he struggled for Islam with patience and forbearance. He may eve n claim to have suffered persecution and hardships in the path of Allah. If he meets someone who does not know about his past, he goes on to tell him: “I used to do this and I used to say that…”, speaking about a past more embroidered than true.

This person goes on like this in front of others in order to earn a reputation for himself. This behavior is worse than the one we have just gotten through discussing, since it combines between two evils: showing off and lying. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “A person who claims to be given things he has never been given is a double liar.”

One trick is for a person to leave his own country and go to another so he can pass himself off to them as some great martyr by embroidering tales about himself.

A poet wrote:

Claims not backed by solid proofs
Turn their claimants into braggarts.

Then there is the poser who wishes to pass himself off as a learned person. He claims that he spent years studying with a certain sheikh and that he was one of his nearest and dearest disciples.

I know a person who claims that he memorized the Qur`ân with its seven different styles of recitation. He would say to people : “I learned from a number of sheikhs” then go on to mention the names of the leading scholars of our time. I know t his person, and I know he cannot even read the Qur’ân properly from a book, forget about his reciting it by heart or knowing different styles of recitation.

Some people, though, are more insidious than that. There is the person who speaks about the scholars of our time – especially those among them who have died – as if they were his colleagues, not his teachers. This person will tell you anecdotes about those sheiks as if he had experienced them firsthand. In this way, he is trying to fabricate a relationship between himself and these sheikhs that does not exist. This is a sickness of the heart that
becomes only more horrendous when it afflicts those who are supposed to be people of knowledge.

3. Becoming a show-off after having been sincere:

A person begins doing something for the sake of Allah alone, like offering prayer, spending in charity, or glorifying Allah in an audible voice. Then he realizes that people can see him. This makes him do even more. He prays a little longer, spends a little more, or glorifies Allah with even greater eloquence. When a person finds himself in this situation, he should fight against the urge to show off. He should say what the Prophet (peace be upon him) taught Abû Bakr to say to ward it off: “O Allah! I seek refuge with
you from associating partners with you knowingly and I seek your forgiveness for what I do unknowingly.”21

If the intention to show off establishes itself in his heart and he continues to increase his efforts to impress the people, then his works will fall under one of the two following outcomes:

If his deeds were of a nature that they could be divided into separate acts, then he will be rewarded for what he did for the sake of Allah and will be sinful for what he did to show off to the people. For example, a person gives two hundred pounds in charity. The first hundred he gave sincerely for Allah’s sake. The second hundred he gave to impress the people. He will be rewarded for the first hundred and be sinful for the second.

If his deed was of a kind that cannot be divided, like a single prayer, then his showing off nullifies the deed in its entirety.

Some people fall victim to the opposite affliction. They become so scared of showing off that they avoid performing good deeds because of it. They have jumped from the frying pan into the fire, so to speak.

True sincerity is to be concerned with Allah and to disregard the people altogether, neither performing deeds because of them nor abstaining from deeds on their account.

This brings us to the fourth way of showing off:

4. Abandoning deeds because of the people:

Al-Fudayl b. `Iyâd had harsh words for those who abandoned performing good works because of the people. He said: “Abandoning deeds because of the people is showing off. Performing deed for their sake is polytheism. Sincerity is where Allah protects you from both.”

Some people go to the mosque. Then when they get there and see the people there, they become afraid of showing off. They start to come to the mosque late because of this and might sometimes miss the prayer altogether. This becomes their habit. Coming to the mosque early becomes one of the most difficult things for them to do.

Some people who read or memorize the Qur’ân, when they see that others are listening to them, become afraid of showing off. They stop reading the Qur’ân. This is tragic, especially when the people who do so are among those who have memorized the Qur’ân or who teach it to others.

Abandoning one’s good deeds is a grave error. What the worshipper must do is cease to worry about created beings altogether, neither performing anything for their sake nor abstaining from anything for their sake.

One of the reasons for this behavior is that the person who is supposed to perform a given deed has an exaggerated view of his own importance and the importance of what he is about to do. He may have to give the Friday sermon or give a small talk after prayer where he can encourage what is right and discourage what is wrong. He begins to imagine that what he is doing is some great deed and that people will start quoting his words. Maybe he thinks that what he has to say will become the talk of the town. He may
become a bit impressed with himself at this point, and here is where he starts to fear showing off. He sees the only way to play it safe is not to talk and not to act.

This is one of the devil’s tricks. The only way for a person to stay immune to it is to accustom himself to doing good deeds and to see those deeds as small and insignificant when he does them. He must at the same time accustom himself to not attaching any importance to what people say. He must be able to recognize his own faults and realize the shortcomings in his works. Then, when someone offers him unwelcome praise, it will not harm him in any way. Such praise will then be as the Prophet (peace be upon him) described it: “…glad tidings being presented to the believer early.”22

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20 Ways to Show Off (http://www.islamtoday.com/book/showoff/20.pdf)

you can download the above PDF for more details.