Achieving Sincerity Part 1

Today we live in a capitalist society that promotes individualism and the me, myself and I syndrome. Its promotes selfism and an egoistic mentality, whereas Islam came to eradicate this mentality. Yet we should realise that Muslims will inevitably be affected. Even the ‘practising’ Muslim cannot be immune from this constant barrage of concepts that we face.

Societies today are built on secularism. If we question ‘What kind of person holds secularism to be true?’ Then it is the person who says: ‘I don’t care whether God exists or not, I am going to do what I want.’ And so from this came the four freedoms: speech, ownership, belief and individual. Hence individualism, selfishness, egoistic behaviour is rampant and is to be expected. A manifestation of this is a danger a Muslim may face: ‘the need to show-off’

Riyya in Islam

Linguistically riyaa comes from the root “ra’aa” which means to see, to behold, to view. The derived word ‘riyaa’ means “eye-service, hypocrisy, dissimulation; dissemblance.” From a Sharee’ah point of view, “to perform acts which are pleasing to Allah, with the intention of pleasing other than Allah”. Thus riyaa originates in the heart.

Mahmood ibn Labeed reported that the Allah’s Messenger said, “The thing that I fear most for you is the minor Shirk; Riyaa” (Ahmad in his Musnad)

Aboo Sa’eed reported that the Messenger of Allah (saaw) came to us while we were discussing about Dajjaal and said, “Should I not inform you of that which I fear for you even more than the dangers of Dajjaal? It is the hidden Shirk; A person stands to pray, and he beautifies his prayer because he sees the people looking at him.” (Sunan Ibn Majah vol. 2, #3389)

Hence Riyya – is hidden shirk, it is the type of sin which Allah aza wa jal will never forgive. Never. Hence we need to be very aware of this.

Think about this Hadith Qudsi:

The first of people against whom judgment will be pronounced on the Day of Resurrection will be a man who died a martyr.  He will be brought and Allah will make known to him His favours and he will recognize them.  [ The Almighty] will say: And what did you do about them? He will say: I fought for you until I died a martyr.  He will say: You have lied – you did but fight that it might be said [of you]: He is courageous.  And so it was said.  Then he will be ordered to be dragged along on his face until he is cast into Hell-fire.  [Another] will be a man who has studied [religious] knowledge and has taught it and who used to recite the Quran.  He will be brought and Allah will make known to his His favours and he will recognize them.  [The Almighty] will say: And what did you do about them?  He will say: I studied [religious] knowledge and I taught it and I recited the Quran for Your sake.  He will say: You have lied – you did but study [religious] knowledge that it might be said [of you]: He is learned.  And you recited the Quran that it might be said [of you]: He is a reciter.  And so it was said.  Then he will be ordered to be dragged along on his face until he is cast into Hell-fire.  [Another] will be a man whom Allah had made rich and to whom He had given all kinds of wealth.  He will be brought and Allah will make known to his His favours and he will recognize them.  [The Almighty] will say: And what did you do about them?  He will say: I left no path [untrodden] in which You like money to be spent without spending in it for Your sake.  He will say: You have lied – you did but do so that it might be said [of you]: He is open-handed.  And so it was said.  Then he will be ordered to be dragged along on his face until he is cast into Hell-fire.

Lets think about this haidth…..is it possible that these three people who spent their lives doing good actions, outwardly, actually thought they were doing those actions for Allah aza wa jal? That they were able to convince themselves….they deceived themselves, without realising….I mean who in the right mind would give their life for people willingly, knowing that they will be going to hell????????????? No wonder the hadith mentions that finding Riyya is more difficult than finding a black ant on a black stone in the middle of a dark black night!

It shows us that as Muslims, as slaves of Allah aza wa jal…no matter how much knowledge we may possess, no matter how many extra nawafil/sunnah’s we do….we cannot TRUST ourselves….our reliance on Allah aza wa jal, on his mercy, on is guidance needs to be complete.

Actions in which Riyya can creep in and destroy the sincerity and therefore the hope of Jannah in a Muslim

Indeed the topic of Riyya for Muslims needs to one which should make him think, make him reflect, make him worried. Yet there are some actions were there is MORE of a chance for Riyya to creep in and to affect the person in a drastic manner.

The actions in which riyya can creep in have to be those in which there are other people involved. Which involves people contact. Eg. Salat in jamaah, in actions such as giving dawah, forbidding the evil, enjoining the good, calling people to Islam

Today, we clearly find that there is a concerted effort in the west as a whole to change Islam, to westernise or modernise or reform Islam from its true understanding. Those Muslims who have any knowledge of Islam, those that are aware of this attack, it is a duty upon them to defend Islam, to not let the Muslim youth be misguided, to explain and uphold the true Islam.

Working for this, the most effective manner has to be a collective coordinated effort. Individually we can try, but any major activity that we as Muslims undertake needs to be done collectively so that we can have a bigger, better impact.

Indeed this is based upon Islam and the Islamic evidence for this is the hadith in imam nawawi’s 40 hadith:

Abu Yaala Shaddad bin Aws said that the messenger of Allah said :

“Verily Allah has prescribed proficiency in all things. Thus, if you kill, kill well; and if you slaughter, slaughter well. Let each one of you sharpen his blade and let him spare suffering to the animal he slaughters.”

related by Muslim.

Hence this makes it more of a people linked activity and therefore those of us that work in groups, in jamaats, should be extra careful of this.

So for example a close friend of mine said how he is inspired by other brothers around him, how when people around him do dawah, carry the call, he get motivated to carry and how he feels lethargic when alone.

Lets think about this…is there a possibility that riyya maybe affecting him? Should not the jazba, the desire, the motivation, the drive, the passion, the want to carry the call, the want to defend Islam, the want to help Muslims world over, should this not be internal?

We need to be careful, the discussion here is NOT about making a judgment on other Muslims, they are sincere and we MUST assume that, giving them 70 excuses. This discussion is more about our own selves.