If the soul whispers to a person during the performance of a righteous deed something of showing off or riya', and then he seeks forgiveness from Allah
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The Shaykh : here: If the soul whispers to a person during the performance of a righteous deed something of showing off or riya', and then he seeks forgiveness from Allah, while he intends the righteous deed for Allah (Mighty and Majestic); is this righteous deed accepted or not? We ask you to clarify this for us.
This issue is actually precise, and to the extent of my knowledge and reading, the best person to explain these matters is Imam al-Ghazali in his book "Revival of the Religious Sciences," despite the things in it that contradict the Shari'ah; because the man was for a long period of his life immersed in Sufism, but the reality deals with matters concerning the soul with very precise meanings, including this aspect.
There is a very big difference between a person who engages in worship when he enters into it not intending the Face of Allah, but intending something of the debris of this world; such a person has nothing from this worship except the burden, and there is no good in him coming to this worship. A man stands up to pray at night while the people are sleeping so that his neighbors will say, "So-and-so is a righteous man, what Allah willed for him! What Allah willed around him!" This is unlike the one who slept the whole night and did not stand up to pray at night; why? Because this one who prayed is praying from the prayer while he deserves the punishment of Allah; because he intended in the worship of Allah other than Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He); so he is burdened and not rewarded, whereas that sleeping one is neither burdened nor rewarded. This is if he entered into worship intending other than Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). But this is different from the form about which the question was asked: a man stood up to pray at night, and in reality he intended the Face of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), but Satan is lying in wait for the person, so he whispers to him during his prayer, and this thought came to his mind: "By Allah, I wish one of the neighbors would hear my voice in reciting the Qur'an, or see my prayer if he is praying in secret." This is undoubtedly not like the first case, but it diminishes the reward of his prayer by a degree that no one can set a limit for absolutely; rather, his matter is with Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). If the strength of the motive for this worship is stronger than the strength of the riya' that occurred to him, we hope that he will have a reward from this worship; otherwise, the opposite is completely the case.
This is what I have in answering that question.
There are some scholars of hadith who narrate and we engage in tadlis, and we thought we were done with tadlis, and lo, some of our brothers are now engaging in tadlis!! So we divided the questions into two sections: a section which, in my opinion, as you see, I did not answer previously, and a section that the professor also presented for answering, and if a paper is placed before me here to be answered immediately!! And it is the one that is answered last; so we are not done with tadlis!!
This issue is actually precise, and to the extent of my knowledge and reading, the best person to explain these matters is Imam al-Ghazali in his book "Revival of the Religious Sciences," despite the things in it that contradict the Shari'ah; because the man was for a long period of his life immersed in Sufism, but the reality deals with matters concerning the soul with very precise meanings, including this aspect.
There is a very big difference between a person who engages in worship when he enters into it not intending the Face of Allah, but intending something of the debris of this world; such a person has nothing from this worship except the burden, and there is no good in him coming to this worship. A man stands up to pray at night while the people are sleeping so that his neighbors will say, "So-and-so is a righteous man, what Allah willed for him! What Allah willed around him!" This is unlike the one who slept the whole night and did not stand up to pray at night; why? Because this one who prayed is praying from the prayer while he deserves the punishment of Allah; because he intended in the worship of Allah other than Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He); so he is burdened and not rewarded, whereas that sleeping one is neither burdened nor rewarded. This is if he entered into worship intending other than Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). But this is different from the form about which the question was asked: a man stood up to pray at night, and in reality he intended the Face of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), but Satan is lying in wait for the person, so he whispers to him during his prayer, and this thought came to his mind: "By Allah, I wish one of the neighbors would hear my voice in reciting the Qur'an, or see my prayer if he is praying in secret." This is undoubtedly not like the first case, but it diminishes the reward of his prayer by a degree that no one can set a limit for absolutely; rather, his matter is with Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). If the strength of the motive for this worship is stronger than the strength of the riya' that occurred to him, we hope that he will have a reward from this worship; otherwise, the opposite is completely the case.
This is what I have in answering that question.
There are some scholars of hadith who narrate and we engage in tadlis, and we thought we were done with tadlis, and lo, some of our brothers are now engaging in tadlis!! So we divided the questions into two sections: a section which, in my opinion, as you see, I did not answer previously, and a section that the professor also presented for answering, and if a paper is placed before me here to be answered immediately!! And it is the one that is answered last; so we are not done with tadlis!!
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.