If the soul is tempted with something of showing off or riya' during the performance of a righteous deed, and then one seeks forgiveness from Allah while intending the face of Allah, is this deed accepted?
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The questioner : If the soul is tempted with something of showing off or riya' during the performance of a righteous deed, and then one seeks forgiveness from Allah while intending the righteous deed for Allah the Exalted, is this righteous deed accepted or not? We ask you to clarify this for us.
The Shaykh : This issue is delicate in reality, and my knowledge within the scope of my understanding is better explained by Imam al-Ghazali in his book "Ihya' 'Ulum al-Din", despite the things in it that contradict the Shari'ah, because the man was for a long period of his life drowned in Sufism. But the reality deals with matters concerning the soul, which have very subtle meanings. In this regard, 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 no share in this worship except the burden of sin, for not performing this worship is better for him than doing it. The man stands up to pray at night while people are sleeping so that his neighbors will say, "So-and-so is a righteous man. What Allah willed for him, what Allah willed for them." This is contrary to the one who slept the whole night and did not stand up to pray at night. Why? Because this one who prayed is deserving of the punishment of Allah because he intended in his worship of Allah something other than Allah, so he is burdened with sin and not rewarded. As for the other, he is neither burdened with sin nor rewarded. This is if he entered into worship intending something 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 fact 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. A thought occurs to him: "By Allah, I wish one of my neighbors would hear my voice in reciting the Qur'an, or notice 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 drive 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 the case entirely. This is all I have in answering that question. There are some scholars of hadith who narrate and we engage in tadlis, and we used to think... from tadlis, and some of them were actually mudallis. So we divided the questions into two categories: a category that, in my opinion, as you see, I do not answer previously, and a category that the professor also presented for answering. If the papers in front of me here are necessary, they will be answered immediately, and that is what is answered last. So, tadlis, we are done with it.
The Shaykh : This issue is delicate in reality, and my knowledge within the scope of my understanding is better explained by Imam al-Ghazali in his book "Ihya' 'Ulum al-Din", despite the things in it that contradict the Shari'ah, because the man was for a long period of his life drowned in Sufism. But the reality deals with matters concerning the soul, which have very subtle meanings. In this regard, 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 no share in this worship except the burden of sin, for not performing this worship is better for him than doing it. The man stands up to pray at night while people are sleeping so that his neighbors will say, "So-and-so is a righteous man. What Allah willed for him, what Allah willed for them." This is contrary to the one who slept the whole night and did not stand up to pray at night. Why? Because this one who prayed is deserving of the punishment of Allah because he intended in his worship of Allah something other than Allah, so he is burdened with sin and not rewarded. As for the other, he is neither burdened with sin nor rewarded. This is if he entered into worship intending something 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 fact 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. A thought occurs to him: "By Allah, I wish one of my neighbors would hear my voice in reciting the Qur'an, or notice 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 drive 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 the case entirely. This is all I have in answering that question. There are some scholars of hadith who narrate and we engage in tadlis, and we used to think... from tadlis, and some of them were actually mudallis. So we divided the questions into two categories: a category that, in my opinion, as you see, I do not answer previously, and a category that the professor also presented for answering. If the papers in front of me here are necessary, they will be answered immediately, and that is what is answered last. So, tadlis, we are done with it.