The Meaning of Allah’s Saying: “Those Who Are Hypocritical” and an Explanation of the Danger of Hypocrisy and Its Criterion

The Shaykh : “Hypocritical” means they perform the deed solely so that people see them. May Allah protect us and you from that. This is a characteristic of whom? The hypocrites. The hypocrite does not care about what is between him and Allah; he cares about what is between him and creation. Did people see me in the first row? Did they see me being deliberate in my bowing and prostration? Did they see me reciting the Qur’an? Did they see me in a state of humility? That is what concerns him. He does not care about the Lord of the Worlds; he cares that people see him. He has no share in the Hereafter. The one who is hypocritical before people in his prayer, or his charity, or his fasting, or his Hajj, or anything else, has no share in the Hereafter. What is the evidence? What is the evidence?
The evidence is that Allah the Exalted said in the Holy Hadith: This means I do not accept it from him and I do not want it. He has no share in the Hereafter. Therefore, I first advise myself and then advise you to be sincere for Allah. Purify your hearts from showing off to people, and this is the hardest thing for a person. A person can perform a prayer, completing its recitation, bowing, prostration, standing, and sitting, completing it entirely according to the Sunnah, but purifying the heart from hypocrisy, that is the difficult part. That is what many people are unable to do, except as Allah wills. For this reason, some of the Salaf said: “I have not striven against my self in anything as I have striven against it in sincerity”. Be careful, my brother, and may Allah protect you and me from the evil of hypocrisy. I have not striven against my self in anything as I have striven against it in what? In sincerity. Sincerity is extremely difficult. If, for example, you see while you are praying that a person is looking at you, and you are pleased by this because the man saw you so that he would say, “This man, what Allah willed, is praying,” it becomes hypocrisy. It becomes hypocrisy. So hypocrisy is one of the afflictions, and regarding acts of worship, it is like the weevil that bores into the grain and destroys it. This means they have no concern except to show off to people. And perhaps we can say that “those who are hypocritical” is part of His saying, or included in His saying: meaning that they are heedless of sincerity in it, so they show off to people.