Showing off, Hypocrisy, Self-Admiration, and Conceit

‘I heard Abā ʿAbdillāh (a) say, “A servant who offered prayers [in this world] will be brought forward on the Day of Judgment, so he will say, ‘O Lord, I used to pray seeking Your pleasure.’ But he will be told, ‘Rather, you used to pray so that it would be said: how good his prayer is!’ – ‘Take him to the Fire!’ Another servant who fought in battle will be brought forward and he will say, ‘O Lord, I used to fight [the enemies] seeking Your pleasure.’ But he will be told, ‘Rather, you fought so that it would be said: how brave he is!’ – ‘Take him to the Fire!’ Yet another servant, who had learnt the Qurʾān, will be brought forward. He will say ‘O Lord, I learnt the Qurʾān seeking Your good pleasure.’ He will be told, ‘Rather, you learnt the Qurʾān so that it would be said: how good is his voice!’ – ‘Take him to the Fire!’ A servant who has spent his wealth in charity will also be brought forward, and he will say, ‘O Lord, I gave away my wealth seeking Your pleasure.’ He will be told, ‘Rather you gave charity so that it would be said: how generous he is!’ – ‘Take him to the Fire!’”

“I heard Abā ʿAbdillāh (a) say, ‘Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, said, ‘I am the most needless of all who are needless of a partner, so whoever ascribes to Me another as a partner in any action he undertakes, I will not accept it from him. And I do not accept anything but that which was done only for Me exclusively.’”

“A scholar once came to a worshipper and said to him, ‘How is your prayer?’ He replied, ‘You are asking me about my prayer while I have been worshipping Allah since such-and-such a time?’ So he asked him, ‘How are you weeping?’ He replied, ‘Verily I weep until my tears flow [down my face].’ So the scholar said to him, ‘Indeed your laughter while you fear Allah is better than your weeping while you are self-conceited before Allah! Verily the one who is self-conceited due to his actions has none of his deeds ascend [to Allah].’”

“Prophet Dāwūd (a) said, ‘I will surely worship Allah today with such a worship, and will recite such a lovely recital, the likes of which I have never done before.’ So he entered his prayer niche and did so. When he had completed his prayer, he [suddenly] saw a frog in the prayer niche. It said to him, ‘O Dāwūd, are you pleased with yourself today due to your worship and recitation?’ ‘Yes,’ he replied. It said, ‘Do not be pleased [or impressed] by it, for verily I glorify Allah every night one thousand times, and with each glorification of mine three thousand praises branch out. And [at times] when I am in the depths of the water and a bird makes a sound in the air, I assume that it might be hungry so I come up to the surface of the water in order for it to eat me, while having committed no sin [to deserve that].’”

he heard saying, “Prophet Dāwūd (a) was once in his prayer niche when a small red worm crept by until it came to the place of his prostration. Dāwūd looked at it and said to himself, ‘Why was this worm created?’ So Allah inspired it ‘Speak!’ So it said, ‘O Dāwūd, have you heard my sound as I move, or have you noticed my tracks on the smooth earth?’ Dāwūd replied, ‘No.’ So it said, ‘Verily Allah hears my crawl, my breathing, and my sound, and He sees the tracks of my movement [on the earth], so lower your voice [in humility].’”

“Verily Allah sent two angels to the people of a city in order to overturn it upon its inhabitants. When they arrived at the city, they found a man supplicating to Allah and beseeching Him. So one of them told the other, ‘Do you not see this supplicant?’ He replied, ‘I see him, but I will proceed to do as my Lord has commanded me.’ ‘I, on the other hand, will not do anything before returning to my Lord [and asking about the man],’ said the first angel. So he returned to Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, and said, ‘My Lord, I went to the city and found Your servant so-and-so supplicating to You and beseeching You.’ He said, ‘Do as I have commanded you, for indeed that man’s face has never changed out of anger for My sake, ever.’”

“Verily a group of people who believed in Mūsā (a) said, ‘If we were to go to the army of Firʿawn and join it, we would acquire some of his worldly wealth, and then when what we hope for from the arrival of Mūsā transpires, we will go to him [and join him].’ So that is what they did. When Mūsā and those in his company turned to flee [from Firʿawn], they mounted their horses and speedily rode towards Mūsā, hoping to catch up with him and his companions in order to join them. But Allah sent angels who struck the faces of their mounts thereby causing them to return towards the army of Firʿawn. Hence, they were among those who drowned with Firʿawn.”

“I heard Abā ʿAbdillāh (a) say, ‘Whoever does a deed for [the sake of] Allah, his reward is upon Allah, and whoever does a deed for [praise from] the people, his reward is upon the people. Verily every act done to show off is [a form of] polytheism.’”

“I asked Abā ʿAbdillāh (a) about the verse wherein Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, says: Do not assert your own virtue. He knows best who is truly virtuous (Q53:32). So he said, ‘It is when a person says: I prayed last night, and I fasted yesterday, and other statements such as these.’ Then he (a) said, ‘There were some people who would say in the mornings, “We prayed last night and we fasted yesterday,” so ʿAlī (a) said, “But as for me, I sleep at night and in the day, and were I to find between them any other time, I would have slept in it as well.”’” [1]

“There was a worshipper among the Banī Isrāʾīl with whom [Prophet] Dāwūd (a) was impressed, so Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, revealed to him, ‘Do not be impressed by anything [you see] from him, for verily he is a hypocrite [who is only showing off].’ Then the man died, so they came to Dāwūd and said, ‘The man has died.’ He said to them, ‘Bury your companion.’ This caused some discontentment among the Banī Isrāʾīl and they said, ‘How could he not attend [this pious man’s funeral]?’ After the man had been washed, fifty men stood and bore witness, [swearing] by Allah, that they knew nothing but good [about him]. After they had prayed over him, another fifty men came forward and bore witness, [swearing] by Allah, that they knew of nothing but good [about him]. So Allah, the Almighty, revealed to Dāwūd (a), ‘What prevented you from testifying for so-and-so?’ He said, ‘[I was prevented by] what you had informed me of his affair.’ He said, ‘Though he was truly such, since a group of rabbis and monks have testified, swearing by Me, that they did not know anything but good [about him], I have accepted their testimony regarding him and forgiven him despite what I know about him.’”

“I had written to him asking him about a [religious] question, so he wrote back to me saying, ‘Verily Allah says: Indeed the hypocrites seek to deceive Allah but it is He who causes them to be deceived. When they stand up for prayer, they do so sluggish, to be seen by the people, and remember Allah only a little, wavering all the time between this and that, belonging neither to one side nor the other. And whoever Allah leaves to stray, you will never find for him a way (Q4:142-3). These [people] are not from the progeny of the Messenger of Allah, and they are not from the faithful believers, and they are not [even] from the Muslims. Rather, they manifest belief [outwardly] but hide disbelief and rejection [of faith in their hearts] – may Allah curse them.’”

“It is [a warning to] the servant who performs an act of worship without seeking the pleasure of Allah; rather, he only seeks the commendation of people [for his piety] through which he desires renown. That is the one who associates others in the worship of his Lord.” Then he added, “There is no servant who hides a good [deed] and days go by, but that Allah manifests good for him and there is no servant who hides an evil [deed] and days pass, but that Allah will manifest evil for him.”

“Verily the servant may commit a sin and then feel remorse for it, and later [he may] perform a deed by which he is pleased such that he becomes remiss and turns away from his previous state [of remorse and humility]. Indeed, it would have been better for him to remain in that previous state of his, rather than what he later entered into.”

“Verily Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, says, ‘Indeed among My servants is one who asks Me for [the ability to perform] certain acts of worship so that I may love him, but I turn that away from him so that he would not be pleased with [himself and] his deed.’”

“The Messenger of Allah (ṣ) said, ‘Three things deliver [one to safety] and three things destroy.’ They asked, ‘O Messenger of Allah, what are the things that save [a person]?’ He said, ‘Fearing Allah in secret as though you see Him, for if you cannot see Him, surely He can see you; exercising justice in happiness and anger; and [thirdly,] moderation in [times of] abundance and poverty.’ They asked, ‘O Messenger of Allah, and what are the destroyers?’ He (ṣ) said, ‘Vain desire that is followed, the adoption of stinginess, and for a person to be pleased with himself.’”

“[O Abā Baṣīr], they are a group who describe justice with their tongues then contravene it with something else [in action].”

he heard saying, “Whichever servant has a handsome appearance along with an untainted position, then he humbles himself before Allah, he will be among the special [chosen] ones of Allah.” He (the narrator) said, “I asked, ‘What is [the meaning of] an untainted position?’ He replied, ‘He should not have been sullied by debauchery.’”

he heard saying, “Verily Prophet Ayyūb (a) said, ‘O Lord, I have never asked You for anything of this world, ever.’ And an inkling of self-admiration entered his heart. Then a cloud approached him and called out to him, ‘O Ayyūb, who enabled you to do this?’ [Thus he realised the mistake, and turning to his Lord] he said, ‘You, O Lord!’”

“Whoever manifests for the people what Allah loves and fights against Allah by [doing] what He dislikes,[1] he will meet Allah while He loathes him.”