Riya is an act that is forbidden in the religion of Islam. As Islam is a complete code of life so it guides us about every little to big matter. Likewise, Islam also guides us about the sin of riya and thus in today’s blog we will focus on what is riya and what are the different types of riya. In this way, you will get to know about the concept of riya in Islam and refrain from practicing it.
Riya is an act of showing off your good deeds and character etc., to earn the praise for yourself by people or to appear good in the eyes of people. The good deeds done under riya are not to please Allah (SWT). Thus, it is considered as a sin in Islam. Being Muslims, we should do all good deeds and acts for the sake of Allah and to attain the pleasure of Allah. Hence, it is not permitted to Muslims to perform certain acts in order to attain the pleasure of or praise from the people. Also, the neeyat or intention behind riya is to get appreciative remarks from people and not the to attain the pleasure of Allah which is wrong and forbidden in Islam.
It was asked from the Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAWW) that what is minor shirk. Hazrat Muhammad (SAWW) replied, “Showing off (riya). Allah (SWT) will say, ‘Go to those you were showing off for during life and see if you can find any reward with them.” (Muslim) Thus, this hadith tells us that riya is a minor shirk and how the people performing this act will be treated. Knowing this, we should try our best to refrain from showing off our good deeds for getting praise from people.
We can learn about riya from the following verse of the Holy Quran and saying of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAWW);
“O you who have believed, do not invalidate your charities with reminders or injury as does one who spends his wealth [only] to be seen by the people and does not believe in Allah and the Last Day. His example is like that of a [large] smooth stone upon which is dust and is hit by a downpour that leaves it bare. They are unable [to keep] anything of what they have earned. And Allah does not guide the disbelieving people.” (Quran, 2:264)
Our Prophet Muhammad (SAWW) said, “Shall I not inform you of what I fear for you more than the Masih ad-Dajjal? It is the hidden shirk. It is when a man stands up for prayer, then beautifies his prayer for another to look at.” (Ibn Majah)
After knowing what is riya, it is important to know its types. Following are the types of riya;
Thus, riya is a sin and it has different types about which we should know in order to refrain from performing this act. So, in order to aware you about riya, we wrote about what is riya and its types. As Muslims, we should be careful about our deeds and perform good acts only to please Allah and not other people as it also comes in the category of minor shirk.
