Riya / Showing Off and Ostentation (رِيَاء)

Definition

Riya (رِيَاء) — "showing off, ostentation, performing acts of worship for social recognition rather than for Allah" — is the antithesis of ikhlas (sincerity) and one of the most strongly condemned spiritual diseases in Islam. The Prophet warned: "The thing I fear most for you is minor shirk (al-shirk al-asghar). When asked what it was, he replied: riya." By qualifying it as "minor shirk," the Prophet placed it in the gravest moral category because the riya' performer directs worship to people rather than to Allah, thereby violating tawhid. Qaradawi addresses riya in the context of zakat expenditure — where "prideful showing off" must be avoided — and in the broader framework of halal/haram, where the sincerity of on

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