Don’t turn good deeds into showpiece
By: Dr Aftab jan
The greatest tragedy of our era is that goodness, which was meant to be a sacred, secret connection between the servant and his Creator, has been dragged into the market of worldly applause, likes, and recognition.
Today, what was supposed to be the most private part of our lives has been made into a public theatre of self-promotion? Allah created acts of worship to purify hearts, but we have converted them into ornaments to decorate our social image, and in this painful reality we find ourselves where charity, prayers, modesty, and every form of ibadah is no longer seen for its essence but for its display, so that the servant is no longer standing before his Lord but standing before people, hoping for their approval, their claps, their acknowledgment, forgetting that people’s praises die at the grave, but Allah’s acceptance is eternal; yet we still trade sincerity for temporary applause, even though the Qur’an warns us clearly: “Do not nullify your charities with reminders or injury, like the one who spends his wealth only to be seen by people” (Al-Baqarah 2:264), reminding us that a person who gives charity in secret is never a thief, but sometimes a thief grows a beard to disguise himself as a pious man, and a person who truly prays is never a deceiver, but sometimes deceivers pray to hide their corruption.
A woman who covers for Allah is indeed noble, but sometimes immodest souls put on hijab only to deceive or fashion themselves before people, and this is the painful reality: that goodness has been turned into a showpiece, sincerity has been exchanged for acting, and what was meant for Allah alone has been made a stage for the eyes of creation.
The Prophet ﷺ already warned us of this disease of riyaa’, saying, “The thing I fear most for my ummah is minor shirk,” and when the companions asked, “What is minor shirk?” he replied, “Showing off” (Musnad Ahmad), and yet today we see exactly that, prayers performed for the camera, charity with loud announcements, hijab as a fashion statement, beards as social masks, and the true spirit of worship withers away, leaving only empty rituals that carry no weight in the sight of Allah.
The Qur’an itself delivers a terrifying verdict on this hypocrisy: “So woe to those who pray but are heedless of their prayer, those who show off” (Al-Ma’un 107:4-6), and indeed how many today stand in long rak‘aat, recite with sweet tones, bow and prostrate with beautiful gestures, but their hearts are not trembling for Allah, they are trembling for the judgment of people, worried more about being seen as religious than being accepted by the One who sees all hearts, and this turns the act of prayer into a drama; a drama which impresses men but earns no mercy from Allah, because a prayer without sincerity is like a lifeless corpse, a body without a soul, a hollow shell that does not rise to the heavens; similarly, charity, which was supposed to erase sins like water extinguishes fire, is today spoiled by announcements, photos, and certificates, where every rupee is counted not for Allah’s sake but for public reputation, so that charity becomes not a shield against Hellfire but a bribe for respect.
And the veil, which Allah gave to women as a crown of dignity, a shield of purity, has in some places become no more than an ornament of fashion, worn for trends rather than for taqwa, worn to please society rather than to obey Allah, and when hijab becomes a showpiece, it loses its sanctity, because modesty is not in cloth alone but in the heart, the tongue, and the actions, and the Prophet ﷺ said, “Modesty is part of faith” (Bukhari, Muslim), but when modesty is turned into an exhibition, faith itself weakens and hypocrisy begins to grow in the soul.
Our elders would emphasize that true good deeds should be hidden, because hidden deeds carry light, as Imam Hasan al-Basri رحمه الله said: “A believer hides his good deeds just as he hides his sins,” but today the trend is reversed—sins are hidden, but good deeds are displayed like trophies on social media, in videos, in captions decorated with pious quotes, as if Allah is impressed by filters and followers, as if worship was meant to be consumed by strangers rather than accepted by the Lord of the worlds, and this obsession with likes and praise has strangled sincerity, it has killed the beauty of humility, so much so that one might spend his entire life in prayer, fasting, giving, wearing Islamic symbols, yet on the Day of Judgment Allah will say: “You prayed for people, you gave for people, you covered for people, you displayed for people, and they already rewarded you with their praise; today you have nothing with Me” (paraphrased from Qur’an 4:142, Hadith Muslim), and how painful is that reality, that we may walk to the grave thinking we carried mountains of deeds, only to discover they were ashes blown away by the winds of riyaa’.
The Prophet ﷺ narrated the most frightening example of this: that the first three people to be cast into Hell will not be criminals, but apparently pious people—a scholar who taught for fame, a warrior who fought for honor, and a wealthy man who gave charity for recognition; each will swear “I did it for Allah,” but Allah will reply: “You lied, you did it so people may call you knowledgeable, brave, generous, and they did; you have already taken your reward from them, today you have none with Me” (Muslim, Hadith 1905), and if these are the people who outwardly dedicated their lives to religious deeds, what about us who casually display one small act and already expect to be seen as saints? This is why the Prophet ﷺ said that Allah does not look at our appearance or our wealth, but He looks at our hearts and our deeds (Muslim), and this is the standard we have neglected, replacing it with photo opportunities and public approval.
True goodness is not about the image we project, it is about the sincerity we protect; it is not about the performance before people, it is about the whisper of the heart before Allah; a single tear shed in the silence of the night, unseen by any eye but Allah’s, is more beloved than a thousand public prayers designed to impress; one coin given in secret, hidden so deeply that the left hand does not know what the right has given, carries more light than millions of rupees distributed under camera flashes; the Prophet ﷺ gave glad tidings of seven types who will be shaded under Allah’s Throne on the Day when there is no shade but His, and among them he mentioned the man who gives so secretly that no hand knows what the other has given, and the man who remembers Allah in seclusion until his eyes overflow with tears (Bukhari, Muslim), and this is the essence of sincerity, this is the opposite of show, this is the path we must return to before our souls are consumed by hypocrisy.
So let us end every form of riyaa’, end every obsession with being seen as good, and purify every act solely for Allah; let us not turn our beards into masks to hide corruption, nor our prayers into shields for deception, nor our veils into ornaments of fashion, nor our charity into advertisements for honor.
Instead, let us strive to cleanse our intentions, to pray with broken hearts instead of perfect postures, to give with trembling humility instead of loud announcements, to wear modesty as a devotion not a trend, and to remember always that Allah alone is the Audience that matters; for on that Day when names, titles, likes, and praises will vanish into dust, only sincerity will shine, only hearts devoted to Allah will be saved, only those who did not waste their good deeds for temporary applause will find them preserved as light, and only those who refused to turn goodness into a showpiece will see their deeds transformed into eternal treasures in the Hereafter.
