Chapter on Riyāʾ Before One's Parents in Order to Please Them

Chapter on riyāʾ (ostentation) toward parents and scholars, so that scholars may benefit from it

I said: Is ostentation (riyāʾ) toward the common people permissible so that scholars may benefit from him, while he does not intend worldly gain by that?

He said: No. This is a deception and a fraud. For God, Exalted and Glorious, has commanded you to act for Him alone and to desire Him alone. Your ostentation in order to increase in knowledge is a loss and ignorance. It is as though you said: Let me lose a deed in order to gain more knowledge. For your desire that the common people praise you is the opposite of your desire that God, Exalted and Glorious, praise you. And perhaps your intention is to present your knowledge to Him [damaged] and your desire is that by which you show ostentation before God, Exalted and Glorious, through your deed.

And your ostentation by which you seek to increase in knowledge—since what reaches you from the common people is already decreed, it is the same whether you show ostentation or are sincere, for nothing reaches you except what has been decreed for you, and what has not been decreed for you will not reach you. And even if you informed the common people that you desire them—nay, rather, were they to know that you desire it for other than Him, they would despise you, and you would more likely be denied by the common people because of what became apparent to them of the evil of your inner conscience. [damaged]

So you would only have increased in proof against yourself while gaining no benefit, for His giving it to you while denying you the benefit of it is a punishment. Thus you gained nothing but the loss of the deed and its nullification, while exposing yourself to [divine] loathing.

Vice is evil, and a little evil is the same as a great deal of it. And when evil is mixed with good, all the good becomes evil, as the preceding discussion has elaborated. He discussed that in his book Adab al-Nufus ("Disciplines of the Souls").

He holds that the best course of spiritual spiritual conduct (suluk) for these people is that they cut themselves off with a complete severance from these base traits, and confine themselves at this stage to the obligatory duties (fara'id). When they have completed the purification of their souls from these traits, ikhlāṣ (sincerity) becomes easy and accessible.

In al-Muhasibi's view, removing the obstacles is superior to burdening the soul with ikhlāṣ (sincerity) and other noble virtues of character (akhlaq) while these obstacles remain, because the matter would then be arduous and difficult, and its outcomes uncertain.

And likewise your parents: you only seek their pleasure for the pleasure of God, Exalted and Glorious. And in the pleasure of God, Exalted and Glorious, is the abandonment of riyāʾ (ostentation) for Him, Exalted and Glorious.

It is as if you said: I seek the pleasure of God, Exalted and Glorious, through the displeasure of God, Exalted and Glorious.

This is contradictory and vain — it does not stand up to scrutiny, and no intellect would affirm it. And perhaps it only increases His wrath upon you, because you delude Him by what you outwardly display to Him while inwardly you [claim to] obey God, Exalted and Glorious. So God, Exalted and Glorious, meets you in that state with punishment in his heart, and He increases in loathing and hatred of you, burdened upon his heart, as you do not fear God, Exalted and Glorious, in your innermost conscience. So purify your deed sincerely for Him.

So be mindful of taqwā (God-consciousness) toward God, Exalted and Glorious, for this is a deception: that you seek the pleasure of your parents through what does not please God, Exalted and Glorious, and you seek — so you claimed — the pleasure of God, Exalted and Glorious, while you intend His pleasure through that which brings the displeasure of God, Exalted and Glorious.