Showing Off as a Sign of Hypocrisy
Religion has been sent solely to gain Allah’s pleasure, cultivate the afterlife, and discipline the self – it is a divine order. However, some individuals with hearts filled with ailments don disguises of religiousness in an attempt to obtain worldly benefits. Abdülkadir Geylânî (q.s.) describes this dreadful situation as “hypocrisy” (duplicity) and warns sternly: “Using religion as a tool to earn a living is a sign of hypocrisy… Don’t spend your religion on the world, exhaust it; spend your religion for the afterlife.” Those who preach to people, appear outwardly pious, but secretly worship worldly possessions, status, and fame are on the verge of spiritual bankruptcy. For they are squandering their afterlife capital in exchange for transient and worthless worldly pleasures.
Idolatry of People’s Praise
The most blatant sign of using religion as a tool for worldly gain is performing actions not for Allah, but to ingratiate oneself with the people. Performing sublime acts of worship such as praying, fasting, or giving charity solely so that people say, “How pious he is,” is the darkest face of hypocrisy (showing off). These individuals, forgetting that Allah sees them at every moment, place value on the distant, mortal servants. Geylânî Hazretleri, who said, “You have challenged Truth; your actions show this. You have thrown shame from your eyes. While Truth always sees you, you looked for the gaze of those far away,” states that acts performed for showing off have no value in the sight of Allah and are nothing more than a dry fatigue.
Forgetting the Hereafter and Being Deceived by the Transient
Those who use religion to obtain worldly gains are, in fact, in great ignorance. For the world is a station that will be abandoned shortly. The warning, “You act for the world for the sake of the world. You work for the people of this world, but do you also seek the afterlife?” shows that this contradiction in the heart is unacceptable. A true believer is one who holds the world in his hand but does not let it enter his heart, always keeping the afterlife at the forefront. Those who use their religion as a tool for transient interests will have to account for the benefits they extracted from people while in this world on the Day of Judgment and will see no benefit from those whom they trusted. Salvation lies only in living religion solely for Allah, its true owner.