is greater than the harm that might result from professing it outwardly while one’s intention is corrupted. The very same principle applies to the prescribed prayers: the benefit of performing them is weightier than any evil that could arise from doing so for show, for censure is directed only at the ostentation itself, not at the act that the Law has enjoined.

Second: Reproof is due solely for whatever the Sacred Law has condemned. The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said, “I have not been commanded to pry into people’s hearts, nor to rip open their bellies.” ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said, “If someone displays good to us, we love him and ally ourselves with him on that basis, even if his inner state differs. And if someone displays evil, we despise him for it, even if he claims that his inner state is sound.”

Third: Granting legitimacy to such objections would lead the idolaters and the corrupt to fault the people of righteousness and piety whenever they see someone manifesting a lawful, recommended practice, saying, “He is only showing off.” The sincere would then abandon the open performance of legitimate acts out of fear of their ridicule and blame; good would come to a halt, and the field would be left to the people of shirk