1294 – Mahmūd ibn Labīd (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “What I fear for you most is the lesser form of shirk: ostentation (riyāʾ).” It was recorded by Aḥmad with a ḥasan chain. ⦗1⦘
Hadith grading:
The isnād of this report is good. Zayn al-Dīn al-ʿIrāqī, in his verification of the hadiths of the Iḥyāʾ, wrote: “Aḥmad and al-Bayhaqī in Shuʿab al-īmān transmitted it from Mahmūd ibn Labīd, and its narrators are trustworthy.” Al-Ṭabarānī also related it through the route of Mahmūd ibn Labīd from Rāfiʿ ibn Khadīj.
Al-Shawkānī, in his Tafsīr, said: “Aḥmad, al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Jarīr in his Tahdhīb, al-Ḥākim—who declared it authentic—and al-Bayhaqī narrated from Abū Saʿīd that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: ‘Shall I not inform you of what I fear for you even more than the False Messiah? Hidden shirk: a man who stands to pray only so that another man may see him.’ A similar report from Shaddād ibn Aws was recorded by Aḥmad, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, al-Ṭabarānī, and al-Ḥākim, who also deemed it sound.”
Al-Mundhirī remarked, “Its chain is good,” and al-Haythamī said, “Its transmitters are the narrators of the two Ṣaḥīḥs.”
Numerous other hadiths warn against riyāʾ and describe it as the lesser shirk; al-Suyūṭī collected them all at the end of his commentary on Sūrat al-Kahf in al-Durr al-manthūr.
Vocabulary of the hadith:
• al-shirk al-aṣghar (minor or lesser shirk): Shirk is of two kinds—major, which expels a person from the fold of Islam, and minor, whose criterion is that it constitutes one of the pathways leading to major shirk; the minor form, by itself, does not expel a person from