3. Shaykh al-Islam said: The one who shows off in worship does not merely forfeit the value of that worship, returning with nothing for or against him; rather, along with the nullification of the act he incurs the sin of riyāʾ, and that is counted among the lesser forms of shirk.

4. Ibn Rajab, in his commentary on the Forty Ḥadiths, writes: Acts performed for other than Allah fall into several types:

– Sometimes the deed is pure ostentation, intended solely to impress people for a worldly purpose—as with the hypocrites when they pray. Such riyāʾ is hardly ever committed by a believer in the obligatory prayer and fasting, although it may appear in the obligatory charity, the pilgrimage, and other outward works whose benefit extends to others, for sincerity in them is rare. This deed is unquestionably void, and its doer deserves Allah’s wrath and punishment.

– At other times the deed is for Allah, yet ostentation accompanies it. If that ostentation is present from the very beginning, the sound texts show that the act is likewise invalidated. In Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (2985) it is reported from Abū Hurayrah that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Allah, the Exalted, declares: ‘I am the One who has no need of partners. Whoever performs a deed in which he associates someone else with Me, I abandon him and his association.’”

Among the early generations who held this view—that if an act is tainted by any measure of riyāʾ it becomes null—are ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit, Abū al-Dardāʾ, al-Ḥasan, Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, and others. We know of no disagreement on this among the Salaf, although some later scholars differed.

It is narrated from Mujāhid that he said concerning the pilgrimage of the camel-driver and that of the merchant: “It is complete; none of their reward is diminished.” This is understood to mean that their primary intention was the pilgrimage itself, not the pursuit of profit.