from reciting the Holy Quran. Sometimes, he makes people lazy in performing good deeds. All in all, Satan tries to entrap people in numerous ways to make his enmity apparent. We must be wary of his strikes.

صَلُّوۡا عَلَى الۡحَبِيۡب                 صَلَّى اللّٰهُ عَلٰى مُحَمَّد

Ostentation: A tool of Satan

Dear Islamic sisters! There is no doubt that Satan does not allow us to perform virtuous actions. If we try hard and do manage to carry out some good deeds, then Satan tries his utmost best to prevent our acts of worship, charity and alms from being accepted. He tries to ensure that we make such a mistake in our acts of worship that it goes to waste or he tries to put in our heart that acts of worship done by us must be known to other people. Whether or not anyone else announces our virtues, we ourselves go on to make our good deeds apparent unnecessarily without a Shar’i reason and do not refrain from praising ourselves. Hence we entangle ourselves in the trap of ostentation laid out by Satan.

صَلُّوۡا عَلَى الۡحَبِيۡب                 صَلَّى اللّٰهُ عَلٰى مُحَمَّد

Definition of ostentation

Ameer-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat ‘Allamah Maulana Muhammad Ilyas ‘Attar Qaadiriدَامَـتْ بَـرَكَـاتُـهُـمُ الْـعَـالِـيَـهْ has written in ‘Call to Righteousness’, page 66: To perform worship with any intention other than to please Allah عَزَّوَجَلَّ (is ostentation).

Let’s now listen to some examples of ostentation from page 73 in Ameer-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat’s دَامَـتْ بَـرَكَـاتُـهُـمُ الْـعَـالِـيَـهْ book ‘Call to Righteousness’. Bear in mind! Ostentation is such an action which is fully dependent upon the intention.

Therefore, the examples provided are of ostentation, but in some cases where the intention differs, the ruling does change. Let’s listen to these carefully with the intention of reforming ourselves: