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Is the dissemination of the Qur’an in a beautiful voice on social media considered showing off or seeking a reputation, and must one cease leading people in prayer because of this?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Congratulations to the questioner on his repentance and engagement in acts of obedience. He is advised to continue with good deeds such as leading people in prayer (imamah) and recording the Qur’an, and not to abandon good deeds for fear of showing off (riya'). The cure for riya' is not to abandon the action, but to strive against the self (nafs) for sincerity and to seek reward from Allah Almighty. Al-Fudayl ibn 'Iyad said: "Abandoning an action for the sake of people is showing off (riya'), and performing an action for the sake of people is polytheism (shirk), and sincerity is for Allah to grant you well-being from both." Ibn Muflih and An-Nawawi clarified that abandoning a prescribed good deed for fear of riya' is not correct, for if a person were to follow this principle, most doors of good would be closed to him. Ibn Al-Jawzi mentioned that abandoning acts of obedience for fear of riya' is not permissible if the motivation for them is religion, as this is one of Satan's stratagems.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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