Every human being in every situation must keep away from ostentation. Save yourself from pretense and pride because your inner self is always after you. It tries to manipulate you and produces dangerous desires. It tries to attract you towards such things that become veils between God and man.
The inner self will remain with us as long as we are alive. Therefore, the thoughts we have in our hearts should be in synchronized with the things we say.
God Almighty says:
“Whatever they utter from their tongues is not in their hearts and God is aware of what they conceal in their hearts.”
Hence, we should not tell others to perform deeds we do not do ourselves because God is fully aware of the things we hide in our hearts. Hypocrisy is synonymous with cheating God; pretense is making all others happy except God.
The beloved Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him) said that, “On the day of judgement, deed-records with stamps on them will be brought. God will command the angels to throw these deed records and look at them (the people who performed the deeds). The angels will say that we vow on your honor and glory that we know nothing [about them] except piety. The Almighty will answer, “Yes, this is the truth. [However], their deeds are for someone other than me. I will not accept them. I will only accept those deeds that are for me!”
We perform bad deeds and think that no one is looking at us. We make a show of our good deeds and embarrass others. We fear people but do not fear God. We think of people as superior and the refraining that we do from bad deeds is only for show in front of people. Ask yourself if such deeds are acceptable.
May God keep us safe from hypocrisy and keep our apparent and hidden self as one.
Murshid Waqar Faiz