Riyā '

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Riyā ' ( Arabic رياء, DMG riyāʾ  ' wanting to be seen') is a disapproving term in Islamic ethics for ostentatiously displayed piety and religious hypocrisy, in which acts of worship are not performed for God and because of their otherworldly value, but to impress other people. Since Hans Bauer it has been customary to translate the term with “eye servicing” or “eye service.” The opposite term to Riyā 'is Ichlās ( iḫlāṣ ; “sincerity”, see sura al-Ichlās ), in which the intention of the agent is pure The theologian as-Saiyid asch-Sharīf al-Jurdschānī (d. 1413) defined Riyā 'as "failure of the Ichlā to act by paying attention to something other than God" ( tark al-iḫlāṣ fī l- ʿAmal bi-mulāḥaẓat ġair Allāh fīhi ). The elaboration of the doctrine of Riyā 'is especially the merit of the two thinkers al-Muhāsibī (d. 857/58) and al-Ghazālī (d. 1111). The one who practices Riyā', is called Murā'ī in Arabic .

Word origins, translations and Koranic statements

The word riyāʾ is a verbal noun to the 3rd stem of the Arabic root r-ʾ-y ("see"). It actually means "looking at others with the wish to be noticed and valued by them", but is also translated as "eye servicing", "hypocrisy", "hypocrisy" or "desire for pleasure". Julian Obermann preferred the analogous translation with "the religious appearance". Hans Wehr gives the meaning of the underlying verb as “act so that people will see it; Drive eye service ”.

The expression also occurs three times in the Koran in a slightly different orthography ( riʾāʾ ) , in each case in the combination riʾāʾ al-nās ("looking at people"). So in sura 2: 264 and 4:38 those are scourged who donate their wealth for alms "to be seen by the people" ( riʾāʾ al-nās ), and in sura 8:47 those people who are arrogant, and "To be seen by the people" ( riʾāʾ al-nās ), who moved out of their homes.

The verb, from which the verbal noun Riyā 'is derived, is also used in two places in the Quran in connection with prayer , namely

  • in the early Koranic sura 107: 4-6: "Woe to those who pray who don't pay attention to their prayer, who just want to be seen ( allaḏīn hum yurāʾūna )" and
  • in the Qur'anic word Sura 4: 142, coined on the Munāfiqūn : "Behold, the hypocrites want to deceive God, but he deceives them. And when they stand up for prayer, they do it carelessly, wanting to be seen by the people ( yurāʾūna n -nās ), and they remember God very little. "

history

The traditions of Shaddād ibn Aus and other early Muslims

Among the early Muslims to inbesonderer of the has Ansar belonging prophet companion Schaddād ibn From (d. 677) commented on the Riya '. Shortly before his death he is said to have said: "What I fear most for you is the riyā 'and the hidden desire ( aš-šahwa al-ḫafīya )." Yaʿlā, the son of Shaddād ibn Aus, narrated from his father that he and his followers would have equated with "little shirk " ( širk aṣġar ) ", i.e. idolatry, in the time of the divine messenger Riyā ' . Shaddād is also equated with the following Word of the prophet quotes: "He who fasts and displays this is doing shirk. Whoever performs the ritual prayer and shows it off is doing Schirk. Who alms . Are and this showcases, operates Shirk "In another tradition he quotes the Prophet as saying:" What I did for my Ummah . Fear most is the Riya ' "A more advanced tradition can ibn Schaddād Statement:

“I saw the prophet crying and asked him, 'What makes you cry, O Messenger of God?' He replied: 'I fear the shirk for my ummah. They do not worship an idol, the sun and the moon, or a stone, but they display their works. '"

The Koran exegete Mujāhid ibn Jabr (d. 722) said that the statement in sura 35:10: “But those who devise evil schemes will (one day) expect a heavy punishment. And nothing will come of their intrigues. ”Referring to the people of the Riyā '. ʿIkrima (d. 723), the client of ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAbbās taught that God does not reward man for his work but for his intention because there is no riyā 'with the intention. Qatāda ibn Diʿāma (d. 736) is said to have said: "When man practices Riyā ', God says:" Look at my servant. He makes fun of me. "

The early Sufis also participated in the development of the idea of ​​the need to avoid riyā '. The kufic scholar Sufyān ath-Thaurī (d. 778) is said to have recognized that he would never have recognized the intricacies of Riyā 'if Abū Hāschim as-Sūfī had not made them known to him. This Abū Hāschim was said to be the first to be nicknamed aṣ-Ṣūfī .

Textual elaboration of the concept

al-Muhāsibī

The first detailed analysis of the concept comes from al-Hārith al-Muhāsibī (d. 857/58), one of the older disciples of al-Junaid . He devoted an entire chapter to the Riyā 'in his work ar-Riʿāya li-ḥuqūq Allāh ("Care for the Rights of God"). This chapter is divided into 43 sections based on 79 traditions. Riyā 'he defines as "the orientation of man towards people in obedience to his Lord ( irādat al-ʿabd al-ʿibād bi-ṭāʿat rabbi-hī ) or the" orientation towards creatures in obedience to God "( irādat al -maḫlūqīn bi-ṭāʿat Allaah ). With a shrewd psychological approach, he denounces the various manifestations of false piety. His criticism is primarily directed against the class of "Koran readers" ( qurrāʾ ), whom he accused of wanting to earn praise for religious acts.

Al-Muhāsibī declares that one who knows his great need for pure good deeds in the resurrection will be urged from his heart to beware of riyā '. The rational is urged by his reason to beware of riyā 'and affectation towards people and to strive for God alone, so that his knowledge and work are directed towards him alone. A hadeeth qudsī quoted by al-Muhāsibī says that God will not accept any work in which there is even the weight of a mustard seed of riyā '.

The fact that the omission of eye service is a prerequisite for salvation in the hereafter is seen by al-Muhāsibī as proven by a hadith which says that Mohammed replied to a man who asked him about the means of salvation: “That you do not act according to what God has commanded you, if you are aiming for people. ”From this and from other relevant hadiths al-Muhāsibī also derived his definition of Riyā '. He also sees evidence that the religious acts performed for people bring ruin in the following Quranic word:

“Those who are in the mood for this worldly life and its tinsel (w. Jewelry) we pay for their (meritorious) actions (already) in it (ie in this world) in full, and nothing is cut off from them. These are those who can only expect hellfire in the hereafter. And what they have done in him (ie in this world) is void, and what they have done (throughout their life) is nullified. "

- Sura 11: 15-16, transl. R. Paret

According to al-Muhāsibī, in order to escape from riyā ', at the moment when something occurs that provokes riyā', the believer must realize that it is riyā 'and then abhor it. Josef van Ess sees it as proven that "the deepening of the whole concept of complex riyā' " is the performance of al-Muhāsibīs.

Riyā 'traditions in collections of hadiths

Riyā 'is also the subject of various sections in the collections of canonical hadiths. The Arabic word sumʿa , which can be translated as "ear service", is often used alongside Riyā ' . Thus, in his Ṣaḥīd , Muslim ibn al-Hajjādsch (d. 875) cites a hadith from Abū Huraira , according to which he who fights for eye service and ear service ( riyāʾ wa-sumʿa ) and suffers martyrdom deserves hell. And Muhammad ibn ʿĪsā at-Tirmidhī (d. 892) included a hadith in his Kitāb aš-Šamāʾil according to which the Prophet rode a shabby saddle worth only four dirhams during the Hajj and then asked God to make his pilgrimage to do a Hajj without eye or ear service.

A particularly large number of Riyā'-related traditions are presented in the work Shuʿab al-īman by al-Baihaqī (d. 1066), the 45th chapter of which deals with "the sincerity of acting for God and the omission of eye service" ( iḫlāṣ al-ʿamal li-Llāh wa-tark ar-riyāʾ ). Al-Baihaqī not only mentions hadith in this chapter, but also logia of various ascetics and masters such as al-Hasan al-Basrī , Sufyān ath-Thaurī , Fudail ibn ʿIyād, Dhū n-Nūn al-Misrī , Sari al-Saqatī, Sahl at-Tustarī , al-Junaid , etc., which belong to the Riyā 'theme. According to an anecdote cited by al-Baihaqī in his work, Abū Yaʿqūb Ibn Rāhawaih (d. 853) once came to the Tahirid ruler ʿAbdallāh ibn Tāhir , with a date up his sleeve, which he ate. The ruler then said to him: "O Abū Yaʿqūb, if your omission of riyā 'is not itself riyā', then there is no one in the world who practices riyā 'less than you." The anecdote shows that already at that time there was an awareness that efforts to omit Riyā 'could also represent Riyā'.

al-Ghazālī

Also, al-Ghazali (d. 1111) discussed in detail Riya '. He dedicated the 28th book of his main work Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm ad-dīn to the "disapproval of fame and display" ( ḏamm al-ǧāh wa-r-riyāʾ ). Al-Ghazālī begins by saying that Riyā 'is forbidden and that the eye servant ( al-murāʾī ) is hated by God. In pious activities such as Sadaqa , the salad , the fasting, the Ghazw and the Hajj , applies that if the agent alone would ostentation, were ineffective because the actions on the underlying intentions are judged. If, on the other hand, the agent strives for reward and praise in the other world at the same time, then what Saʿīd ibn al-Musaiyab said applies, namely that there is no otherworldly reward for it.

In his remarks on Riyā ', al-Ghazālī ties in strongly with al-Muhāsibī, but systematizes the material even more strongly (see below). In a separate section he explains that failure to obey for fear of riyā 'is not a solution to the problem because it is itself riyā'. In fact, there is no difference between failing to obey out of fear that people will regard you as an eye servant and doing an act of obedience nicely out of fear that you will be considered negligent by them. Salvation lies only in imposing upon one's heart to recognize the evil of riyā '.

Al-Ghazālī deals with Riyā 'in other places in his main work. At one point he states that Riyā 'hypocrisy ( nifāq ) equals and is on the same level as opposition ( ʿiṣyān ). In his book on " Disapproval of Pride" ( ḏamm al-ġurūr ) he points out that in preaching about the Riyā 'one can again fall into the Riyā'.

Significance in later Islamic piety

Among the most important Islamic movements that were directed against Riya 'that Malāmatīya belonged to Khorasan . When Abū ʿAmr Ismāʿīl ibn Nudschaid (d. 977), an important representative of this movement, was once asked whether the Malāmatī had a special quality, he replied: "Yes, he does not do any eye service on the outside, does not presume inside, and nothing stays with him. " In addition, the saying goes on from him: "A person only achieves something of the rank of people when all his actions before him are regarded as eye service and all his conditions as presumptions". Richard Hartmann judged that "the whole tendency of Malāmītum" is directed against Riyā 'and presumption ( daʿwā ) and that hardly anything expresses the "essence of Malāmītum" so succinctly and clearly as the rejection of the attitudes denoted by the two terms.

Although the founders of Sufism were very critical of the Riyā ', in later times Sufis themselves had a reputation for ostentatiously displaying piety. Thus the Meccan scholar writes Ali al-Qari in one of his (died 1606th) Manasik -Werke over the circulation around the Kaaba , "henceforth known what with him at eye service ( riyā' ), ears Service ( sum'a ), pride, complacency and loud shouting occurs with him, especially when it comes to people who appear in the form of students ( ṭalabat al-ʿilm ) or Sufis. ”On the other hand, al-Qārī believed that he found the correct attitude among the representatives of the Naqshbandīya order even belonged. Thus, in his commentary on at-Tirmidhīs Kitāb aš-Šamā eril, he writes : "As for the Naqshbandīya, their main aim is to conceal their condition and to remove eye and ear service from their deeds".

Even today, the principle of avoiding riyā 'plays an important role in Islamic piety. In Indonesia, for example, it is the subject of religious advisers from pious circles who meet to read the Koran together. Because of this principle, some young Muslims also have scruples about participating in collective activities in which social media report on their own pious acts such as reciting the Quran or making Sadaqa donations. Many Muslims prefer to make sadaqa donations anonymously so as not to expose themselves to the danger of riyā '. Some organizers of online Quran reading groups, in order to avoid the danger of riyā ', have changed the reporting system in such a way that members only report if they have failed to read their assigned reading section of the Quran.

Systematizations of the Riyā '

Obvious and covert riyā '

Al-Ghazālī explains that there are two forms of Riyā ', overt ( ǧalīy ) and covert ( ḫafīy ). This distinction is one of the earliest to be made in the Riyā '. Al-Muhāsibī quotes Wahb ibn Munabbih (d. 732) with the statement: "The overt eye service is a lie, the hidden one is a ruse" ( ar-riyāʾ abyanu-hū kiḏb, wa-aḫfā-hu makīda ). He explains this with the fact that the eye service remains hidden from the one who is negligent and becomes clear to the one who examines it with knowledge and looks at it with knowledge. On the basis of such statements, Julian Oberman translates riyāʾ ḫafī with "unconscious desire for recognition ".

According to a hadith narrated by Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Abū l-Qāsim at-Tabarānī , the Riyā 'forms fine impurities ( šawāʾib ) which are more hidden than the crawling of ants ( dabīb an-naml ). Al-Ghazālī explains that this is part of the harshness ( šidda ) of the riyā '. The great scholars slipped on these defilements, not to mention the simple believers, who did not know about the evils of instinctual souls and the dangers for the heart. Al-Ghazālī declares that the manifest riyā 'is the one who drives one to work, even if one is still seeking otherworldly reward. Somewhat more covert is the Riyā 'that does not drive one to work on its own, but makes the work easier for one with which one strives for the face of God. As an example, al-Ghazālī cites someone who usually spends the night with prayer and feels troublesome at the same time, but who finds night prayer easy when a guest stays with him. Even more hidden is that Riyā 'who has no influence on the work and does not make it easier for you to do it, but is hidden deep in the heart. One can only recognize him by certain signs ( ʿalāmāt ). The clearest sign for the covert riyā 'is that one rejoices when other people learn about one's own worship. Even more hidden is the Riyā 'where you hide and are not happy about the visibility of your own worship, but when you see people who like it when they greet you first, treat you with special respect, shower you with praise Fulfill your wishes, meet you in commercial transactions and make room for you, but conversely be annoyed if none of this happens because you offset the respect you get with the worship you hide. All of these things, al-Ghazālī explains, are on the verge of nullifying the reward beyond.

The five realms of Riyā '

Altogether, al-Muhāsibī and al-Ghazālī name five areas of display: the body ( badan ), the exterior ( zīy ), the speech ( qaul ), the action ( ʿamal ) and the society ( ṣaḥāba ) in which one finds oneself. For this they give the following examples:

  1. Body. By showing emaciation and paleness, one could convey the impression of exertion, great sorrow for the cause of religion and great fear of the hereafter , and suggest that one fasts a lot and spends the nights waking and praying. Al-Muhāsibī quotes in this context the alleged Jesus saying: "If one of you fasts, he anoint his head and comb his hair and make up his eyes". Josef van Ess sees this as an echo of Mt 6.16  EU .
  2. Exterior. Al-Muhāsibī explains that by appearing with disheveled hair, shaved mustache, and hair plucked, one can create the impression of following the Prophet in appearance. With a prayer mark , coarse and tattered clothing, rolled up trouser legs, shortened sleeves, and patched shoes, one could pretend to be one of the people of religion. Al-Ghazālī adds that by lowering the head while walking, moving slowly, wearing wool and dirty and tattered clothing, one can pretend to emulate the example of pious servants of God. This also includes wearing a patchwork skirt, praying on the prayer rug and wearing blue clothing in conformity with the Sufis while at the same time being ignorant of Sufi truths, and masking the face with a wrap with the aim of attracting attention.
  3. Speech. The riyā 'in al-Muhāsibī includes the preaching of wisdom, arguing in religious disputations , memorizing hadiths , displaying religious knowledge, speaking the Dhikr aloud , and the domain of what is right and forbidding what is reprehensible . Al-Ghazālī supplements various other behaviors such as the know-it-all correction of people reciting hadith.
  4. Action. Al-Muhasibi explains that the one who wants to give the impression of piety, his prayer to take a long while to Rukū' and Sujud expands. Long silence is also part of it. When walking and meeting, he humbly behaves, lowering his eyelids and head, and when begging he adopts a respectful posture. He immediately gives up this attitude if he feels unobserved. Then he moves faster again. Al-Ghazālī adds that there are people who, even when they are alone, adopt a cautious posture so that they do not have to change their posture and type of movement when other people join them. He thinks that the riyā 'is particularly great with these people because they do this not out of fear of God, but to impress other people.
  5. Society. Some people of religion also try to impress their own kind by associating with scholars who are superior to them in piety and knowledge. Some, al-Ghazālī explains, only invite a scholar to visit so that they can say afterwards that he has visited him. Others invite a ruler to say afterwards that he is seeking blessings from him because of his high rank in religion . Some also bragged about the numerous sheikhs they met. With all of this one merely strives for fame and high rank in people's hearts

The gradations of the riyā 'according to al-Ghazālī

Al-Ghazālī explains in Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm ad-dīn that there are various degrees of riyā '( daraǧāt ), some of which are worse and some of which are less bad. He attributes these differences to the three basic elements of Riyā ', which can be differently expressed, namely (1) what is displayed ( al-murāʾā bihī ), (2) what is to be achieved with what is displayed ( al-murāʾā li- aǧlihī ), and (3) the riyā 'intention itself ( nafs qaṣd ar-riyāʾ ). He now divides the gradations of the Riyā 'into three basic elements.

According to the riyā 'intention itself

Al-Ghazālī explains that the Riyā 'can be completely detached from the desire for worship and otherworldly reward or it can also be connected to it. The desire for otherworldly wages, in turn, can be stronger or weaker, so that it can be divided into four levels:

  1. The grossest form of riyā 'is that in which one has no interest whatsoever in otherworldly reward. This is the case, for example, with the one who prays when he is among people, but lets it go when he is alone, or with the one who prays among people without purity . He practices pure riyā ', which is hated by God. It is the same with someone who only gives sadaqa out of fear of people's rebuke, but does not do it when he is alone. That is the highest level of riyā '.
  2. In the second stage of riyā 'the person also strives for otherworldly reward, but this intention is only weakly developed, so that if he is alone, this motive is insufficient to induce him to perform the act of worship. Such action is also sinful.
  3. In the third stage, the desire for display and the desire for otherworldly reward are equally strong. Al-Ghazālī states that while he hoped that those who did so would be saved, traditions tended to point otherwise.
  4. In the fourth stage, the desire to impress people has an intensifying effect on their activity, but without it the person does not give up worship. Al-Ghazāli suspects that in this case the otherworldly reward for the act is not entirely lost, but is reduced according to the proportion of the riyā '.

According to the exhibitor

Al-Ghazālī explains that what is exhibited is the acts of worship, whereby the display can concern the basics ( uṣūl ) of acts of obedience ( ṭāʿāt ) or only their properties ( auṣāf ).

Basics of acts of obedience

The display of the basics of acts of obedience is, according to al-Ghazālī, the worst form of riyā '. He distinguishes between three levels:

  1. Display of faith. It is the coarsest form of Riyā ', and whoever does it is said to burn forever in hellfire. It occurs when someone speaks the two formulas of the Shahāda and pretends to be Islam, while his inner being denies their meaning. Al-Ghazālī explains that the Qur'anic verses referring to the Munāfiqūn , such as Sura 63: 1 and Sura 4: 142, apply to a person who acts in this way . Although the hypocrisy of people converting to Islam had become rare in his time, there was a lot of hypocrisy from those who had turned away from religion inwardly. Some of them denied paradise, hell and the afterlife like the heretics , others asserted the abolition of Sharia law like the antinomists or believed in heresies while outwardly pretending to believe. Al-Ghazālī believes that these people are forever exiled to hell because their condition is worse than that of the obvious unbelievers.
  2. Display of the basic acts of worship with existing belief in the basis of religion. This behavior is also serious with God, but is far below the first level. As examples, al-Ghazālī cites the one who only prays when he is in a group, the one who seeks solitude in Ramadan in order to be able to eat during the day, and the one who only fears the people's blame on the day Participates in Friday prayers, is respectful of one's parents, or takes part in Ghazw activities or Hajj . Such an attitude, in which the fear of people is greater than the fear of God, al-Ghazālī considers to be extreme ignorance ( ǧahl ), which is hateful.
  3. Display of supererogatory acts that are not of a duty nature. As an example, al-Ghazālī names the usual compulsory prayer in the community, visiting the sick, participating in a funeral, performing a washing for the dead, the Tahajud prayer at night, or fasting on ʿArafa day, ʿĀshūrā ' day, Monday or Thursday. If one does these things only to get people's praise, be it riyā '. In this case God knows that in a state of solitude he would limit himself to canonical duties only. Someone who behaves in this way is different from the preceding because he does not do these things for fear of people's blame. Therefore the otherworldly punishment is only half as high with him.
Properties of acts of obedience

Here, too, there are three levels according to al-Ghazālī:

  1. Display of an act, the omission of which renders the service incomplete. As an example, al-Ghazali calls the one who seeks Rukū' , Sujud shorten and Koran reading when he is alone as he carefully done of prayer in the presence of people these parts. He compares this behavior to someone who sits down rudely in front of a free person, but then takes a special straight posture when his slave boy walks in. This is a preference of the slave over the master. It is the same with those who pay Zakāt with inferior coins or inferior grain. This is also prohibited riyā ', but less serious than the display of the acts of obedience itself.
  2. Display of actions that are not necessary to complete the worship service, such as the expansion of rukūʿ, sudschūd and reading the Koran during prayer, retreat into solitude and long silence during Ramadan fasting, the choice of particularly high-quality goods for zakāt and release especially expensive slaves in connection with acts of expiation ( kaffāra ).
  3. Display of additional acts that fall outside the circle of super-eragoric acts ( nawāfil ). This includes appearing early for common prayer, striving for prayer in the first row or on the right side of the Imam . All of these are things that God knows He would not do on his own. All of this is to be disapproved of.

According to the purpose of the display

Al-Ghazālī explains that every display has a purpose (e.g. money, fame) and that the riyā 'can then also be divided into three levels:

  1. The first and worst stage of riyā 'is when it is used to enable an opposed action. This kind of riyā 'is given, for example, when someone strives with his worship, his piety and abstinence from dubious things to gain a position as trustee, qādī or administrator of foundations or orphan's property in order to then embezzle the assets in question. Or if he strives to be entrusted with the distribution of the zakāt or the alms payments , in order to acquire as much as possible for himself. Or when the funds for the caravan of pilgrims are entrusted to him and he then embezzles some or all of it or makes the pilgrims docile. It also happens that some people dress in the manner of a Sufi and act like a devout, and utter wise speeches in sermons, while their real intention is to make themselves popular with a woman or a young man in order to express themselves in this to approach immorally ( wa-innamā qaṣduhu at-taḥabbub ilā imraʾa au ġulām li-aǧl al-fuǧūr ). These people, al-Ghazālī explains, take part in class sessions, sermons, and recitations of the Qur'an and pretend to be interested in science and the Qur'an, when in reality they are only concerned with looking at women and young men. They went on Hajj in order to take possession of a woman or a youth who is with them. These people, as al-Ghazālī sums up, are the hypocrites most hated by God ( abġaḍ al-murāʾīn ilā Llāh ), because they use an act that is actually intended to be obedient ( ṭāʿa ) to God as an instrument for an opposing act ( maʿṣiya ) made and misused them as commodities in their outrageousness. It is the same with those who, having committed an offense, sought to avert suspicion by displaying fear of God .
  2. In the second stage, the riyā 'is used to gain a legal worldly advantage, such as wealth or marriage to a beautiful or noble woman. For example, anyone who flaunts sadness and crying and preoccupies himself with preaching and admonition so that he will be given money and women will want him to marry falls into this category. It also includes those who want to marry the daughter of a pious scholar and therefore show him knowledge and worship. All this, according to al-Ghazālī, is forbidden riyā ', but not as serious as the riyā' of the first category.
  3. In the third stage, a person does not seek happiness such as fortune or marriage, but rather displays his worship for fear that he may be considered inferior and not counted among the higher class ( ḫāṣṣa ) and renunciation ( zuhhād ) , but to the common people ( ʿāmma ). As an example, al-Ghazālī cites the one who runs fast in itself, but then, when people see him, slows down his pace and walks slowly so that one is in awe of him and does not say that he belongs to the people of light-heartedness. Others, when invited to dinner, turn down the invitation to make people think they are fasting. Some should do this by not saying clearly that they are fasting but offering some other excuse to make them think they are hiding their worship. Al-Ghazālī condemns this behavior as a combination of two wickednesses ( ǧamʿ ḫabīṯain ) because, firstly, the persons concerned falsely give the impression that they are fasting, but then also pretend to realize the principle of Ichlās and not to practice any eye-service. He explains that he who is really muchlis, who realizes the principle of Ichlā, is not interested in how people think of him. If he has no desire to fast and God knows it too, he does not want people to think something that is contrary to God's knowledge and this then becomes a deception. On the other hand, if he really desires to fast for God, let himself be content with the knowledge of God and do not add anything else to him.

Religious and Secular Riyā '

A peculiarity of al-Muhāsibī compared to earlier thinkers was that he took the term Riyā 'wider than they did, insofar as it denoted not only religious "hypocrisy", but also the eye service that secular people do. In describing the Riyā 'of worldly people, he again goes through the five areas of Riyā' (body, appearance, speech, action and society). In relation to the body, he explains that worldly people wanted to attract attention with their corpulence, fresh color and upright posture. In terms of appearance, the riyā 'of the men of the world consists in wearing elegant, long-cut dresses and colored tailasānen. The riyā 'in speech among men of the world are eloquence ( faṣāḥa ), the argumentative strength when arguing about rights, memorizing poems and the beautiful voice when reciting poetry and song. According to al-Muhāsibī, there are three things in total that lead people to religious and secular riyā ': the love of praise, the fear of blame and lowliness, and the greed for worldly goods. But worldly riyā 'is harmless in al-Muhāsibī's opinion because it is not associated with insincerity. It is cited for the sake of completeness. The eye service of the pious is more important to him.

The riyā'-term is similarly broad in al-Ghazālī. He explains that the basis of Riyā 'is "the pursuit of rank in people's hearts by showing good character towards them". The name is however limited by habit to the pursuit of rank in the heart through the display of acts of worship (( ibādāt ). He specifies that only the display of pious acts ( ibādāt ) is prohibited, not the display of other things. For example, the beautiful clothes that people put on when they go out to meet people are not forbidden because it is not a display of piety but of prosperity.

In addition to those who practice religious riyā 'and those who practice secular riyā', al-Muhāsibī mentions a third class of people, namely those who wanted to get praise in both the religious and secular areas. According to his description, they wear good clothes, but roll them up; they wear good sandals, but of a different cut from the crowd, so that, despite their quality, they conform to the costume of the people of religion. They wear good clothes that are approved by both pious and worldly people because they seek to gain respect from both. Other people of this class try on the one hand to impress the rulers by wearing particularly sophisticated clothing or by having a particularly beautiful mount, and on the other hand sit together with the pious in an artificial way ( taṣannūʿan ) in order to adorn themselves with them.

literature

Arabic sources
  • al-Ḥāriṯ al-Muḥāsibī: er-Riʿāya li-ḥuqūq Allaah. Ed. ʿAbd al-Qādir Aḥmād ʿAṭā. Dār al-kutub al-ʿilmīya, Beirut, 1980. pp. 153-306. Digitized
  • Abū ʿAbd ar-Rahmān as-Sulamī : ar-Risāla al-Malāmatīya , ed. By Abū l-ʿAlā ʿAfīfī in al-Malāmatīya wa-ṣ-ṣūfīya wa-ahl al-futūwa. Al-Kamel-Verlag, Beirut, Freiberg, 2015. pp. 91–128. Digitized
  • al-Baihaqī : Shuʿab al-īmān. Ed. Abū Hāǧir Zaġlūl. 9 Vol. Beirut 1990. Vol. V, pp. 325-369 (No. 6805-6988). Digitized
  • al-Ġazālī : Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm ad-dīn. Dār Ibn Ḥazm, Beirut, 2005. pp. 1202-1228, 1233-39. Digitized
  • Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad Ibn-al-Ḥāǧǧ: Kitāb al-Madḫal . Maktab Dār at-Turāṯ, Cairo, undated vol. III, pp. 41–49. Digitized
Secondary literature

Individual evidence

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