Muslim creed – Not infrequently we encounter social media statuses like the example above scattered around our virtual world. In the era of digital technology as it is now, sharing knowledge and experiences through digital media such as social media is very, very easy and legal to do.
However, many fall into the realm of competing to show kindness rather than competing to improve the quality of goodness itself by saving it and making it very valuable savings in the future. In fact, many may even be complacent that what is written on the social media status is not an invitation but more to just show the worship that is being done.
The privilege of hiding pious deeds
There are several foundations of the Qur’an and Sunnah which state that hiding good deeds has a special value. Regarding alms, for example, the word of Allah SWT in Surah al-Baqarah verse 271.
The privilege of keeping the prayers offered for our brothers and sisters secret, even for people we do not know, has extraordinary power, namely the angels pray for us as we pray for our brothers and sisters. Charity like this is actually not hard, but most of us forget it unless we get used to incorporating prayers for others into our daily worship routine.
Dhikr alone or munajat to Allah in silence and then he cries is one of the pious deeds that will get extraordinary rewards from Allah SWT.
What is meant by crying is not crying because of sadness or because of an event, but crying here is crying out of fear of Allah swt. In other words, crying alone for fear of Allah will bring Allah’s mercy in the form of protection from Allah later on the Day of Resurrection.
The act of showing good deeds to the public because they want to be seen by others, then this act is classified as an act of riya’. T
hus, those who in their hearts still have doubts whether showing good deeds to the public will have an impact on their sincerity, then that person should hide it.
However, there are groups of people who get love from Allah because of their closeness, so there is nothing wrong if they show their righteous deeds to the public because it aims to be grateful for what Allah has given and so that others follow in his footsteps.
Nevertheless, caution is still needed because Satan never stops whispering the paths of doubt so that one slips into riya’ wrapped in goodness.
What are the benefits of hiding good/good deeds?
First, hiding good deeds is one way to avoid riya’ and get closer to sincerity. Although it is possible that when good deeds are hidden, there are other people who know and then spread the temptation of Satan into our hearts to continuously divert us from sincerity.
The second benefit, namely that we will be able to equate praise with reproach, meaning that when we hide our good deeds, we do not expect praise from others because our purpose for doing good is only because of Allah SWT. Thus, when we are criticized, we should not feel disappointed because everything we do is only because of Allah SWT.
The third benefit, hiding good deeds trains us to improve the quality of our worship where we no longer need other people when doing pious deeds because our main goal is Allah SWT. If it is done continuously, keeping good deeds a secret can be used as a means of perfecting our worship in order to avoid being arrogant and arrogant.
