Associate Prof Muhammad Sani Umar Rijiyar Lemo, a renowned Islamic scholar, has warned Muslims against advertising their acts of worship on social media sites, which he refers to as “Riya” (an act of worship meant for the public to notice).
He gave this warning on Saturday evening during his annual Ramadan Tafseer at the Gwallaga Juma’at Mosque in Bauchi.
He claimed that any act of worship that is made public for the whole public to see is not rewarded by Allah (SWA).
According to him, “How can someone who embarked on a spiritual trip of Um’ra or Hajj start taking selfies at the time of boarding a flight or at arrival,” Sheik Lemo remarked, referring specifically to Muslims who embarked on Um’ra (lesser hajj).
“Some people even took selfies at the Ka’aba just to let their followers know that they were there.
“Such people should know that any act of worship that has an iota of Riya in it, Allah (SWA) those not reward such acts of worship.
“They posts their pictures for people to know they are there and their followers duly acknowledged that and that is their reward”, the Sheik cautioned.
He also urged social media communities following such people on their pages to always remind them on their actions and to advise them to desist from such acts in the comments sections of the posters.
As usual, the Associate Prof supported his argument with relevant quotations from the Holy Qur’an and Hadiths of Prophet Muhammad (SAW).
