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The most important part of your life is the part that only Allah sees. This could apply to worship, character, or sincerity. Increasingly, they are the missing link in Muslim student activism today.
We spend hours preparing public speeches, crafting social media captions, and organising events, all while quietly neglecting the state of our hearts.
Imam Ahmad once said,
I never expected any of my da’wah (public preaching) or my public acts of worship to be accepted. Instead, I hoped that Allah would accept my secret prayers and acts of worship.”
I was reminded of this when speaking to a student leader, a brother active in his Islamic Society. He admitted, quietly and sincerely, that he was struggling to pray. That single confession said more than any campaign ever could.
No matter how visible your service, the obligations of faith remain binding, and none more so than the prayer. Islam does not exempt the busy. No title, no campaign, and no public burden can ever excuse the obligation to stand before Allah in prayer.
The Prophet ﷺ said,
The first thing a person will be questioned about on the Day of Judgment is the prayer.
If it is sound, the rest of his deeds will be sound. And if it is corrupt, the rest of his deeds will be corrupt.” [1]
Our public service will only carry weight if our private worship holds firm. This hadīth brings into focus a growing tension between who we are when seen, and who we are when unseen.
In this part of the series, we explore that quiet gap between public action and private devotion. Are we as consistent in our sincerity as we are in our visibility? And how did our predecessors maintain that balance while carrying the weight of their own missions?
Ibn Taymiyyah’s source of strength
Every student activist will eventually encounter moments of frustration, such as empty venues, low turnout, and little visible change. Often, the obstacle is not in the work itself, but in what lies hidden — neglected acts of worship or unrepented private sins.
Without doubt, what transpires behind closed doors profoundly affects one’s public work. Just as sincere private devotion invites divine aid, persistent private sins can quietly strip the barakah from our public efforts, even when the cause is noble.
This reality is captured in Ibn al-Qayyim’s recollection of his teacher, Ibn Taymiyyah. He recounted an occasion where he joined Ibn Taymiyyah for Fajr prayer, after which the latter remained in the remembrance of Allah until nearly midday.
When asked, Ibn Taymiyyah said,
This is my early morning meal, if I do not take this breakfast, my strength will drop.” [2]
To say that Ibn Taymiyyah lived to defend and propagate Islam would be an understatement. But the secret to his spiritual strength and the divine strength Allah granted him can be traced to what he did away from the spotlight.
It was his secluded moments of remembrance, those silent conversations with Allah, that nourished his soul. This is a pattern repeated across the legacies of our righteous predecessors.
Private moments shape legacies
There is a consistent theme in the lives of these great Muslims: their renowned biographies were built upon grand achievements that themselves drew upon strength from their private relationship with their Creator.
These concealed acts became the foundation of their outward impact.
al-Hasan al-Basrī said,
The people whom we met of the previous generations would, whenever physically possible, do every good deed in secret.”
Likewise, Imam Mālik advised,
Whoever wants Allah to bring relief to his heart and pull him through the agonies of death and horrors of Qiyāmah, then let him enact good deeds more in secret than in public.”
The epitome of guidance, the Prophet ﷺ, instructed us:
Whoever among you is able to carry out a secret good deed, then he should do it.” [3]
Many of us admire the public successes of these figures without realising how much of it was rooted in their private worship. In fact, Sufyan al-Thawrī refused to count any good deed as significant if people knew about it. [4]
Our standards of success have become skewed. We prioritise followers, platforms, applause. But our predecessors sought anonymity in their worship. Their hidden sincerity didn’t reduce their public achievements, it amplified them. Their recognition today may well be a sign of Allah’s acceptance of what they once did quietly.
Ego as the primary adversary
Take it as a rule, when your battlefield is public, your fiercest opponent is your ego.
What may appear as a virtuous pursuit may, in reality, be ego wrapped in the cloak of religiosity, drawn not by duty to Allah, but by allure of recognition and praise.
This is why one of the clearest measures of sincerity is the extent to which your private worship outweighs your public deeds.
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said,
If you correct your hidden deeds subsequently, Allah will correct your outward deeds.” [5]
Private habits protect you from corruption. They guard you from arrogance or the tendency to belittle those who seem less “active”. They are the sign of a humble servant who knows their constant need for Allah.
Reflect on Abu Bakr al-Siddīq’s du’ā:
اللهم لا تؤاخذني بما يقولون، واجعلني خيرًا مما يظنون، واغفر لي ما لا يعلمون
O Allah, do not take me to task with what they say and make me better than what they presume and forgive me for what they do not know.”
What about Prophet Nūh?
It is vital to understand that success is not measured by public outcomes.
The story of Prophet Nūh (ʿalayhi al-Salām) is a powerful example. He called his people for 950 years, and only a few believed. Despite that, he fulfilled his mission with sincerity.
This contrast between effort and outcome shows that our duty is to strive with sincerity, not to chase results.
Umar ibn al-Khattāb similarly emphasised this when supplicating.
I am not worried about whether my du’ā will be responded to, but rather I am worried about whether I will be able to make du’ā or not.
So, if I have been guided [by Allah] to make du’ā, then [I know] that the response will come with it.”
Shift your focus from what the world sees to what Allah accepts. That is where the true reward lies.
The blueprint of Malcolm X
In 1953, the FBI began extensive surveillance on Malcolm X, a file that would grow over the next decade until his assassination in 1965.
The aim was clear: uncover anything illegal, immoral, or embarrassing, that could be used to discredit him and undermine his influence.
The FBI monitored his phone calls, tracked his movements through photographs, and even considered planting bugs in his Queens residence. The resulting 2,300-page dossier is illustrative of the effort to silence him.
But what did they actually find?
- A man “of high moral character” who “neither smokes nor drinks.” [6]
- “[He] is an excellent speaker, forceful and convincing.”
- “He is an expert organiser and an untiring worker.”
- [His] hatred for whites “is not likely to erupt in violence as he is much too clever and intelligent for that.” [7]
If someone investigated your private life, your calls, your conversations, and moments of solitude, it is highly likely that they would find something that could be used to discredit you. Yet Malcolm X’s personal integrity and disciplined lifestyle left little for his enemies to exploit.
Despite being one of the most vilified figures of his time, he is now among the most celebrated. Popularity in this world is not a measure of acceptance in the next. True acceptance often reveals itself only after one has left this world.
And that leads us to the crucial reminder: your private life matters just as much (if not more) than your public image. The strength of your legacy won’t be defined by how widely you were seen, but by how sincerely you were known to Allah.
Upholding a public cause without tending to your private obligations is like building a tower on hollow ground. It might impress others, but it cannot stand before Your Lord. After all, what people see may build your reputation, but what Allah sees is what builds your Ākhirah.
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Source: Islam21c
Notes
[1] Tirmidhi
]2[ al-Wābil al-Sayyib of Ibn al-Qayyim, p. 60, Dar al-Bayān
]3[ Sahīh al-Jāmi
]4[ Tanbīh al-Mughtarīn
[5] Majmū al-Fatāwa (3/277)
]6[ https://www.history.com/news/7-things-you-may-not-know-about-malcolm-x
[7] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/04/25/this-american-life
