Psalms 26:4 Meaning I Have Not Sat with Deceitful Men

A person takes on the way of their close friend: company shapes you quietly The Prophet said people pick up the habits of whoever they spend their hours with. Being around people who bend the truth makes bending it feel ordinary, and after a while the small lies stop registering at all. Keeping distance from that crowd has less to do with judging them and more with protecting what you can still hear.

Ṣidq: Truthfulness Ṣidq means being one person all the way through, in private and out loud. Someone can steer clear of liars and still shade their own words, and the gap opens so slowly it never feels like a decision. The honesty that matters first is a person's own, before anything they say about anybody else.

Riyāʾ: Doing good so people will see it Riyāʾ names acting well with an eye on the audience. Al-Ghazali warned that it hides inside good behavior rather than bad, which is exactly what makes it hard to catch. Someone can keep careful company, avoid every dubious crowd, and do all of it for how it looks, and the outside stays spotless while nothing inside has moved.

Muḥāsaba: Taking account of yourself Muḥāsaba means going through your own conduct the way you would go through a bill. Al-Ghazali described doing it at the end of each day, plainly, without excuses and without piling on. Someone who keeps this up stops needing anyone else to catch them out, because they have already looked.

ʿUjb: Being pleased with yourself ʿUjb names the warm feeling that comes from thinking well of your own record. Al-Ghazali counted it among the things that eat a good deed from the inside, because the deed turns into evidence of how fine you are. A clean life can quietly leave a person looking down on everyone else, and the good they did becomes something they hold over people.