Abandoning prayer for fear of showing off
14-1-2014 | IslamWeb
Question:
My father orders me to pray. However, whenever I decide to pray, my father watches me and therefore I abandon the prayer for fear of showing off. What is the Sharee‘ah ruling?
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
It is impermissible to abandon prayer under the pretext of fear of showing off. You should know that this whisper of Satan who wants to turn you away from the obedience of Allaah The Almighty. Thus, you have to defeat him and regularly observe prayer, regardless of the watchfulness of your father or any other person. You should know that just as working for the sake of people is forbidden, abandoning work for their sake is also forbidden. Al-Fudhayl ibn ‘Iyaadh 
said: "Abandoning work for the sake of people is showing off and working for their sake is Shirk (i.e. polytheism)."