15 Polite Ways How to Respond to Praise in Islam

Human has a natural arrogant side in them. It’s somethings undeniable that everyone desire for a recognizance from others. However, praise and fame are one of the biggest struggle faced by Muslims. Giving praise and wanting to be praised is indeed not a sin, but Allah SWT have warned us that receive too many praise as well as giving too many of it can cause harm to a person.

The Prophet (SAW) was not so fond of praise, where he once responded after hearing someone praising his friend,

“May Allah ‘s Mercy be upon you! You have cut the neck of your friend.” – Bukhari

Praise also could be a poisonous thing, as it could weaken the souls and we end up doing good deeds only to hear these praise. How we respond to praise is very important, as it determine our intention of doing something later. Let’s not make those praise rotting in our heart, and this is the ways how to respond to praise in Islam.

1. Stay Humble

It’s important to stay humble when someone is praising us. Keep your voice low and keep down the look. As have said before, praise could be poisonous and growing the arrogance in our heart. Receiving too many praise could change us to someone we are not, to the worse version of us.

2. Don’t be Full of Yourself

As we receive praise, it is possible that we come to think highly of ourselves and belittling everyone else. Later on we think that we are the best and we become full of ourselves. At this stage, we feel like we don’t need anyone to help us gaining an achievement.

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3. Give Back Everything to Allah SWT

No single thing happen without the permission of Allah SWT. It’s not right for us to take the credit for our success, while Allah’s helping hand plays the bigger part. Say humbly that all the achievement is due to Allah SWT, and all praise should be given to them.

4. Show Your Appreciation to the Praise

Maintaining humbleness inside the heart is important, but it also important how we respond to the one who gives us praise. Don’t offend and hurting the heart of somebody just because we want to stay humble. Show appreciation towards the one who praise you.

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5. Respond with a Simple Thank You

How to show the appreciation that would make somebody feel happy for praising you? By saying a simple thank you. But don’t forget to say it with full sincerity. No need to say many words, as it could make you look arrogant. [AdSense-B]

6. Take It As Something to Motivate You

Receiving praise from others doesn’t mean you are the best and currently at the top of the world. It means you have a lot to learn and you have an even bigger responsibility.

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7. Don’t Reject Any Praise

We indeed have to stay humble upon getting praise from others. But it’s not right that because we don’t want to be poisoned by praise we reject it when others are giving out praise. It makes us look more arrogant instead. Accept them humbly but don’t let yourself got carried away by those praise. [AdSense-A]

8. Share the Credits with Others

When you gain an achievement in a team, share the credits with the others. Since you are not the only one who played part in the success, you should credited you team as well. It could keep you away from being arrogant. Another person would see you as a humble person too.

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9. Say That You Also Have Many Flaws

There is a story about how a man responds when he is getting praised by others. He said that he also has many flaws that not yet to be seen by those person, and that is why he doesn’t deserve the praise. As the person who praises him might be disappointed when he learn about those flaws.

10. Make Dua So You Don’t Have to Struggle

The struggle caused by praise for a Muslim is real. Most of them cannot handle it well or don’t know what to do. If someday we arrive in this situation, may we ask for protection from Allah SWT so we don’t have to struggle. Because if we don’t know what to do to handle praise, let Allah SWT takes care of it.

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11. Don’t Exaggerate Your Expression

Beside of maintaining the humble heart, it’s also important to manage our expression when responding to the praise. This is why we are strongly suggested to respond the praise with a single thank you. Because our expression could leave an impression that we are smug.

12. Stop for a While Before You Respond

Take a deep breath and think. It’s okay if you take some times before responding to a praise. Choose your words wisely before you say it. Rather than rushing to say something, it wiser to stop for a while and thinking about what’s best to say.

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13. Be Focused

When someone is praising you, set your eyes and focused only for them. It is how you show your appreciation. Remember that you need to appreciate anyone who gives you praise, and not to look down at them and being arrogant to that person.

14. Give Praise Back

Just because someone else is giving you praise, doesn’t mean that you are higher in anything than him. Only Allah SWT who could judge who is the better and who is the worse between two people.

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15. Keep Dua in Your Heart

Imam Baihaqi reported in Shu’ab al-Iman from Imam Auza’i (R.A) that someone should say this when got praised:

“Oh Allah! You know me better than myself and I know about myself better than what the people know about me. Oh Allah do not call me to account for what they say & forgive me for what they have no knowledge of (i.e. my faults and defects).”

So those are the ways how to respond to praise in Islam. We need a good heart management to shield ourselves from poisonous praise. Let’s do the best in everything we did, without any intention for getting praise but solely to please Allah SWT.