How to Respond to Compliments in Islam: What the Sunnah Says to Do When Praised

How to respond to compliments in Islam is simpler than the flinch suggests: we thank the person, return the praise to Allah, and ask Him to keep us honest about what others cannot see. One of the Companions had a du'a for exactly this moment, preserved in Al-Adab al-Mufrad 761, and the Prophet ﷺ called people's praise for a believer's good deeds "glad tidings."

Someone at the school gate says we're so patient with the kids. We say "oh, I'm really not" and look at the pavement. Two hours earlier we were shouting about shoes. The compliment lands on a person who knows the whole file, and the whole file is heavier than one kind sentence.

A Muslim responding to a compliment can do three things: thank the person, pray for them, and turn to Allah. The thanking and the praying share one Prophetic wording:

The hadith speaks of a favour done for us. A kind word is a small favour, so "jazak Allahu khayran" (may Allah reward you with good) fits it well. That reading is ours.

Many Muslims also add "alhamdulillah" (all praise belongs to Allah), which tells our own heart where the good came from.

A habit we find helps, and it's our suggestion only: say the thank you out loud and the du'a in the next section silently. That way the other person hears warmth, and our own heart hears the reminder.

The du'a said when someone praises us comes from one of the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ, recorded by Imam al-Bukhari in Al-Adab al-Mufrad:

In transliteration: *Allahumma la tu'akhidhni bima yaqulun, waghfir li ma la ya'lamun.*

Two details matter for accuracy. The narrator names no particular Companion, so this is a Companion's practice, separate from a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ. A longer version circulates online, attributed to Abu Bakr, with a third line asking Allah to make us better than people think. We couldn't verify that wording or that attribution on Sunnah.com, so we've left it out here.

The two lines we have are enough. The first asks to be spared from what the praise might cost us. The second remembers the private file and asks for mercy over it.

No, feeling happy when someone praises our good deeds is not wrong in itself. Abu Dharr reported that the Prophet ﷺ was asked about exactly this:

The hadith describes someone who did the good deed first, with the praise arriving afterwards. The order matters. When praise becomes the reason for the deed, it has a different name.

Riya in Islam means showing off: doing a good deed so that people will see it and praise us. The Prophet ﷺ warned:

The difference between riya and enjoying a compliment lies in the intention behind the deed. Smiling when someone thanks us for the meal we cooked is ordinary. Cooking the meal so the photo gets comments, and checking the comments during Maghrib, is the slope the hadith warns about. We've written more on guarding against riya in worship, including the quieter forms it takes.

The hadith about throwing dust at flatterers is a real narration in Sahih Muslim, and it concerns people who praise excessively. Abu Ma'mar reported that a man praised a ruler, and the Companion al-Miqdad threw dust on him and said:

In a second narration al-Miqdad threw pebbles at a man who was praising 'Uthman to his face (Hammam ibn al-Harith, Sahih Muslim 3002b). Al-Miqdad took the words literally. Classical commentators record that some scholars followed him in this, while others read the words figuratively: send flatterers away disappointed, giving them nothing for their praise. Neither reading turns the hadith into a licence to throw things at a colleague who liked our presentation. The chapter title on Sunnah.com frames it around praise that exaggerates and risks becoming a trial for the one praised. Measured praise is described in the next hadith.

Praise in Islam is given honestly, without exaggeration, and with the final judgement left to Allah. When a man praised another in front of him, the Prophet ﷺ said:

So the Sunnah keeps praise and gives it a shape. We say what we've actually seen, we add "and Allah knows best," and we skip the grand verdicts. Telling a friend we've watched her patience with her mother this year, and that Allah knows best, is praise in that spirit.

Humility in Islam, at the moment of praise, looks like receiving the kind word without inflating ourselves or performing smallness. The Qur'an gives the reason we can stay steady:

Here is the confession. The "oh, I'm really not" at the school gate can be its own small show, a bid to be praised again for being modest. Allah knows the whole file, so nobody's verdict on us, including our own, needs arguing with.

The Prophet ﷺ also said, "no one humbles himself for the sake of Allah except that Allah raises his status" (Abu Huraira, Sahih Muslim 2588). The raising is His to give, and the lowering is ours. Our piece on kibr, the pride too small to call pride looks at where the other direction starts.

Discomfort with compliments has a name in psychology when it runs strong: fear of positive evaluation. A systematic review of 33 studies found this fear distinct from fear of criticism and linked to social anxiety in teenagers, students and adults.¹ The review ran no meta-analysis, so it maps a pattern without measuring its size.

The other side of the exchange matters too. In a series of experiments, people who wrote genuine compliments underestimated how good the recipients would feel and overestimated how awkward the recipients would feel.² A compliment is often a small risk for the giver, and a warm reply honours it.

Neither study tested any du'a or Islamic practice. What they describe is an ordinary human flinch, and the Sunnah already has a way through it.

When the next kind word comes, at the school gate or in a work review, there's a short path ready. Thank the person and pray for them. Silently say: *Allahumma la tu'akhidhni bima yaqulun, waghfir li ma la ya'lamun.* Then let the good word go back to the One it belonged to all along.