As salam `alaykum. We wanted to form a group that would track all of our acts of worship (such as praying five times, fasting, doing dhikr, etc.) by way of recording them privately. It is expected that each individual will do so on an honor- based system. We would then have check points and come up with a ranking that would outline the highest score (not the member – just the score) and allow each individual to see where they fit amongst all the others. None of the other members of the group would know what the ranking of others is; however, each one knows their own ranking. Our goal is to promote youth and members to increase in acts of worship and track their own worship using this. This way they can see if they are improving or degrading and adapt themselves to such changes. We wanted the ranking as a means of motivation.  Is this permissible? If not, can you suggest a different mechanism that would make something like the above permissible? Jazak Allah khair for your help!

All praise be to Allah, and may His peace and blessings be on the last and best prophet and messenger, Muhammad.

This sort of completion is fine, since everyone will only know his own ranking and not the ranking of others. In this way, there is no room for showing off or boasting. May Allah reward you all.  Keeping it anonymous is a good plan so as to be more conducive to sincerity, which is the first condition of accepting the deeds in the sight of Allah.

You should alert the competitors that the reward of Allah is not only based on the quantity of the acts of worship, but the sincerity in performing them as well as other factors.  For example, if someone owns 500 dollars and donates 250, he would have donated half his money; and another person may donate 5000 dollars out of his wealth of 2 million dollars. The first beats the second!

Also, you should make sure it will not lead to despair or loss of self- esteem; and that you encourage them all to not only compete with one another, but also compete with themselves and try to improve upon their relationship with Allah.

Allah knows best.