Saturday, November 11, 2017

Probing Fear of God


Fear is a fearful word. Where ever it is, we avoid there. And this sense of avoidance is perhaps why fear has been placed into the human nature: to protect the valuables. In fact, if we go back in time to the periods of humanity when there was little to no knowledge of the natural phenomena, it was fear that led many people to God. Having a rope of safety gave confidence to the individuals scared of uncertainty.


If we continue our traverse in time and look at the Biblical history, among the Christian circles there is the concept of "God of the Old Testament" and the concept of "God of New Testament". What is meant by these concepts is that the way God dealt with humanity before Jesus's time, peace be upon him, was more of an action-reaction type. That is, if people kept doing their unethical deeds for long periods, and if they did not heed the man of God, and furthermore if they tried to physically suppress those who call to the way of God, then a calamity falls upon them.

But beginning with Jesus pbuh, the chastisements from God were drawn back to the extent that with the coming of Muhammad pbuh, the mass destruction events were practically cancelled. Giving more respite and delaying the punishment does not necessarily mean forgiving or forgetting, but rather providing more opportunities to repent. However, during this time of "more opportunities", it is possible that people are going to think "oh see, nothing is happening; God must be ok with what we are doing", and so bury themselves deeper in sin to the point that when death comes to them, there is no more excuse they can utter.


Being merciful and compassionate, God wants humans to avoid such tragic ends. This is why He has placed fear of Himself in our hearts:
"... And Allah warns you of Himself, and to Allah is the [final] destination. Say, "Whether you conceal what is in your breasts or reveal it, Allah knows it. And He knows that which is in the heavens and that which is on the earth. And Allah is over all things competent. The Day every soul will find what it has done of good present [before it] and what it has done of evil, it will wish that between itself and that [evil] was a great distance. And Allah warns you of Himself, and Allah is Kind to [His] servants." "  (3/28-30)
Nevertheless, fear is not a concept devoid of colors and tones. There are different types of it, and the implications of these different fears are different. Let's see examples of these from the Quran, and ponder over the implications. Keep in mind that in the following verses and in the verses I added to the end of this article, some of them include words that are derivatives of fear, and such words are translated in ways that lose the link to the root, i.e. fear. So, I indicated those in parentheses.


Ittiqa:
"O mankind, worship your Lord, who created you and those before you, that you may become righteous (=those who fear)" (2/21)
"And his people came hastening to him, and before [this] they had been doing evil deeds. He said, "O my people, these are my daughters; they are purer for you. So fear Allah and do not disgrace me concerning my guests. Is there not among you a man of reason?" " (11/78) 
"And when Jesus brought clear proofs, he said, "I have come to you with wisdom and to make clear to you some of that over which you differ, so fear Allah and obey me." (43/63)
"Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous (=most God fearing) of you." (49/13)
"... And whoever fears Allah - He will make for him a way out. And will provide for him from where he does not expect ... And whoever fears Allah - He will make for him of his matter ease." (65/2-3,4)
Khashyah:
"Then your hearts became hardened after that, being like stones or even harder. For indeed, there are stones from which rivers burst forth, and there are some of them that split open and water comes out, and there are some of them that fall down for fear of Allah. And Allah is not unaware of what you do." (2/74)
"[ Allah praises] those who convey the messages of Allah and fear Him and do not fear anyone but Allah . And sufficient is Allah as Accountant." (33/39)
"Only those fear Allah, from among His servants, who have knowledge." (35/28)
"If We had sent down this Qur'an upon a mountain, you would have seen it humbled (=with khashyah) and coming apart from fear of Allah . And these examples We present to the people that perhaps they will give thought." (59/21)
Khawf:
"We said, "Go down from it, all of you. And when guidance comes to you from Me, whoever follows My guidance - there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve." (2/38)
 "And cause not corruption upon the earth after its reformation. And invoke Him in fear and aspiration. Indeed, the mercy of Allah is near to the doers of good." (7/56)
"They arise from [their] beds; they supplicate their Lord in fear and aspiration, and from what We have provided them, they spend." (32/16)
To remind again, if you are interested, you can read more Quranic verses related to the concept of fear of God at the bottom of this article. But now, let's try to make sense of the differences between these variances of fear.


1- Ittiqa (or taqwa) is used for virtually all of humanity: believers, people of the book and non-believers. So, ittiqa is the fear of God that can be felt and practiced by the entire humanity. Imagine that even the prophet Lot used this word when he was calling his people to their senses. You may ask how it is possible that a person who doesn't believe in God has fear of God? This is a fair question, and the answer lies in the difference between the way people name ittiqa according to their value systems and beliefs. That is to say that the fear of God that is expressed through ittiqa or taqwa involves a broad sense of respect to basic human rights and sensitivity towards conserving the creation in order to avoid conflicts and corruption. Such universal values are shared by all humanity, and every human being has the potential to feel, understand and exercise it. However, of course there is an ultimate point in taqwa that is formulated in the second chapter of the Quran:
"This is the Book about which there is no doubt, a guidance for those conscious of Allah (those who have taqwa); who believe in the unseen, establish prayer, and spend out of what We have provided for them, and who believe in what has been revealed to you, [O Muhammad], and what was revealed before you, and of the Hereafter they are certain [in faith]." (2/2-5)
2- Khashyah, unlike ittiqa, involves a sense of belonging and respect to the Creator. It also entails a humbleness towards God and affinity towards the creation. Therefore, khashyah is sensible exclusively by those who believe in God, but not necessarily Muslim though. For example, read the Quranic verse addressing the Children of Israel:
"And seek help through patience and prayer, and indeed, it is difficult except for the humbly submissive [to Allah ] (those with khashyah), who are certain that they will meet their Lord and that they will return to Him." (2/45-46)
3- Khawf is exclusively related to a real danger or harm. This feeling may be caused by actually facing the danger or by attaining a level of awareness that is equivalent to vision. So, the believers who have attained a level of certainty in belief for resurrection and the judgment day and who lived according to that conviction may feel this fear of God's punishment. For those who are not at the same level of conviction, this kind of fear may sound appalling. But for those who have it, it is an indispensable component of life. As for those who deserve the punishment of hell are going to experience khawf in the afterlife, for they will have lived in this world irresponsibly without any khawf.
"But for he who has feared the position of his Lord are two gardens; so which of the favors of your Lord would you deny?" (55/46-47)

Aside from these, if you look at the number verses containing these three words, ittiqa is the most mentioned. And this makes sense, because if you think about it, in this life, ittiqa is the prerequisite for both khashyah and khawf.

Another noteworthy point is that among these three words related to fear, only ittiqa is used in the imperative form. If you look again to the differences between the three words, you will see that the other two are flavored with a connection to God, whereas ittiqa is not necessarily a feeling related to belief in God. So, the Merciful Lord considers this factor in the psyche of His creation, and speaks accordingly. To state it more explicitly, a non-believer who is causing disorder and harm in general may be called to feel fear (ittiqa), but that person will not have a sense of belonging and respect to God (khashyah) nor the ultimate fear (khawf) that is sensible through facing punishment or by having a mental certainty thereof.

After this much research and pondering over the different colors of fear, now let's look at our daily lives, and let's see how these findings relate to our journey in this world.


Ittiqa or taqwa is the broadest and most fundamental form of fear of God, as we talked. Remember that this fear involves a respect for basic human rights, conservation of the creation and obedience to the laws of the universe. That being said, a person who violates human rights at home or in the social life or at a higher level are violating their act with God by not fearing Him in those actions. In more simple terms, they are committing sin by violating human rights.

Similarly, a person who is killing the nature or neglecting the rules necessitated by scientific findings is again acting against taqwa, fear of God. Or an engineer who is underdesigning the system at their hands, a contractor who is not obeying the design parameters are acting without taqwa, fear of God.

Another set of lessons arise by virtue of living near the end of time. More and more, we are surrounded by things of uncertain nature. You may find yourself asking "is this really what God wants us to do". This kind of questioning may arise either due to the appearance of a new thing or action or due to the incompatibility of the religious teachings with the modern life conditions. This issue deserves discussion in its own, but here I would like to show how the feeling of fear plays a significant role in these matters.

First of all, we know that in the religious matters, the more something is explicitly stated the more is the responsibility thereof. In other words, if a matter is not crystal clear, then the weight of mistaking in it is much less, and the room for interpretation or trial-error is much larger (Maidah 5/101). Of course this doesn't mean that we should pursue everything that is doubtful, but it means we can explore things with a watchful mind and heart. This is how we can reach the easiness of religion pointed at in the words of the prophet Muhammad (Bukhari, Belief, 29/39). Therefore, we should be thankful for this flexibility introduced by our Lord.

However this may sound good in theory, this flexibility for interpretation is not so welcome by people. Many times, people don't think at all, and dump the work of thinking to scholars who are not necessarily equipped with the breadth of knowledge required for understanding the ever-complicated conditions of today. So, religion is conserved as it was centuries ago. Yes, conserving the core of the religion is of utmost importance but recognizing the things that are of cultural origin and improving them is another imperative.


This is exactly where fear kicks in. Fear of mistaking or fear of diverging from the way of the majority or fear of thinking unlike the scholars block most people. So, they end up with thinking one way but practicing another way. This is the state of a hypocrite. In your mind, after your research into the authentic sources and critical thinking, you conclude that doing A is what is pleasing to God, and you are 90% sure about it. And that 10% is due to the fact that the countless scholars until now hasn't expressed such a thing. Because you don't want to fall apart from the majority, and because your fear of God is shaped around an understanding of God that doesn't welcome critical thinking, you give in to "not doing A", which you think is contrary to God's pleasure, and continue your life with the majority. This is actually fearing people rather than fearing God!

In fact, this misguided behavior is implicitly criticized in the Quran:
"O you who have believed, why do you say what you do not do? Great is hatred in the sight of Allah that you say what you do not do." (61/2-3)
First lesson from reading these verses is that people should tell what they are practicing. The event that precedes the revelation of these verses is that some people were talking, and they were saying "had we known what is the most pleasing action for Allah, we would do it". Many points that we discussed are actually built into this single event.

One, if that most pleasing action is revealed to you and you refrain from it, you actually disobey God; so, if God left something uncertain, keep it uncertain, and exercise free will with caution (fear). Two, expressing eagerness towards something of unknown nature is an unfounded feeling, similar to falling in love at first sight and proposing marriage, thinking that you want to live with that person until eternity. Three, putting a prerequisite condition on those who want to talk about religious matters is a check against religion becoming ever more difficult. That is, when it comes to speaking about the do's and do-not's of the religion and the higher level of sensitivities per the feeling of fear of God, people may tell a lot, and they have a tendency to generalize the meticulous life principles of the saint people, which elevates religion to an unpractical level. This is, perhaps, one reason why God placed a condition like this, i.e. you should be practicing first, then you can talk about it.

A final point in this matter is "the benefits of sins". I know it sounds nonsense, but if you would like to see a more detailed analysis on this subject, read this article. As I mentioned above, due to cultural interjections and interventions to the understanding and interpretation of religion, certain perceptions form over time, and these perceptions tell that doing such and such thing is a sin. So, people abstain from it as if it is an explicit ban from God. But of course that is not the case, rather it is a matter of uncertain nature. Such things need to be re-thought and analyzed, which is not an easy task, not necessarily because of the complexity of the issue but because of the misuse of fear factor.

If something is judged by the previous generations and scholars to be a sin, "who are we to question them", right? So, we avoid that thing, which is not necessarily a sin. However, if God created something, there is probably a benefit from it, and that benefit may become indispensable by time. So, we see benefit in what we perceive as "sin", and we think that the religion is "prohibiting" it... Then, the growing hunger from not meeting that need pushes people to really sinful ways. That is, fearing people and having a misguided fear of God leads to disobedience to God.

In short, fearing God is not "not thinking". Fearing God is not confined to the mosques and prayer rugs. Fearing God is not a luxury disguise for fearing people.



Some other verses related to fear of God:

Ittiqa:

"This is the Book about which there is no doubt, a guidance for those conscious of Allah (those who have taqwa); who believe in the unseen, establish prayer, and spend out of what We have provided for them, and who believe in what has been revealed to you, [O Muhammad], and what was revealed before you, and of the Hereafter they are certain [in faith]." (2/2-5) 
"O mankind, worship your Lord, who created you and those before you, that you may become righteous (=those who fear)" (2/21)
"[Fighting in] the sacred month is for [aggression committed in] the sacred month, and for [all] violations is legal retribution. So whoever has assaulted you, then assault him in the same way that he has assaulted you. And fear Allah and know that Allah is with those who fear Him." (2/194)
"And when he goes away, he strives throughout the land to cause corruption therein and destroy crops and animals. And Allah does not like corruption. And when it is said to him, "Fear Allah," pride in the sin takes hold of him. Sufficient for him is Hellfire, and how wretched is the resting place." (2/205-206)
"And fear a Day when you will be returned to Allah . Then every soul will be compensated for what it earned, and they will not be treated unjustly." (2/281)
"And [I have come] confirming what was before me of the Torah and to make lawful for you some of what was forbidden to you. And I have come to you with a sign from your Lord, so fear Allah and obey me." (3/50)
"O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims [in submission to Him]." (3/102)
"They are not [all] the same; among the People of the Scripture is a community standing [in obedience], reciting the verses of Allah during periods of the night and prostrating [in prayer]. They believe in Allah and the Last Day, and they enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and hasten to good deeds. And those are among the righteous. And whatever good they do - never will it be removed from them. And Allah is Knowing of the righteous (those who fear)." (3/113-115) 
"O you who have believed, fear Allah and seek the means [of nearness] to Him and strive in His cause that you may succeed." (5/35)
"Say, "Not equal are the evil and the good, although the abundance of evil might impress you." So fear Allah, O you of understanding, that you may be successful." (5/100)
"O you who have believed, if you fear Allah, He will grant you a criterion and will remove from you your misdeeds and forgive you. And Allah is the possessor of great bounty." (8/29) 
"Then is one who laid the foundation of his building on righteousness [with fear] from Allah and [seeking] His approval better or one who laid the foundation of his building on the edge of a bank about to collapse, so it collapsed with him into the fire of Hell? And Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people." (9/109)
"And his people came hastening to him, and before [this] they had been doing evil deeds. He said, "O my people, these are my daughters; they are purer for you. So fear Allah and do not disgrace me concerning my guests. Is there not among you a man of reason?" " (11/78) 
"And it will be said to those who feared Allah, "What did your Lord send down?" They will say, "[That which is] good." For those who do good in this world is good; and the home of the Hereafter is better. And how excellent is the home of the righteous -" (16/30)
"Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good instruction, and argue with them in a way that is best. Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who has strayed from His way, and He is most knowing of who is [rightly] guided. And if you punish [an enemy, O believers], punish with an equivalent of that with which you were harmed. But if you are patient - it is better for those who are patient. And be patient, [O Muhammad], and your patience is not but through Allah . And do not grieve over them and do not be in distress over what they conspire. Indeed, Allah is with those who fear Him and those who are doers of good." (16/125-128)
"And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger and fears (khashyah) Allah and is conscious (ittiqa) of Him - it is those who are the attainers." (24/52)
"And the one who has brought the truth and [they who] believed in it - those are the righteous (=fearing)." (39/33)
"And Allah will save those who feared Him by their attainment; no evil will touch them, nor will they grieve." (39/61)
"And when Jesus brought clear proofs, he said, "I have come to you with wisdom and to make clear to you some of that over which you differ, so fear Allah and obey me." (43/63)
"And indeed, the wrongdoers are allies of one another; but Allah is the ally of the righteous (=fearing)." (45/19)
"The believers are but brothers, so make settlement between your brothers. And fear Allah that you may receive mercy." (49/10)
"Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous (=most God fearing) of you." (49/13)
"So fear Allah as much as you are able and listen and obey and spend [in the way of Allah ]; it is better for your selves. And whoever is protected from the stinginess of his soul - it is those who will be the successful." (64/16)
"... And whoever fears Allah - He will make for him a way out. And will provide for him from where he does not expect ... And whoever fears Allah - He will make for him of his matter ease." (65/2-3,4)
Khashyah:
"And seek help through patience and prayer, and indeed, it is difficult except for the humbly submissive [to Allah ] (those with khashyah), who are certain that they will meet their Lord and that they will return to Him." (2/45-46) 
"Then your hearts became hardened after that, being like stones or even harder. For indeed, there are stones from which rivers burst forth, and there are some of them that split open and water comes out, and there are some of them that fall down for fear of Allah. And Allah is not unaware of what you do." (2/74)
"And those who join that which Allah has ordered to be joined and fear (khasyah) their Lord and are afraid (khawf) of the evil of [their] account," (13/21)
"And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger and fears (khashyah) Allah and is conscious (ittiqa) of Him - it is those who are the attainers." (24/52)
"[ Allah praises] those who convey the messages of Allah and fear Him and do not fear anyone but Allah . And sufficient is Allah as Accountant." (33/39)
"Only those fear Allah, from among His servants, who have knowledge." (35/28)
"Who feared the Most Merciful unseen and came with a heart returning [in repentance]." (50/33)
"If We had sent down this Qur'an upon a mountain, you would have seen it humbled (=with khashyah) and coming apart from fear of Allah . And these examples We present to the people that perhaps they will give thought." (59/21)
"Indeed, those who fear their Lord unseen will have forgiveness and great reward." (67/12)
"So remind, if the reminder should benefit; He who fears [ Allah ] will be reminded." (87/9-10)
Khawf:
"We said, "Go down from it, all of you. And when guidance comes to you from Me, whoever follows My guidance - there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve." (2/38)
 "And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient," (2/155) 
"And cause not corruption upon the earth after its reformation. And invoke Him in fear and aspiration. Indeed, the mercy of Allah is near to the doers of good." (7/56)
"And those who join that which Allah has ordered to be joined and fear (khasyah) their Lord and are afraid (khawf) of the evil of [their] account," (13/21)
"Allah has promised those who have believed among you and done righteous deeds that He will surely grant them succession [to authority] upon the earth just as He granted it to those before them and that He will surely establish for them [therein] their religion which He has preferred for them and that He will surely substitute for them, after their fear, security, [for] they worship Me, not associating anything with Me. But whoever disbelieves after that - then those are the defiantly disobedient." (24/55) 
"And [he was told], "Throw down your staff." But when he saw it writhing as if it were a snake, he turned in flight and did not return. [ Allah said], "O Moses, fear not. Indeed, in My presence the messengers do not fear." (27/10) 
"They arise from [their] beds; they supplicate their Lord in fear and aspiration, and from what We have provided them, they spend." (32/16)
"They will have canopies of fire above them and below them, canopies. By that Allah threatens (=scares, frightens) His servants. O My servants, then fear Me." (39/16)
"And We left therein a sign for those who fear the painful punishment." (51/37) 
"But for he who has feared the position of his Lord are two gardens; so which of the favors of your Lord would you deny?" (55/46-47)
 "[The hypocrites are] like the example of Satan when he says to man, "Disbelieve." But when he disbelieves, he says, "Indeed, I am disassociated from you. Indeed, I fear Allah, Lord of the worlds." " (59/16)











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