Taqwa - Fear of Allah
Ibn Juzayy said in his dictionary of terms from the introduction to
his tafsir:
"Taqwa's meaning is fear, clinging to obedience to Allah and abandoning
disobedience to Him. It is the sum of all good."
And in his commentary:
We will discuss taqwa in three sections.
First section:
Concerning its benefits derived from the Qur'an, and they are fifteen:
- Guidance, because of His words "guidance for the muttaqeen (the
people of taqwa)";
- Help because of His words "Truly, Allah is with the people who have
taqwa";
- Close friendship [with Allah] because of His words, "Allah is the
close friend of the muttaqeen";
- Love because of His words, "Truly Allah loves the muttaqeen";
- Covering over [of wrong actions] because of His words, "If you have
taqwa of Allah He will make for you a discrimination and He will cover
over for you your wrong actions";
- A way out from unhappiness, and provision from where one does not
expect because of His words, "Whoever has taqwa of Allah He will make
a way out for him and provide him from where he does not expect";
- Facilitation of affairs because of His words, "Whoever has taqwa
of Allah He will make ease for him in his affair";
- Full covering over of wrong actions and magnification of rewards
because of His words, "Whoever has taqwa of Allah He will cover over
his wrong actions and magnify a reward for him";
- Acceptance of actions because of His words, "Allah only accepts
from the people of taqwa";
- Success because of His words, "Have taqwa of Allah in order that
you might succeed";
- Good news because of His words "For them there is good news in this
world and in the next";
- Entrance into the Garden because of His words "Truly, there are
for the people of taqwa with their Lord Gardens of bliss";
- Salvation from the Fire because of His words "Then We will save
the ones who had taqwa".
Second Section
There are ten things which awaken taqwa:
- Fear of punishment in the next life;
- Fear [of punishment in] this life;
- Hope of worldly reward;
- Hope of the reward of the next world;
- Fear of the reckoning;
- Shyness and bashfulness before the gaze of Allah, and this is the
station of fearful watchfulness (muraqabah);
- Showing gratitude for His blessings by obeying
Him;
- Knowledge, because of His words, "They only fear Allah, of His slaves,
the ones who have knowledge";
- Exalting and honouring His majesty, and it is the station of awe;
- Sincerity in love because of the words of the one who said:
"You disobey God while you make apparent that you love Him,
This,
by my life, in analogy is a marvel.
If your love were sincere you would obey Him,
Truly,
the lover towards the one he loves is obedient."
And to Allah be attributed the good of the one who said:
"She said, and she had asked about the state of her lover,
'For Allah's
sake, describe him and do not omit nor exceed!'
I said, 'If he had feared death from thirst,
and you
had said, "Stop! don't approach the water!" then he would not have approached.'"
The Third Section
There are five degrees of taqwa:
- That the slave should protect himself from kufr (covering over the
truth), and that is the station of Islam;
- That he should protect himself from acts of disobedience and forbidden
things, and it is the station of turning or repentance (tawbah);
- That he should protects himself from doubtful matters, and that
is the station of caution or carefulness (wara');
- That he should protect himself from even those things that are permitted,
and that is the station of doing without (zuhd);
- That he should protect himself from the presence of other than Allah
in his heart, and it is the presence of witnessing (mushahadah).
That ends what Ibn Juzayy al-Kalbi wrote on taqwa.
8 January, 2005 11:09