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All praise is due to Allah: We praise Him, and seek His help and ask Him for forgiveness. We also seek refuge from the evil of ourselves and from the adverse consequences of our actions. Whomsoever Allah guides, there is no one to misguide him and whom soever He misguides, there is none to guide him. I testify that there is no deity except Allah and I testify that Muhammed (s) is His servant and messenger. Allah says in sura Ale Imraan (102): ' O you who believe! Fear Allah as he is supposed to be feared and do not die unless you are in the state of submission.' Also in sura Nisa(1) Allah says: ' O you who believe! Fear Allah who has created you from a single soul and then created from that its mate and then from them disseminated many men and women. Fear Allah in whose name you plead with each other and respect your relatives. Allah is forever a guardian over you.' Again in sura Nisa (131) Allah says: 'Verily, We have enjoined on those who were given the Book before you, and on you (O Muslims) to fear Allah.' 'From amongst His servants, only those who know fear Him.' (Fatir 28) There are several other places in the quran and the authentic sunnah where we Muslims are commanded to fear Allah (swt). In fact in the beginning of sura Baqara Allah (swt) says that this quran is no doubt a guidance for people who are mutaqeen i.e. God conscious and God fearing. When the Prophet (s) sent Mua'd (rd) to Yemen, he(s) enjoined the following upon him: "O Mu'aadh, fear Allah wherever you may be, and follow up a bad deed with a good one and it will wipe it out, and behave towards people with beautiful manners."(Tirmidhee, Ahmed) Today we have gotten ourselves so much involved in this materialistic world that we have forgotten what is for sure to come; things that we are supposed to believe as part of our faith. Yes I am talking about death that every soul shall taste; the torment of the grave, the day of judgment when all of us will be accountable for our deeds and actions in this world; and finally the everlasting life after that. Today when we hear people talk about these things, we are unmoved. Our attitude is not care free; we'll see when it comes (ASTAGFIRULLAH). When we hear about torment of hell, or the bounties of paradise our hearts do not feel anything. They do not tremble, nor do they get overjoyed with the pleasures of paradise. Why is that ? The simple answer to this question is that the fear of Allah has left our hearts. We have made this world if not sole, a major concern and purpose of this life. The love of this world and its material things have settled in our hearts to an extent that this religion that Allah (swt) has blessed us with has become a secondary thing. We prefer this worldly life and its temporary pleasures over following Allah and His Messenger (s). The hearts have died before their bodies and as a result, they have lost both worlds. Our predecessors, the salaf and those who followed them used to fear Allah tremendously. So much so that tears would fall involuntarily and their feet would swell because of their long nights on the prayer rugs. They knew that death would come with all its anxieties and turmoil; the grave would appear with its nerve-racking experience; the trumpet would be blown and the Day of Judgment would come down with all its hair-raising realities. Dear brothers and sisters in Islam! If we fear Allah in this world than inshAllah we will be spared the fright of those moments; as Allah says in sura Qaaf (22): ' Certainly you were adverse to this (moment of death), so now that we have raised the curta ins from you, your sight is sharp and keen.' In order to fear Allah properly we need to understand what is meant by fearing Allah, and to look at the companions of the prophet(s) as to how they feared Allah. When someone fears something, he tries to run away from it. However we find a remarkable difference that when man fears his Creator he seeks refuge in Him and begins to obey Him. This is the awe of Allah which is quite apparent in the verse in Dhariyat (50): ' So run (escape) towards Him...' Ibn Abass(rd) explained this verse as meaning:' Run towards Him through repentance; escape from Him to Him and obey Him.' It is not enough to fear Allah without actually obeying Him. In fact this fear should cause us to follow Allah's guidelines, and keep away from His prohibitions. We find many merits of fear of Allah in the quran and sunnah. Allah in sura Ar Rahman (46) says; 'And he who fears his Lord's rank will have two gardens (in Paradise).' Mujahid said that this refers to a person who thinks about committing a sin but doesn't go through with his thought because of Allah's fear. In sura Noor(37) Allah says: 'They fear a day in which hearts and eyes will turn (out of bewilderment).' Hasan Basri says: 'What do you think of a day when people will stand on their feet for 50,000 years without having a bite to eat, a drop to drink until their necks will break from thirst and their stomachs will burn out of hunger. Then they (the disobedient) will turn to Hell and drink from a fountain whose water will be boiling and whose heat will be scorching. Brothers and sisters in Islam! this is no fairy tale. This is quran and sunnah which is the truth. After listening to all this how can we not fear our Lord and still say we believe in Him and what is said in the quran and sunnah. Or is it that we are sure that we are prepared to meet our Lord as obedient servants who won't go through this trial. What is that has beguiled us about our generous Lord as we close the doors and commit sins behind the curtains. What will become of us when our organs will testify against us? Anas (rd) narrates that the Prophet (s) gave such a sermon that he had not heard anything like it before. In this sermon he said: 'If you knew what I know, you would laugh more seldom and cry more often.' The companions covered their faces as they were crying and sniffling. (Bukhari) Adi ibn Hatim (rd) says that the Prophet (s) said: ' Allah will speak to each and every one of you without any translator. So you will try to see who is more fortunate than you and you will see nothing except what you have sent forward (deeds); you will try to see who is less fortunate than you and you will only see what you have sent forward. You will look in front of you and you will see Hell. So fear (protect yourselves from) Hell, even though it may be through a date.' Abu Hurairah(rd) says that he heard the Prophet(s) said: ' Seven kinds of people will be granted the Shade of Allah on a day that will offer no other shade except Allah's.' He mentioned them until he (s) spoke about a person who is invited by a beautiful respectable woman (to commit sin ) but refrains from doing so by saying : 'I fear Allah.' (B & M). Abu Hurairah (rd) narrates that the Prophet (s) said: 'A person who cries out of fear of Allah will not enter Hell until milk can go back into the udder.' (Tirmidhi, Nisai, and Ibn Majah) When we look at the lives of the companions, we see that they had the great fear of Allah, and due to this they used to cry a lot. Omar (rd), who was considered hard hearted used to cry out of fear of Allah. Abdullah ibn Shaddad says that he heard the sobbing of Omar(rd) in the last row of prayers as he was reciting the verse: 'I complain about my grief and sorrow to Allah.'( Yusuf 86) Ibrahim Taymi says: ' I have met sixty companions of the Prophet (s) in this masjid, the youngest of whom was Harith bin Suwaid (rd). I heard him recite Surah Zilzal until he reached the last verse: ' So who ever performs an atom's worth of good will see it (it's reward).' He cried and said: ' This is indeed a grave account.' And indeed in the lives of the Sahaba we have a good example of God fearing. Abu Imraan Al-Juni reports that Abu Bakr (rd) used to say: ' I wish I was a hair in the side of a believer.' Hassan narrates that Abu Bakr use to say: 'If only I was a tree cut down and eaten.' Abdullah bin Omar (rd) says that Omar(rd) used to say: ' If a goat had died with the driftage of the Euphrates, I would worry that Omar might be held accountable for it.' Omar (rd) also used to say: 'If someone announced from the heavens that everybody will enter Paradise except one person, I would fear that that person would be me.' Brothers and sisters! this was the fear of the second Khalifa of the Muslims, about whom the prophet (s) said that if there were to be any prophet after me, it would be Omar (rd). Abdullah ibn Abbas (rd) said to Omar(rd) when he was stabbed: 'O Leader of the Believers! You accepted Islam when others disbelieved; you struggled along with the Prophet (s) when others deserted him(s); the Prophet(s) died while he was pleased with you; no two people have disagreed with you and you are about to die as a martyr.' Omar(rd) replied: ' The flattered is the one whom you flatter. By Allah! If I had what ever the sun rose upon I would give it away in order to protect myself from what is about to rise (upon me).' Can we even think of comparing ourselves with the status of Omar(rd)? Of course not. But even with his high status and being among the sahaba his fear of Allah (swt) was tremendous. He was aware and truly believed in the true realities of what is to come. We can imagine where we stand. Abdur-Rahman ibn Abi Layla narrates from Abu Dharr(rd): ' By Allah! If you knew what I knew you would not find joy with your wives and you would not be able to relax on your beds. By Allah! I wish that Allah would have created me as a tree whose fruit is eaten.' Ali (rd) describes the characteristics of the Companions: 'By Allah I have seen the Companions of the Prophet (s) such that I have not seen anybody like them today. They used to wake up as if they had ridden goats all night with their clothes and hair dishellved. They spent the night performing ruku and sajdah for Allah, reciting the Book and alternating between their feet and foreheads. And when they awoke in the morn, they remembered Allah and remained like a tree (whose branches) swaying in the wind with their eyes pouring tears so much that they wet their clothes. Now, it seems as if people are going to sleep completely oblivious and unaware.' Brothers in sisters in Islam! Our predecessors did their job. Now its our time. As long as this heart of ours is beating, we can do whatever we want. As Ali(rd) said, Today is deeds without reckoning and tomorrow is reckoning without deeds. We have time to learn from the Sahaba and the pious predecessors and return to Allah in repentance and remorse for the time that we have lost so that we may attain true success both in this world and the hereafter. Finally let me quote you the saying of Hasan al-Basari: 'Believers expedited their fear in this world so Allah will give them security on the Day of Judgement. The Hypocrites put off their fear in this world so Allah will instill fear in them on the Day of Judgement.' 'And as for he who fears the rank of his Lord and prevents his self from desires, Paradise is certainly his abode.' (An-Nazi'aat ) http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/4222/taqwa.html
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