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One of the most beautiful things about
the concept of worship in Islam is the truly unique way in which it
incorporates the feeling of love, fear and hope within the hearts of
the worshippers of Allah. Understanding how to combine these three
qualities into the worship (ibaadah) of Allah is one of the most
essential things that every Muslim must grasp, not least because every
sect which has drifted from the Straight Path has strayed in the
aspect of worship. The deviation of the other religions in this regard
is clear for all to see: "God is love! Jesus is love!" say the
Christians, denying the fact that Allah should be feared too. As for
the Jews, their hearts were filled only with hope; hope that the Fire
will never touch them, since they were the "Promised People".
In Islam however, no worship is
complete without the presence of all three qualities: love of Allah,
hope in His Mercy and fear of His Punishment. Contemplate the opening
Soorah of the Qur'aan - Soorah al-Faatihah - and you will see this for
yourself.
Aayah 1:
"All praise [and thanks] is for Allah, Rabb of all the worlds."
In this opening aayah (verse) of the
Qur'aan, we have LOVE of Allah and every time we recite this aayah we
are testifying to our love for Allah. How is that you ask?
It is because in the aayah, we are
acknowledging that Allah is our Rabb and the Rabb of all the worlds.
Rabb is usually translated as 'the Lord', but this translation does
not do justification to this name of Allah and all the meanings this
name carries. In reality, Rabb means that Allah is the Creator of
everything; He sustains and nourishes everything; He gives life and
Death; anything good that we have is from Him; everything is dependant
on Him and nothing can happen unless He wills it. Furthermore, for the
Muslims He - the Rabb - in the One who has guided us to the Truth and
given us good morals and manners.
Thus when we testify that Allah is our
Rabb, then we are acknowledging that He is the One who has given us so
many blessings - so many that if we try to enumerate His blessings, we
would be unable to do so. So how could we not but LOVE Him?
After all, we all love those who show
kindness towards us or present us with gifts. And therefore the
Messenger of Allah (pbuh) encouraged the
exchange of gifts between Muslims because it helps to strengthen ties
and develop love for one another. He (pbuh)
said, "Give gifts to one another, you
will come to love one another." [1]
So imagine the LOVE we should have for
our Rabb who has given us everything: nice families, shelter,
security, food, health and above all the Guidance of Islam and the
Sunnah. We should be overwhelming in our love for Him. That is why we
praise Him and thank Him and say, "All
praise (and thanks) is for Allah, Rabbil-'aalameen."
Aayah 2:
"The Rahmaan (Merciful) and the Raheem (Mercy-Giving)."
In the first aayah of Soorah al-Faatihah,
Allah mentioned He was the Rabb. In this aayah two more of His
beautiful names are mentioned: ar-Rahmaan and ar-Raheem. Ar-Rahmaan
means that He is the Most Merciful. Ar-Raheem means that He is the
Giver of Mercy, in other words His actions are full of Mercy and He
shows Mercy to His creation. [2]
When we mention these two names of
Allah, then we have HOPE. Since He is the One who is full of Mercy,
and we hope He will forgive our mistakes and shortcomings. We should
never loose hope, because Allah says in the Qur'aan,
"O My slaves, who have transgressed
against themselves! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah, Verily Allah
forgives all sins (except sins). Truly He is Oft-Forgiving, the Most
Merciful" [39: 53]
The need to have FEAR in our worship is
shown by the next aayah of Soorah al-Faatihah.
Aayah 3:
"King/Master of the Day of Judgement."
When we recite this aayah, we remind
ourselves of the Day of Judgement - that awful Day, when all of
humanity shall stand before Allah … naked, uncircumcised and
barefooted. People will appear drunk though they are not.
On that Day, every person will stand
before Allah and account for his sins, knowing that not even the
smallest action which he did is hidden from Allah:
"So whosoever does good equal to the
weight of an atom, shall see it. And whosoever does evil equal to the
weight of an atom shall see it."
[Soorah 99 : 7-8]
So when we recite this third aayah of
Soorah al-Faatihah, we remind ourselves of this Judgement and
accountability and that should bring about in us a sense of fear -
that maybe our evil actions will be too great and we will be
responsible for them - May Allah protect us from such a fate. Then
the next verse goes on to say: "You
alone we worship."
i.e. we single out Allah for our worship. And how do we
worship Him? With LOVE, HOPE and FEAR. And in order to achieve these
qualities, we need Allah's assistance, so we say then,
"We seek Your Aid."
Striking the Balance
After understanding the need to have
love, hope and fear in our worship, the next question that naturally
arises is that, in what proportion should these qualities be present
in our worship? Again we turn to the Qur'aan for the answer.
"Call upon Him
with Fear and Hope." [ Soorah (7): 56]
"Their sides forsake their beds,
to invoke their Lord in Fear and Hope." [(32): 16]
So both fear and hope should be present
in our hearts in equal proportions. Anas reported that the Prophet (pbuh) entered upon a young boy who was dying. The Prophet
(pbuh) asked, "How are you?" The boy
replied, "O Messenger of Allah, I am in
between hoping in Allah and fearing for my sins." The Prophet (pbuh) said,
"The like of these two qualities do not
unite in the heart of a servant except that Allah gives him what he
hopes for and protects him from what he feared." [3]
Therefore whenever we do a good action,
we should hope that it has been accepted by Allah, but at the same
time we should also have fear that maybe it isn't enough or that the
good deed has not been worthy of acceptance. Likewise when we sin, we
should have hope that Allah will accept our repentance and forgive
us, but we should also fear that we may be accountable for it.
This balance should be reflected in our
Dawah (which of course is also worship). So when we invite others to
the Truth, we should not give them the impression that 'they have
nothing to worry about', nor do we suggest that 'they are doomed
forever'. Rather we couple warnings with encouragement. We inform them
of the horrors of the Fire and tell them about the bliss of Paradise.
Just as we find Allah telling us in the Qur'aan:
"Verily your Lord is Quick in Punishment and verily He is the
Oft-Forgiving, the Giver of Mercy." [(7): 167]
And the scholars of Islam say,
"He who worships Allah with hope only is a murji'ee. He who worships
Him in fear only is a Harooree [Khaarijee]. And He who worships Allah
in love only is a Zindeeq [eg. the Soofis, the Christians, etc]. But
he who worships Allah in fear, love and hope is a Muwahhid Mu'min [a
believer upon Tawheed]." [4]
The Murji'a were a sect that emerged
within the first century of Islam. The people of this sect (i.e. the
murji'ees) believe that sins do not affect faith i.e. no matter what
sins a person commits, his eeman (faith) is complete and perfect. They
worship Allah only with hope because they believe that as long as one
believed and testified to Islam, they would enter Paradise regardless
of their actions.
Unfortunately, all too often nowadays we
find a similar attitude amongst many Muslims today, which is why we
find that so often we try to advise someone to turn to the Deen and
abandon sin, they just point to their hearts and say, "Allah knows
what is in my heart", or "Allah forgives", or something else like
that.
As for the Khawaarij, they worshipped
Allah in fear only because they held that anyone who commits major
sins was a disbeliever and would therefore dwell in Hellfire forever.
This of course is gross extremism and straying from the correct path.
The Prophet (pbuh) said: "There were two
men of Banoo Israa'eel who strove equally. One of then committed sins
and the other strove hard in worship. And the one who strove in
worship cto see the other in sin and kept saying to him: "Desist." So
one day he found him committing a sin and so said to him: "Desist" So
he replied, "Leave me by my Lord, have you been sent as a watcher over
me?". He said, "By Allah, Allah will not forgive you, nor will
Allah admit you to Paradise". Then their souls were taken and they
came together before the Lord of the Worlds. So Allah said to the one
who strove in worship: "Did you have Knowledge of Me, or did you have
any power in what is in my Hands?" And He said to the sinner: "Go and
enter Paradise through My Mercy." And He said to the other: "Take him
to the fire." Aboo Hurairah said:
"By Him in whose Hand is my soul! He spoke a word which destroyed this
world and the hereafter for him." [5]
Therefore we should never say of anyone
that he or she is a 'lost cause' or 'doomed' or the like for this is a
great sin. However, we fear for those who commit major sins because
they have been threatened with punishment in the Qur'aan and the
Hadeeth. However it is up to Allah whether He chooses to punish them
or whether He will forgive them.
The Zindeeqs - or the heretics - are
groups, such as many of the Soofis who have become like the Christians
and reduced the religion to just 'love' and so all their talk and
their mystical practices are centred around developing more 'love'.
It is thus clear how imbalances in any
of the three qualities of worship can lead to major deviation and
straying to the True Guidance. It is therefore important for every
Muslim to combine all three of them in his heart properly. As was
mentioned before, the fear and hope should be in equal proportions [6],
but as for love then that should be uppermost. As Fudayl ibn-'Iyaad -
rahimahullah - (d.187H) said, "The love
is better than the fear. The fear checks us from sinning, and the love
makes us do what is prescribed with an open heart." [7]
May Allah grant us what we hope for and
protect us from what we fear. And may the Blessings of Allah be upon
our Prophet Muhammed, upon his family, his Companions and upon all
those who follow Guidance until the Last Day.
[1] Collected by Imaam Bukhari in
al-Adabul-Mufrad and declared hasan by al-Albaanee in al-Irwaa (1601).
[2] As explained by Ibnul-Qayyim (d.751H) in Badaa'I ul-Fawaa'id.
[3] Collected in Sunan at-Tirmidhi and Sunan Ibn Majah and
authenticated by Sheikh al-Albani in Ahkam al-Janaa'iz (no.2).
[4] Quoted by Ibn Rajjab in al-Takhweef minan-Naar.
[5] Collected in Sunan Abu Dawood (english trans. vol.3, p.1365,
no.4883). See Saheehul-Jaami (4455) by Sheikh al-Albani.
[6] This was the opinion of most of the Salaf. Al-Fudayl ibn 'Iyyaad
said that, when one is healthy and well, then fear should predominate,
but when terminally ill then hpoe should predominate - so that one
should strive to do good when well and not despair of Allah's Mercy
when terminally ill. [Al-Takhweef minan-Naar]
[7] Reported in Al-Takhweef minan-Naar of Ibn Rajab. Note that some
scholars hold that the fear is better than love, and Allah knows
best.
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