Chapter on A Detailed Explanation of Taqwa

And 'Ubayd Allah ibn Mūsā narrated to us, saying: Hishām ibn 'Urwa informed us — I think he mentioned it — from his father, who said: When Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, may God's good pleasure be upon him, assumed authority, he praised God and extolled Him, then said:

"O people, I have been placed in authority over you, yet I am not the best of you. However, the Quran has been revealed and the practice (sunna) of the Prophet, peace be upon him, has been established, and it has taught us. Know that the most astute is the shrewd, God-fearing person (al-kayyis al-taqī), and that the most foolish is the dissolute fool. The strongest among you in my sight is the weak one, until I take for him what is rightfully his. And the weakest among you in my sight is the strong one, until I take from him what is due. O people, I am but a follower; I am not an innovator. If I do well, then assist me, and if I deviate, then set me right."

Chapter: Exposition of Taqwā (God-consciousness)

I said: What is taqwā?

He said: Caution by avoiding what God, Mighty and Majestic, has forbidden.

I said: Caution from what?

He said: [damaged]

I said: And what then? (That is, caution from God.)

He said: In two qualities: neglecting what is obligatory of His right, and committing what He has prohibited and forbidden in secret.

And two qualities encompass that: acting in public and in private out of awe of God, Exalted and Glorious, and seeking the countenance of God, Exalted and Glorious, for the sake of God, Blessed and Most High.

And likewise it is narrated that when the fitna (tribulation) occurred, Talq ibn Habib said: "Guard against it with taqwā (God-consciousness)."

So Bakr ibn Abd Allah al-Muzani said to him: "Describe taqwā for us."

He said: Taqwā is that you act in obedience to God, Exalted and Glorious, upon a light from God, Exalted and Glorious, hoping for the reward of God, Exalted and Glorious.

And taqwā is the abandoning of acts of disobedience to God upon a light from God, Exalted and Glorious, out of fear of the punishment of God, Exalted and Glorious.

And taqwā — its reality in the conscience is: the intention of devotion in the obligatory acts, and through ikhlāṣ (sincerity) of action for Him; in the supererogatory acts: through weeping and sorrows, and prayer and fasting, and all the loftiest acts of obedience to which God, Exalted and Glorious, has encouraged His servants without making them obligatory upon them — out of compassion for them and mercy upon them.

And He does not accept that to which He has encouraged except through taqwā, until the intention becomes sincere for Him through it.

Because when the servant has taqwā of God, Exalted and Glorious, he practiced scrupulousness; thus there was waraʿ (scrupulous piety).