Chapter on What Produces Fear of God's Promise

And the Most High said: «But as for he who feared the standing before his Lord and forbade the soul from desire» [79:40]. And the Most High said: «And they fear their Lord and dread the evil of the reckoning» [13:21]. And the Most High said: «And those who fear the evil of the reckoning» [13:21].

Chapter on that by which one attains khawf (fear) of the promise of God Most High

I said: By what does one attain khawf (fear) and rajāʾ (hope)?

He said: Through the greatness of knowledge of the magnitude of the promise and the threat.

I said: By what does one attain the greatness of knowledge of the magnitude of the promise and the threat?

He said: Through intimidation by the severity of punishment, and hope for the greatness of reward.

I said: And by what does one attain intimidation?

He said: Through remembrance and reflection upon the final outcome, because God—Mighty and Majestic—has already known that this servant, when what He has made him fear and what He has given him hope for is hidden from him, will neither fear nor hope except through remembrance and reflection, for the unseen is not seen with the eye; rather, it is seen only with the qalb (heart) through the realities of yaqīn (certitude). So when the servant is veiled from the Hereafter by heedlessness, and veiled from it by the preoccupations of this world, he neither fears nor hopes except the hope and fear of mere acknowledgment.

As for fear: it is that which makes him disdain hastening his pleasure in what God—Mighty and Majestic—detests. And as for hope: it is that by which he bears what his soul detests of that which his Lord loves. So this will never be his so long as he remains preferring the caprice of his own soul. Rather, one attains that only through remembrance, reflection, alertness, and recollection of the severity of the anger of God—Mighty and Majestic—fear and hope of God, the pain of His punishment, and the Day of Return.

And God has indeed informed that His awliyāʾ (friends) attained it by that. He said: «Indeed in that are signs for those who examine» [15:75]. And He said: «Those who remember God standing, sitting, and on their sides, and reflect» [3:191].

«And they reflect upon the creation of the heavens and the earth: "Our Lord, You have not created this in vain. Glory be to You! So protect us from the punishment of the Fire. Our Lord, indeed whoever You admit into the Fire, You have disgraced him, and there are no helpers for the wrongdoers. Our Lord, indeed we have heard a caller calling to faith... "» to His saying, exalted and glorified: «and You do not break the promise» [3:191–194].

The Prophet, peace be upon him, recited this verse in the middle of the night, and he said: Woe to the one who recites this verse and passes his mustache over it without reflecting upon it! He prayed and wept throughout his entire night. When he was asked about that, he said: These verses were revealed — does God Most High rebuke them that they do not reflect and remember? The enormity of the disgrace upon them of entering the Fire was immense, so they feared the Fire, then they implored Him to deliver them from the Fire and from the disgrace of the Day of Reckoning. For when they hoped for salvation by His grace, they turned to Him in supplication (tadarru') that He might save them from the disgrace of that Day.

That by which khawf (fear) is attained is: knowledge of the enormity of the measure of punishment. And that by which it is magnified is: knowledge of the enormity of the measure of punishment through intimidation. And intimidation is attained through reflection upon the return (ma'ad), and reflection is attained through remembrance (dhikr), and remembrance is through awakening from heedlessness (ghafla).

For God, exalted and glorified, only intimidates us with punishment so that we may fear for ourselves, and gives us hope so that we may have hope in Him. Intimidation is something the servant undertakes through the grace of God, exalted and glorified, and His favor upon him. And fear is an agitation from Him that the servant does not control; it arises from intimidation, which God stirs in the heart of the one who intimidates himself as God commanded him. And God, exalted and glorified, may cast fear into the heart of the believing servant without any effort on his part, when He intends to bestow His favor upon him thereby. But if He does not cast it into his mind, the servant would not be excused before Him for abandoning the effort of self-intimidation, for He commanded him to fear for himself just as He commanded him to reflect upon the return (al-ma'ad) — and that consists of intimidation and encouragement — and His threats and warnings, so that he may reflect upon that and fear Him and hope in Him.

Chapter on That Which the Persistent One Finds Burdensome, and the Description of the Heaviness of Reflection upon the Heart

When this persistent servant wishes to arrive at that which dissolves the insistence of his qalb (heart), and what impels him toward tawba (repentance) from his sins — by seeking the nafs (soul) through frightening it with reflection upon the place of return, and the assault of death, and the greatness of the right of God, Mighty and Glorious, and what is due of obedience to Him, and his continual neglect of His command and his violation of His prohibition.

I said: I find reflection heavy upon my heart. So from where did it become heavy upon the servants?

He said: Reflection became heavy upon the servants for three reasons. They may combine upon some of them, and reflection becomes heavy upon them; and for some of them only one of these three reasons, or two, may weigh heavily.

The first of them is: cutting off the heart's comfort from gazing at worldly matters by remembrance of the Hereafter. For when one reflects, one's intellect is imprisoned from the world, cutting it off from its comfort by thinking about and attending to worldly affairs.

The second reason is: that reflection upon the place of return and its severities is a torment of the nafs, and grief when one remembers the place of return and the reckoning — and what concern and what anxiety is upon it. For the one who affirms God's oneness and acknowledges the truth, when he reflects upon that, grief and sorrow surge in him because of his faith in it. So reflection weighs heavy upon the nafs on account of that, because what weighs upon it is the griefs and sorrows that come upon it.

The third reason is: that the nafs and the enemy have come to know that the aspirant, when he desires to reflect upon his place of return, only seeks through reflection a khawf (fear) that severs him from every pleasure in order to draw near to his Lord, and that bears him upon every hardship that he must endure and what is incumbent upon him.

So reflection weighs heavy upon the nafs when you know that it is only being demanded of that which cuts it off from its pleasures in the days of its life, and which bears it upon what it detests and what weighs upon it. And the enemy has come to know that it only demands what nullifies his stratagems, and refutes his arguments, and opposes his desires. So it is for these three reasons that reflection became heavy upon the aspirants.