بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Taqwah is often thought of and understood by many as a negative emotion since many translations translate this word as fear. But taqwah in Arabic doesn’t mean fear.
Taqwah means to protect one’s self. For students of Arabic this word’s root is وقى
So the question is, protect one’s self from what? There are different stages of taqwah:
1. The first and bottom most level of taqwah is when a person doesn’t even recognize Allah or believe in Him. But man is born with an innate sense of right and wrong coded into him. So when a person protects himself from doing wrong that is also a kind of taqwah.
2. The second level of taqwah comes with recognition and love of Allah. Once a man recognizes Allah and he loves Him, now his desire to stay away from the deeds that displease Allah or incur His wrath is taqwah.
Even with the second definition of taqwah, it still feels like a negative force or emotion. But surah Maidah ayaah 93 presents a whole new perception of taqwah.
لَيْسَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ جُنَاحٌ فِيمَا طَعِمُوا إِذَا مَا اتَّقَوا وَّآمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ ثُمَّ اتَّقَوا وَّآمَنُوا ثُمَّ اتَّقَوا وَّأَحْسَنُوا ۗ وَاللَّهُ يُحِبُّ الْمُحْسِنِينَ
Those who believe and do righteous good deeds, there is no sin on them for what they ate (in the past), if they fear Allah (by keeping away from His forbidden things), and believe and do righteous good deeds, and again fear Allah and believe, and once again fear Allah and do good deeds with Ihsan (perfection). And Allah loves the good-doers.
This ayaah teaches us that taqwah is a driving force which takes a man to the highest level of success and spiritual growth. It tells us that taqwah is the motivation which will take us from Imaan to Ihsan – which in the hadeeth of Jibreel Rasulullah SAW has explained as the stage where a man is so mindful of Allah’s presence as if he is seeing Him with his own eyes.
Surah alMaidah and surah anNisaa are complementary surahs. Where Surah alMaidah is the surah of society as a whole, Surah anNisaa on the other hand is the surah of individuals. Allah discusses personal reform in Surah anNisaa and then He discusses social reform in alMaidah.
If we study these two surahs together we learn what Allah teaches us about the process of correction. We are living in times where we are surrounded by injustice, oppression and evil. And we often talk about change, feeling helpless against the magnitude of the evil around us.
But look at how Allah opens the topic of reform. The first ayaah of the first surah from these twin surahs about reform starts with the command for taqwah:
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اتَّقُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُم مِّن نَّفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ وَخَلَقَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا وَبَثَّ مِنْهُمَا رِجَالًا كَثِيرًا وَنِسَاءً ۚ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ الَّذِي تَسَاءَلُونَ بِهِ وَالْأَرْحَامَ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَيْكُمْ رَقِيبًا
O mankind! Be dutiful to your Lord, Who created you from a single person (Adam), and from him (Adam) He created his wife [Hawwa (Eve)], and from them both He created many men and women and fear Allah through Whom you demand your mutual (rights), and (do not cut the relations of) the wombs (kinship). Surely, Allah is Ever an All-Watcher over you.
Here Allah teaches us that the change will not come unless we as an individual change ourselves first. And taqwah will be the foundation of that change. It is the root on which each person of the society should build him/herself up and then only the ripple effect of this force will spread through the society as a whole.
Then and only then will we have a society where people will think of duties before asking for rights, where there will be justice and where there will be peace.
But before we can rest in the shade of this beautiful tree, we must heal the roots with taqwah.
سبحانك اللهم و بحمدك نشهد ان لااله الّا انت نستغفرك و نتوب اليك