Taqwa Of The Prophets And Taqwa Of The People

Definition

In Qur'anic context, taqwa refers to fear of God in terms of protecting oneself from displeasing God.

Taqwa is to protect yourself from the wrath of Allah by not indulging things that Allah forbids.

Taqwa is the guilt that follows when you hurt someone knowingly or unknowingly.

Taqwa is to cry in the depth of night fearing none but the One above the Arsh.

Taqwa is a hight state of heart, which keeps one conscious Allah's presence and His Knowledge.

Taqwa is an Islamic term for piety, fear of God.

Al-Muttaqin refers to those who practice taqwa, or in the words of Ibn Abbas - "Believers who avoid shirk with Allah and who work in his obedience.

In Sufism, Taqwa has three degrees namely

• The first degree or rank is that of the common people.This rank shuns anything associated with God or the common people participate in taqwa by simply avoiding shirk.
• The second degree or rank is the elect who shun sins.
• The third degree or rank is that of the Prophets who avoid attributing acts to anyone other than God.Their fears come to them from Him and is (directed) to Him.The highest rank are those who distance themselves from everything that separates them from God, for one of the main goals in sufism is to get closer to God because being separated from God is equivalent to that of hell.

The tenth century sufi scholar, Al-Qushayri in his Epistle (Risala) writes about three parts of taqwa :

• Full trust in God with respect to what has not been granted to Him.
• Full satisfaction with what has been granted to Him.
• Full patience with respect to what has eluded Him.

The Qur'an mentions a number of virtues that cultivate taqwa or that taqwa cultivates in a person :

• Qur'an 2:283  : The keeping of trusts (Amana).
• Qur'an 3: 76   : Faithfulness (Al-Wafa).
• Qur'an 3:186  : Patience (Al-Sabr).
• Qur'an 7: 96, Qur'an 10:63-64, Qur'an 39:10  :Taqwa to the good life (Hasanat) on this earth besides reward in the hereafter.
• Qur'an  65:3   : Taqwa to material ease in this life even when the believer does not expect it.

According to Tafsir Ibn Kathir, the root meaning of taqwa is to avoid what one dislikes.It was reported that Umar bin Khattab asked Ubay Ibn Kaab about taqwa.Ubay said, "Have you ever walked on a path that has thorns on it?" Umar said, "Yes." Ubay asked, "What did you do then?" To which Umar replied, "I rolled up my sleeves and struggled." Ubay said," That is Taqwa, to protect oneself from sin through life's dangerous journey so that one can successfully complete the journey unscathed by sin.

TAQWA OF THE PROPHETS

• Taqwa is when Nooh (AS) called his people patiently to worship Allah for about 950 years.
• Taqwa is when Ibrahim (AS) went to sacrifice his own son for the sake of Allah.
• Taqwa is when Ismail (AS) accepted himself to be slaughtered for sake of Allah.
• Taqwa is when Yousuf (AS) rejected the call of a beautiful woman to commit fornication.
• Taqwa is when Moosa (AS) bravely called the dictator Firoun to worship Allah.
• Taqwa is When Muhammad (PBUH) offered salah in the night though his past and future sins were forgiven.

TAQWA OF THE PEOPLE

People have taqwa are Muttaqun.

• Who spend in path by carrying out Prayer (Salah), Fasting in Ramadan.
•  Who control anger.
• Who feel shame of mistakes and ask for forgiveness from Allah (SWT) from the mistakes.
• The One who goes on this journey takes him with his supplies that will have him reach the holy land, and this reminds him that for the journey to his Lord, he must have with him provisions that will help him to arrive safely.Concerning this, Allah Says (interpretation of the meaning ) : "And take a provision (with you) for the journey, but the best provision is At-Taqwa (piety, righteousness."