Friday Sermon : The Concept of Fear to the God

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

Often, when we talk with Christian preachers about fear to the God, they will contrast us with the term of love to the God is better than fear to the God. As a Muslim, I am always aware about our love or devotion to the God. I always close my postings with prayers for peace, mercy and love and it means also love toward the God. I actually don't really like preachers. No matter of what religion, I just don't like to be persuaded. I love to do everything because of my own sincerity for Him and because of my own awareness. Not because I look at this guy looks awesome or that guy looks great in any church, group or etc. If I am that kind of person, I would be a person who has many friends around me. But I am not...

The imam who delivered the sermon is my favorite imam in Masjid al-Malik Khalid, imam Zayd Zahari from Pulau Pinang. I love his Quranic recitation which is clear, simple, medium and without any exaggeration. He actually gains my respect though I never personally talk to him because I don't think I am fit enough to talk to him and I also care about his memorization which means I will never interrupt him although he does not recite any Quranic verse in front of me because I know the sacred verses is actually circulating within him and could not be interrupted. I think his sermon about fear to the God is more important than political sermon about Palestine or Israel. They are not important as the God is important (He is the Light of the world and heavens). So, why should I exaggerate about these people situation? They become like that simply because of they have no reflection on themselves. No muhasabah and they look at themselves as important. Who is actually important? Allah or His slaves?

My Palestinian classmate never join five times obligatory congregational prayer services although he lives in the hostel close to masjid which is actually a serious offense according to Hanbali madzhab. For me, his room should be burned as according to Abu Hurairah hadith but yet he still talks about how important his country to be enlisted in the world map. If he prays in congregation with his people there it would be nice but I saw it with my own eyes as I always accompanied him since we were classmates. People like us have no country of origin anymore and living as the citizen of others without the sense of belonging but why we never lament our fate like them and going to the media like superstars? We also don't live like normal human-being so I understood how the Jews diaspora feel. If I live like normal human perhaps I would not be writing these postings to talk to the Lord.  

Definition of Fear to the Lord

According to the sermon, the word fear is translated from the Arabic word at-Taqwa which means fear, haha. It is synonymous to English word, integrity which was derived from a Latin word Integer. In the Old Testament, Songs of the Song (Shir Ha Shirim), integrity was mentioned for about 66 times. In Quran there are hundreds of the word which refers to integrity and fear to the God. The concept of taqwa and the confidence that the Lord is monitoring us (He is Monitoring us!).    

The imam says that the serious problem in our society today is because we have no taqwa toward the God. If we wanted to talk about the devotion and love to the God. We must also talk about fear toward the God as all of these are inter-connected. It is like when we talk to a beginner about certain things, they would not get the picture if we only show half of it and mentioning it as a complete picture. If we can't show the whole picture in a space, we should show it step by step. As in Christians' faith for example, to get the knowledge on Salvation, one has to be baptized. What happened if a person is not baptized? He will be doomed forever. For us Muslims, the words of fear to the Lord or kalimah at-Taqwa is there is no gods but only the God. Baptism for me is just a tradition of prophet Jesus a.s and sages of ancient Israel. I perform it everyday according to what has been highlighted by noble prophet Muhammad s.a.w. When I repented to our ancestral path, I also performed ghusl (baptism) to clean myself from previous deeds and being a new-person. Certain special days, I also perform massaha (annointing) where I will apply olive oil on my skin and hair. If I translate it into Greek it sounds, Christos but I am not a "Christian" and I don't need any church baptism. I am a Muslim, and my patriarchs are Abraham a.s and Ismael a.s, my imam of jurisprudence school is Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal, the seal of prophethood according to my faith and creed is Muhammad s.a.w : )

Three Degree of Fear to the Lord

1. Liberating one self from infidelity and ingrateful attitude

2. Avoiding one self from sinful acts

3. Cleansing one self's heart and soul from things which keeping him far from Allah

Closing

I found that if we have ample knowledge about the pillars of faith and pillars of Islam, we will understand what has been taught by teachers. I always advise myself to revise the hadith compiled by Imam an-Nawawi rahimahullah on the hadith Jibril a.s. If I found kids doing immoral activities, perhaps I will kidnap them and force them to memorize the pillars of faith and pillars of Islam and recite them until their throat sore, hahahhahahahahaa. So the sermon today is about taqwa. Let us ponder more about this topic and get our understanding in a more deep manner. The way Allah look at us is upon at-Taqwa. Not upon superiority of race or nationality or gender or appearance. I also look at people according this standard.

Prayer for mercy, peace, and love, amin!