The Qur’an is the Word of God, a divine revelation sent down to offer guidance to all people. In the Scripture, God emphasises His power over all things and His freedom to do whatever He will.
We are all under God’s control. If God chooses to make someone suffer, no one can stop Him. And God assures us in the Qur’an that He is planning to make some people suffer terrible torment in hell. No one can be sure that they will escape this torment.
In Surah 70 verse 28 God tells human beings that “the punishment of their Lord is not something to feel safe from”. This will make sense to anyone who acknowledges God’s freedom, power, and His sovereign control over all of creation including everything that human beings experience.
It is right to fear God and to fear the Day of Judgement. But we can also acknowledge that God has the power to take away our fear if He wills, and God promises in the Qur’an that those who do good deeds and are mindful of Him will be rewarded with paradise as a never ending reward – “No fear for them, nor shall they grieve”.
Perfect Chaos 
6 responses to “It is Right to Live in Fear”
Hi Steven, I only found out today about your predicament – stay strong my friend.
As for your post, I know there is a discrepancy between the stance taken toward God between Christianity and Islam.
Personally, I’m more inclined toward loving and admiring God as fear can be a limiting emotion. Though I am personally muslim, truly fearing God is one thing I’ve never been able to integrate into my beliefs.
Anyway, I think your content is very significant, and I would be keen to discuss matters at some point if you’re interested.
God be with you,
Jalal
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Dear Jalal,
Thank you so much for reading and commenting and I’d be delighted to dialogue with you either here or via email.
I’m really surprised by what you wrote about not fearing God. Throughout the Qur’an God reminds us of His awesome power and warns us about the reality of the Day of Judgement and of hell. In light of this, how is it that you don’t fear Him?
I look forward to reading your explanation.
Kind regards,
Steven
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Dear Steven,
I know that many Muslims interpret the Qur’an literally, and so many scholars are inclined to warn us to fear God. But, as I said, fear is a negative emotion that detracts from that which is greater. When we fear we physically and emotionally shrink away from source of our fear. Growing up in an Islamic household, my parents were fond of telling me to fear God. But I chose instead to develop a honouring relation with Him (for man is made to worship) – one that is personal and suffused by the mysticism that is reminiscent of the Sufis.
God, or Allah, is of course all-mighty and omnipotent. In that same vein, I believe that God showed Job the behemoth and the leviathan not to strike fear in him but to inspire awe in him. Likewise, we humble people, too, should be awe-inspired by His word and his works, rather than fear Him.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Best wishes,
Jalal
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Thank you for elaborating, Jalal. I think the right approach is one of both reverence and awe and also fear. While I appreciate fear isn’t the nicest emotion, we must hold God high above our own desires and take heed of what He teaches in the Qur’an. God describes Himself in the Qur’an as both loving and merciful and severe in punishment, and I think a wise approach is to respect both aspects of His character. Fear can lead us to take sin seriously, which is ultimately good for us, I think. Perhaps God wants us to fear Him so that we don’t neglect to take His teaching seriously? I do believe the Qur’an is God’s speech to us so we should seek to understand and obey what is taught in it.
As you know, I have some theological struggles I’m trying to resolve around some areas where orthodox Christianity and the Qur’an appear to disagree, but interestingly we find in the Bible the statement “the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom” so this would indicate there is agreement between the Bible and and the Qur’an on this issue.
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Thanks Steven for your view. Perhaps one explanation for my lack of belief in fearing God is my contrarian approach to sin and religion as a whole. As an ardent Nietzsche fan, I have been pursuing the concept of evaluating values beyond good and evil for a while now.
I do agree that there is merit to be found in fearing God, of course, but it would depend on how we evaluate this fear. Again, I mainly focus on the benevolent aspects of God which tends to diminish His fearful aspect. I would be curious to further understand how you personally comprehend God by way of fear.
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Hi Jalal. That’s interesting, thank you for sharing. God actually revealed some things to me today which make me more sympathetic of your views. I will share more about this in upcoming blog posts, God willing. The reason why I emphasised the fear of God is because of the stark warnings about hell in the Qur’an and the Bible. And also God’s instructions to fear Him that I mentioned previously. I suppose it depends on the way we perceive the Scriptures and the extent to which we believe God wants us to accept and obey them.
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