Page 62 - Fear of Allah

FEAR OF ALLAH
namely the Qur'an and the hadith of our Prophet (saas). Yet Allah
has introduced Himself to us in the Qur'an in the clearest and most
authentic manner possible. The knowledge of most people regard-
ing Allah consists of what they have heard from their respective
families, relatives and from here or there. As a result of this, people's
understanding regarding Allah varies widely.
The interesting point about this is that it has never occurred to a
great many people that the things they have heard and been taught
in their immediate environments could be incomplete or even to-
tally incorrect. Even if it has occurred to them, they would be most
unlikely to go out of their way to do the research that would be re-
quired in order to ascertain the truth. This is a serious mistake
which could result in going to the Fire as a consequence of not iden-
tifying Allah correctly or giving proper recognition to His many
great attributes.
This kind of people think of Allah in general terms with respect
to His attributes of The Forgiver (Al Ghaffar), The Helper (An Nasr),
The Provider (Ar Razzaq), the Subtle One (Al Latif), The Preserver
(Al Hafiz), The Merciful (Ar Rahim) and The Protector (Al
Muhaymin). Limiting their focus to attributes such as these simply
results in an unbalanced sense of comfort and complacency, since
Allah has other attributes such as The Avenger (Al Muntaqim), The
Punisher (Al Muazzib) and The Subduer (Al Qahhar). However, the
people mentioned above would not know what these attributes of
Allah actually mean. They cannot think of our Lord in these terms.
They do not realize that these attributes will be brought to bear
upon their actions, their behavior and their conversations.
Even though they may be aware of some of Allah's attributes by
name, they remain unaware of their full import and the manner in

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