Tuesday 1 January 2008

Fear and Hope

Umar bin al-Khattaab (may Allah be pleased with him) said,
"If it is announced in the assembly [on the Day of Judgement] that only one person is to enter Paradise, I would hope that [that person] is me, and if it is announced that only one person will enter Hellfire, I would fear that that is me."

(Source: Imam Abu Hanifa's Al-Fiqh al-Akbar Explained)

Rightly so.
And why would I not be so fearful,
when my shortcomings are so numerous
and my submission so lacking?
And why would I not be so hopeful,
when I turn to my Lord in repentance
and He is the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was listening to a talk yesterday and they made that same point about hope in Allah. Huwa al haq an yata'amal bihy. As in if we do not have hope in him, who will we have that hope towards?
I know this has been ages since you wrote this, but posts such as these are timeless, masha Allah. Jazak Allah khayran.

adil said...

Thanks for sharing that. Jazaak Allahu Khairan.

Here is something nice I heard just now:

"... fear of Allah (SWT) is very different from fear of anybody else. When we fear somebody else, we run away from them. Fear of Allah (SWT) means that we run towards him..."

(Mufti Abdurrahman Ibn Yusuf)

http://www.getislam.net/lectures/abdurrahman-ibn-yusuf/