Definition: Taqwaa - Shaykh Saalih al Fawzaan

[Shehzad Sattar]

Definition: Taqwaa - Shaykh Saalih al Fawzaan

Source: Wujoob ut tathabbut min al akhbaar wa ihtiraam il ‘ulemaa of Shaykh Saalih al Fawzaan, page 3

Translator Nasser ibn Najam – words in brackets and footnotes are the translator’s

Meaning:
That you do that which Allaah – the Perfect and Most High – commanded you with, hoping for His reward and that you leave off disobedience to Allaah, fearing His punishment.

Explanation:
The meaning of taqwaa in the language is: “that you take between yourself and that which you dislike a protection and a barrier which will come between yourself and that which you dislike”

Just as a person takes clothing by which he will protect himself from cold and from heat; and he takes armour by which he protects himself from the arrows of the enemies. And he builds fortresses by which he can be protected from the plot of the enemies.

Just as he wears upon his legs that which will protect them from the heat of the parched ground and from thorns and walking barefoot. Whoever does that then he has ittaqaa (protected himself) against these dangers.

However taqwaa of Allaah does not come about through clothes nor through fortresses nor through weapons nor through (having) an army; rather taqwaa of Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic, only comes about through obeying Him and complying with His Commands, and staying away from that which He, the Perfect, has forbidden.

So the meaning of taqwaa of Allaah is that you do that which Allaah, the Perfect and Most High, commanded you with, hoping for His reward and that you leave off disobedience to Allaah, fearing His punishment.

And the meaning of: “fear Him as He should be feared”[1] is that the person does not leave anything which Allaah commanded with except that he does it, and that he does not do anything from that which Allaah has forbidden such that he avoids everything which Allaah forbade.

Footnotes:
[1] Soorah Aale ‘Imraan (3) aayah 102