Chapter II: Patience and Gratefulness
MEDICINE FOR ACQUIRING FEAR OF GOD: There are two modes of generating fear. This is explained by an illustration. When a child remains in a room, he does not fear when a ferocious beast or a snake comes to him. Even he extends • his hand to catch them. If his father comes there, he fears them and flees away. When the child sees his father doing so, he also flees away out of fear. The second mode is that his father fears as he knows the destructive poison of the snake and ferocious attack of the beast. The child has got fear only from hearing from his father about their nature as he has full faith in his father.
Similarly there are two modes for fear of God. The first mode is the fear of His punishment and the second mode is to fear Him.
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130 FEAR AND HOPE VoI-IV
The learned and the pious men fear those verses of God which excite fear. God says: 'Fear God as is due to Him' -3: 102. Most of the people fear punishment. The second kind of fear is high and that is to fear God, to fear to remain distant from Him, to fear falling of screen between Him and His servant. The saint Jun-Nun said: The fear of Hell is like a drop of water when compared with the fear of separation from God. The general believers fear like the fear of a child of a snake. That is on account of blind faith. This fear is weak and it goes away on the first onslaught.
God said after creation: -'These are the dwellers of Paradise and I don't care. These are the dwellers of Hell and I don't care'. If it occurs in your mind that He will not punish without sin and will not give rewards without divine service, then think over the matter that He helps the worshipers in such a way that they are compelled to worship whether they wish or not and He helps the sinners with sins in such a way that they are compelled to commit sins whether they wish or not. Is it for their past sins? Has the past any limit? Is it for his first sin which was recorded in his book of deeds? The Prophet said to this effect that there was altercation between Adam and Moses before their Lord. Moses said to Adam that for his fault. God sent down his descendants from heaven to the earth. Adam said: How many years before my creation, did you come to know that He had written the Torah?
Moses said: 40 years before. Adam said: Did you not see therein that Adam was misguided being disobedient to his Lord? Moses said: I saw it. Adam then said to Moses: You now impute fault to me for such an action which God recorded 40 years before it was done by me, or before my creation. Thus Moses quarrelled with Adam.