'Abasa · Makki · ayah 9 of 42

'Abasa 80:9

وَهُوَ يَخْشَىٰ

“While he fears [Allāh],”

Saheeh International

Essence

He came afraid and came anyway; the awe that brought him is the very soil in which a reminder takes root.

A reflection

The awe that grows from knowing

Say 'God-fearing' to many people today and they picture someone anxious, stern and joyless. A person who flinches at every step, sees sin everywhere, and never quite smiles. For some, that picture is enough to keep them away from faith altogether.

The Arabic word here, khashya, points somewhere else. The lexicons give it no older physical picture; from the start it means fear and alarm. But they are clear about what kind of fear it is. It is fear mixed with reverence, and it grows from knowing the One you fear. The Quran says so directly: 'Only those of His servants who have knowledge truly hold Allah in awe' (35:28). The more you understand His greatness and His mercy, the more this feeling deepens.

The man who had the most khashya of all was the Prophet ﷺ himself. Once, three men asked about his worship and thought it too little for them. One vowed to pray all night, another to fast every day, a third never to marry. The Prophet ﷺ said: 'By Allah, I have the most khashya of Allah among you, and the most taqwā. Yet I fast and I break my fast. I pray and I sleep. And I marry' (Sahih al-Bukhari).

So the deepest awe of Allah did not make him harsh or grim. It made him balanced, gentle and warm.

Picture a university student visiting her grandmother's mosque in Ramadan. She has heard that the old man in the front row is the most God-fearing person in the community. She expects someone severe. At the evening meal he is the one telling the funniest stories, and the children climb all over him. Later, in the night prayer, she hears him weeping quietly behind the imam. She realises the two go together. The awe is what keeps his heart soft enough to laugh and to cry.

That is the khashya the blind man carried. It was not panic. It was the reverence of a man who knew enough about his Lord to want to know more. And that reverence moved his feet.

The full entry has 4 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.