Lecture 4 Part 3

General Overview of Islam

Taqwa

All these performances of ibadah are done only for the sake of Allah SWT, for the sake of being near to Him, and for the sake of only remembering Him.

It is about acquiring one of the most important virtues in Islam, which is taqwa, as as in Surah al-Hujurat (49:13), “O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other. Verily the most honored of you in the sight of God is the most righteous of you.”

“If you do what is beautiful and are God-wary – surely God is aware of what you do.” (4:128).

“Be wary of God, and know that God sees what you do” (2:233).

“Be wary of God. Surely God knows the thoughts in the breasts.” (5:7)

“Whoso fulfills his covenant and is wary of God-surely God loves the God-wary,” (3:76).

Taqwa usually carries various meanings such as dutifulness, piety, righteousness, good conduct, guarding against evil, God-fearing, and God-consciousness.

All these Ibadah are performed to make our hearts lessened the love for this world as in Surah al-Ankabut, “What is the life of this world but amusement and play? But verily the Home in the Hereafter, that is life indeed, if they but knew” (29:64).

Imam al-Ghazali said the love of this world is the origin of every fault, the basis of all corruption, the source of all the diseases of the heart such as jealousy, backbiting, cheating, ostentation, arrogance, anger, pride, greedy, stinginess, laziness, and etc.

These are the inward sins, as Allah SWT says in the Qur’an, “Leave the outwardness of sin and its inwardness,” (6:120). The good characters would be sincerity (اخلاص), truthfulness (صدق ), contentment (رضى), remembrance (ذكر ), watchfulness (مراقبة ), generosity (كرم), God-fearing (تقوى), gratefulness (شكر), humbleness (تواضع) , modesty (حياء), courage (شجاعة) and etc.