What Is Taqwa?

By Ayaan Malik

When a believer has Taqwa, it shows in their actions. Taqwa is when a believer thinks consciously about their decisions in life. Particularly, the believer wants to ensure that every one of their decisions would lead to Allah (SWT) being pleased with him/her and whether it will connect to Him in some way. Taqwa allows the believer clarity to differentiate bad decisions from right ones which will lead them closer to their Lord.

Taqwa is often confused with “fear of God”; however, this could not be farther from the truth. Taqwa is the fear of participating in haram, or forbidden, activities which will cause displeasure from our God. This is not direct fear of Allah (SWT) but rather fear of making Him angry at us out of the intense love for Him and the desire to see Him happy at us. Any attributes of a person that goes against his/her’s Taqwa, such as greed, hatred, and envy, deplete his/her’s Taqwa and should be worked upon as soon as possible. The more Taqwa someone has, the more alert they are on these feelings and other sinful things, and can work on them before it spreads too much throughout their body. SubhanAllah!

To explain Taqwa a little better, imagine you met someone you’ve looked up to for years, such as a celebrity. You would want to spend as much time with them as possible, and do everything for them in a quick and polite manner. You would converse with them as much as possible, and treat him/her with unyielding respect. You would “fear” doing the opposite of those actions mentioned above. You would fear disrespecting them in some way or manner and you would fear being impolite.

Taqwa is similar. The way you would treat someone you look up to is the way people with Taqwa treat Allah (SWT). They want to spend as much time with them as possible through actions such as reading the Quran, standing in prayer, making du’aa, and etc. They treat Allah (SWT) with unyielding respect, and they would fear doing the opposite. They would fear displeasing Him. They would fear doing wrong.

May Allah (SWT) allow Taqwa to enter our hearts and spread throughout our bodies. May Allah (SWT) steer us away from poisonous sins of the heart such as greed and envy that would diminish our Taqwa. And May Allah (SWT) help us stay on the right path, and keep the Taqwa in our hearts strong.

Source

What is Taqwa? - Islamic Insights