Ittaqu Allah - take Allah as a shield (against evil)?
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Salam everyone
I've been studying the meaning of the root waw-qaf-ya, in particular its significance as the verb ittaqu, notably ittaqu Allah, and came across the following entry in Lane's
"He put a thing between him and another to preserve him, or guard him."
Project root list also lists one of the definitions of waw-qaf-ya as "take as a shield".
As I'm not one who is motivated by the idea of having fear of God, but rather by love of Him, this spiked my interest. Perhaps a possible rendition of ittaqu Allah could be, "take for yourselves Allah as a shield (against evil actions etc.)" (because if you obey Allah and live to emulate His attributes of kindness, mercy, etc., you do good and avoid doing bad, and also, you protect yourself from bad things in the afterlife). In the context of ittaqu an-nar for example, the more common 'fear' or 'guard yourselves against' seem more appropriate - but perhaps one could even say that one's apprehension of an-nar is a kind of shield against evil, as it keeps one from doing bad deeds and motivates one to do good.
Do you have any thoughts on this?God bless
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What is Evil?
What is Fear?
What is Love?Ittaqu (Verb) or Taqwa (Adjective/Adverb) is 'being in harmony' or 'harmonious'.
When you're in 'harmonious' you will not have even a desire for evil (pride, superiority / winning / causing other beside yourselves to lose or be inferior compared to you, hatred, revenge, desire for controlling others, ego-centricity) and it's tools "fear" (spreading fear to others and thus feeling fear yourselves) shall goes away. What is left is only acceptance and love.
You will however, accept that evil exist but truly understand it's nature, reason and purpose.
Up to the extent that you will understand the 'evil doer' and will not hate the 'evil doer' yet accept the 'evil doer'. Because the 'evil doer' are also part of you, as you're in harmonious with everything, by everything here truly means everything as thus including those who you labeled as 'evil doer'.Darkness need to exist in order for light to be recognized.
Pride need to exist in order for humility to be recognized.
Hatred need to exist in order for love to be recognized.
Revenge need to exist in order for mercy to be recognized.
And so on... -