Anas bin Malik reported that the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, once visited a man who was sick. Messenger of Allah said to him, "How do you feel, my brother?" He replied, "O Messenger of Allah! My state is that I am hopeful of Divine Mercy, but, at the same time, there is fear of punishment for the sins I have committed." Messenger of Allah remarked, "Be sure, in whose heart the feelings of hope and fear are present together, Allah will surely bless him with Paradise." [Tirmidhi]

A Muslim is asked to call upon Allah with fear and hope. This means that humans should fear Allah alone, and to Him alone should we look for the fulfillment of our wishes. While calling upon Allah, we should realize that we are totally dependent on His favour and can attain success only if He helps and guides us to it. Similarly, we should also bear in mind that we cannot succeed without Allah's support.

If a person is always hopeful of Divine Mercy, and has no fear of Allah, he is likely to slip and commit mistakes. He will be careless and negligent. On the other hand, if he is simply afraid of punishment for the sins he committed he will be disappointed of Allah's Mercy. He will not perform any good or virtuous acts, thinking that he has already been doomed and cursed. Thus we see that the only proper combination in our hearts is the balance of fear and hope.

Source:
"A Study of Hadith" - By Khalid Mahmood Shaikh, pp. 140, 141

¶ 8:15 PM

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