Balancing Fear and Hope in the Life of a Person
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, is it better for a person to let the aspect of fear prevail, or to let the aspect of hope prevail?
Answer:
They say that as long as a person is alive, fear and hope are balanced in him; one side does not prevail over the other, just like the wings of a bird. If one of the wings is unbalanced, the bird falls. Likewise, if there is a defect in either fear or hope, faith is certainly affected by it. So as long as a person is healthy and alive, he balances between fear and hope, without letting one side prevail over the other. However, if death approaches him—if death approaches him, or he falls ill with the illness of death—then the aspect of hope prevails over the aspect of fear, because the deeds have ended. So nothing remains but hope in Allah, Mighty and Majestic. Thus, the aspect of hope prevails over the aspect of fear.
In the hadithSahih Muslim 2877c and in the other hadith, Allah, Exalted and Majestic, says: Sunan ad-Darimi 20:27. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, is it better for a person to let the aspect of fear prevail, or to let the aspect of hope prevail?
Answer:
They say that as long as a person is alive, fear and hope are balanced in him; one side does not prevail over the other, just like the wings of a bird. If one of the wings is unbalanced, the bird falls. Likewise, if there is a defect in either fear or hope, faith is certainly affected by it. So as long as a person is healthy and alive, he balances between fear and hope, without letting one side prevail over the other. However, if death approaches him—if death approaches him, or he falls ill with the illness of death—then the aspect of hope prevails over the aspect of fear, because the deeds have ended. So nothing remains but hope in Allah, Mighty and Majestic. Thus, the aspect of hope prevails over the aspect of fear.
In the hadith
None of you should die but hoping only good from Allah
لا يموتن أحدكم إلا وهو يحسن الظن بالله.I am as My slave thinks of Me, so let him think of Me whatever he wills
أنا عند ظن عبدي بي فليظن بي ما شاء
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 58 من 91|شرح كتاب التوحيد (حلقات إذاعية)|إخلاص الخوف لله|صالح الفوزان|العقيدة|كبار العلماء — youtube.com (6:39)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.