2.22 Al-Baqarah: How Can One Truly “Have No Fear and No Grief”?

السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته !

Praise be to Allah, exalted and great. Blessings be upon our Seal of the Prophets, Muhammad ﷺ, and may Allah be pleased with all the Companions.

Today we are sharing a topic: in many verses of the Qur’an, we read, “there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve.” (Quran.com) We need to understand this, because the Qur’an is guidance for us. How do we obtain guidance? What must we do to attain the station of no fear and no grief? What is required for this truly to be realized, so that it becomes a sign in this worldly life?

The Promise in Al-Baqarah

As for fear and grief, these are among the things by which humanity will be tested. Our forefather Adam (peace be upon him) and his wife received instruction from our Lord. In verse 38 of Al-Baqarah, our Lord addressed him, his wife, and Iblis, the jinn who came down to the earth with them. Our Lord says to these three created beings in the verse: “Descend all of you! Then when guidance comes to you from Me, whoever follows it, there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve.” (Quran.com) When explaining this verse, the scholars tell us that the first expression means that in the future they will not fear the Hereafter, and the second means that they will not grieve over the things of this world that they have lost. So it is clear that the explanation of fear concerns fear of the Hereafter, while the explanation of grief is that one will not grieve over any worldly loss. Thus there is the grief of this world and the fear of the Hereafter.

This World and the Hereafter

We know that the human being is a material being, and also a being who possesses a soul and a spiritual state. The material is visible; the soul and the spirit are unseen. Our Lord, the Creator of all worlds, created this world and the Hereafter. Contained in His wisdom is not only that humanity should bear witness that He is the Lord, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful—this too is part of knowing the Lord. It is also that man be placed amid the unseen, so that in the unseen he may know his Lord, worship his Lord, and obtain blessing. Of course, in the creation of this world and the Hereafter there are many other wise mysteries as well. For example, our Lord possesses His essence—nothing at all is like Him. All created things are brought into being with a beginning and an end, from nonexistence into existence, and then He causes all the worlds to perish. Thus our Lord not only bears witness Himself that He possesses His essence, but also makes His creation bear witness that He possesses His essence. From nonexistence to existence, and then from existence to destruction, man can bear witness.

Everything that exists in creation is itself a clear proof, because within it there is disappearance and nonexistence: who created it, who caused it to perish, and then, in the Hereafter, resurrected it again? Then the human being will bear witness that He possesses His essence. Our Lord created this world and the Hereafter not only so that He Himself knows that He possesses His essence; He made His creation into a sign, bearing witness that our Lord possesses His essence. The clearest case is this: after the Final Hour, when we are resurrected, once we human beings are raised again we will know who resurrected us. Since all of this had already vanished, who then raised you again? It was the One who possesses His essence who raised you again.

And the Lord of all worlds, the true God of all worlds, also has many attributes and perfections. Most concretely, people can recognize among His Beautiful Names that He is the Most Compassionate and the Most Merciful: universally merciful in this world, especially merciful in the Hereafter. This is something everyone can understand, and so there is this world and the Hereafter. We say that in this world we seek blessing in the visible material world, but there is also the unseen, which belongs to the Hereafter and can only be witnessed after resurrection. That unseen world, that hidden world, is real, and it is the blessing of His special mercy. In this world, for us human beings, our Lord has granted us His instruction, His speech, and the prophets and messengers He has sent. Above all, He has granted human beings the rūḥ, the spirit. The rūḥ itself bears the qualities and characteristics of purity and holiness. When a person is influenced by human nature, commits sin, and follows caprice, the sacred qualities that belong to the spiritual side become submerged. Then, through the messengers and prophets sent by our Lord, and by receiving instruction, knowing the Lord, and worshipping the Lord, a person can once again become one whose spiritual state bears sacred qualities. And, more graciously still, our Lord has also given us الفطر (al-fiṭrah — natural disposition), meaning that in man’s spirituality, in man’s innate nature, our Lord has already made a covenant with humanity: He is the Creator, He is the One who directs all affairs, He is the One to be worshipped, no partner may be associated with Him, and He is to be worshipped.

So, in view of the attributes and perfections our Lord possesses, and the realities that belong to His essence—for example, spirit and speech—those who obtain His guidance pursue the blessings of both worlds. Those who do not follow His guidance, no matter how hard they strive, may use the visible world that human beings can observe to seek the blessings of this world, and they may obtain worldly blessings, but the blessings of the Hereafter will not be theirs. In summary: our Lord created this world and the Hereafter, and His wisdom is in that. At the same time, if a person possesses a soul-state marked by sacred qualities, he will desire to see the Lord. Yet in this worldly material world, no matter what, one cannot see the Lord, because human beings can do so only after being resurrected after the Final Hour. Then humanity has its testimony, and all the worlds have their testimony, because the worlds were destroyed and then resurrected again. Who destroyed them, and who resurrected them again? All the worlds are bearing witness: He alone is the One who possesses His essence, nothing resembles Him in the least, and that Being resurrected all the worlds again. As for human beings, there is a direct witnessing. After that direct witnessing, those who enter Paradise—those who sought the blessings our Lord granted us in both worlds, those who bore witness, did not associate partners with Him, and worshipped Him—will then see Him in Paradise. So in this world, none of the created beings of all the worlds can see the Lord.

From what is contained in knowing the Lord, we can understand the wisdom of man’s being created for this world and the Hereafter. We also know that this visible world of the present life—wind, fire, water, earth, vegetation, animals, human beings, these worlds—can be observed by the human eye. There is also the fact that every person has been given a spirit, a rūḥ, a soul. And then there is the hidden world after resurrection in the Hereafter: that is unseen—hidden means precisely what the eye cannot see—yet it is real. Thus human beings face two domains in which they must seek knowledge and seek blessing. Of course, how is one to attain true knowledge and obtain blessing? One must follow the guidance our Lord has given us. So, concerning the two creatures endowed with choice, human beings and jinn, our Lord said to the ancestor of humanity and the ancestor of the jinn: whoever follows His straight path will have no fear and no grief. When the commentators explain “whoever follows His path,” they explain it to mean: whoever accepts the scriptures revealed by our Lord, believes in the prophets and messengers sent by our Lord, and obeys the path of the messengers and prophets sent by our Lord, receiving instruction from the content of the scriptures—such people, of course, will have no fear and no grief.

Why Fear Comes Before Grief

We will now make a more specific analysis of not grieving over worldly loss and not fearing the future Hereafter. Human beings were created in the visible world with human nature, and human nature pursues two things: material satisfaction and spiritual satisfaction. Material satisfaction is simple: the satisfaction of appetite and sexual desire, and the means that meet the needs bound up with these two—for example, money and wealth, and for men, women. To possess what human nature requires is to meet the material demands of this world. Then there are spiritual needs. For example, once a person is well fed and has everything in other respects, he begins to long for power, reputation, and glory. Some people, once wealthy, even want to go here and there to clear their minds; such things are satisfactions of spiritual interest. Of course, through the knowledge, talent, qualities, virtues, actions, bodily dexterity, and experience our Lord has given us, human beings can seek material and spiritual satisfaction, and human nature can thus be expressed. But if, in material matters, there is no standard of lawful and unlawful; if, in spiritual matters, there is no standard of true and false; and if in the whole of human nature there is no standard of good and evil, then that is not the way of one who follows the straight path, who has accepted the scriptures of our Lord and the instruction our Lord sent to humanity through His prophets and messengers. Such a person cannot reach this realization: no grief, no fear.

In the verse, “no fear” is placed first, and “no grief” after it, which shows that fear must be read first. How does a person come to have fear? When facing the unseen, he discovers fear, because he does not know. For example, when a person is in darkness, unable to see, he feels fear; with children this is even more obvious. Of course, if even an adult were kept in darkness and suddenly dropped into pitch blackness, it would be strange if he felt no fear. Before what they cannot see and cannot know, people often produce illusions, even abstract thoughts, even conjectures, and so they feel fear. Our Lord truly created the unseen, hidden world, yet you insist on not believing; then the soul-state will feel fear. For example, there truly is a world of souls: the souls of the dead, as well as jinn and angels, do exist. But if a person does not believe in souls, then talk of ghosts and spirits arises, and fear is constantly produced. Even polytheists who believe in souls still feel fear because they do not have a complete understanding of the souls of the angels. And again, even the People of the Book, though they believe in the unseen world and in resurrection, may still, with regard to the Reckoning—the Day of Recompense for all worlds, when He will settle accounts and decide who enters Paradise and who enters the Fire—follow their own conjectures instead, imagining that because ʿUzayr or ʿĪsā is the son of the Lord, one can enter Paradise directly. This kind of deviant understanding of the unseen world also leaves fear within the spiritual state.

Of course, once one has no firm conviction that the unseen world, the hidden world, is truly real, and has no real sense of the Reckoning in the Hereafter—especially no real sense that those who enter Paradise in the Hereafter will be able to see the Lord—then one grieves over the losses of this world. For any good done in this world, whether the good one is to seek within the tests that Allah, exalted and great, has decreed for us, or an additional good added to the blessings obtained through those goods, all of it is for entering Paradise in the Hereafter and seeing the Lord; it is for this supreme aim. Those who have this supreme aim look upon this world simply as the field in which they do good. Whether it is the norms our Lord has given us for human conduct, or the specific acts of worship He brought through the prophets and messengers—seeking His pleasure through obligations and through supererogatory acts—all of this, all of it, the trials in hardship, the trials in calamity, the trials in blessing, and a person’s own self-cultivation, all come under one demand: to obtain good. For he turns these goods into steps by which to draw near to the Lord, so that in the Hereafter, seeing the Lord becomes his offering. So the people who truly attain this pursuit of good have no grief over the losses of this world, whatever their many kinds of loss may be. This too is part of the wisdom contained in why our Lord says “no fear and no grief” in this order in the Qur’an. The speech of our Lord—He created all things and guides His creation—certainly knows how His Book should expound matters to humanity so that humanity may receive guidance. Therefore, if a human being is truly to attain no fear and no grief, he must have firm faith in the unseen, firm certainty that meeting his Lord is real, that there is a Final Hour and resurrection, and he must also reach firm conviction that the people of good deeds in the Hereafter can see the Lord. How does one attain firm conviction and certainty? One must accept guidance and follow the straight path. And who brought the guidance? Of course, it was the prophets and messengers sent by our Lord. Through the scripture and through their own words and deeds, one follows their path. And of course, we are followers of the Seal of the Prophets, Muhammad ﷺ, so by holding fast to his path we can attain the final state of firm conviction.

Two Qur’anic Passages

To conclude our topic, let us now read two Qur’anic passages that mention “no fear and no grief.” In Surah Yunus, our Lord tells us: “There will certainly be no fear for the close servants of Allah, nor will they grieve. ˹They are˺ those who are faithful and are mindful ˹of Him˺. For them is good news in this worldly life and the Hereafter. There is no change in the promise of Allah. That is ˹truly˺ the ultimate triumph.” (Quran.com)

From the hadith we can learn that the friends of Allah seek our Lord’s pleasure through the obligations and pursue His pleasure through supererogatory acts, until our Lord is pleased with them. Then our Lord will support them and become their Friend. So in this respect, we know that the acts of worship our Lord has given us for worshipping Him must be pursued until they reach a state of perfection. Of course, it is only by seeking our Lord’s pleasure through the obligations and the supererogatory acts taught to us by our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ that we can attain His pleasure. Once He accepts our good deeds, these acts of worship then appear as beautiful traits.

Now let us read verses 30 to 32 of Surah Fussilat. Our Lord tells us: “Surely those who say, ‘Our Lord is Allah,’ and then remain steadfast, the angels descend upon them, ˹saying,˺ ‘Do not fear, nor grieve. Rather, rejoice in the good news of Paradise, which you have been promised. We are your supporters in this worldly life and in the Hereafter.’” (Quran.com)

In this passage, the angels say that they are the protectors of those people who have no fear and no grief. Of course, this is a grace our Lord has granted the angels. For a human being to attain this rank, his spirituality must be as lofty and pure as that of the angels. A human being will absolutely not be as pure and lofty as the angels if his human nature is not restrained. Following human nature in relation to the material world leads to wrongdoing and harm—for example, eating what was seized or stolen, consuming what is unlawful; this not only deceives oneself but also wrongs others. And if sexual desire is not fulfilled lawfully, if it is not fulfilled through marriage, one not only wrongs oneself but also wrongs the women of other families. Of course, women are the same in this respect: in this aspect of human nature there is a trial of doing evil and causing harm. So our Lord gave us the lawful and the unlawful. For this human nature to become angel-like in spiritual purity and loftiness, it must enter a state of tranquility, one in which there is absolutely no self-deception and no wronging of others. And as for the spiritual state, when a person gains spiritual satisfaction and possesses power, reputation, and glory, if this human nature then does wrong and bears hypocritical characteristics—if the power and reputation it possesses are not used to do good, but to do wrong and act unjustly, even to bully others through these blessings it has obtained, unable to bring good benefit to society—then the human nature of such people is dark and cannot attain the state of a tranquil soul.

Those who can receive the angels’ glad tidings of “no fear and no grief,” and of whom the angels say that they are their protectors—these people have a spirituality whose nafs (self/soul) is in a state of tranquility, restrained and doing good. With the protection of the angels, can unseen jinn still harm them? They cannot. With the protection of the angels, even the evil among human beings will not harm them. Such people can obtain the blessings of both worlds. No matter how difficult things are, our Lord will support them. They will never abandon firm belief in meeting their Lord, firm belief that in the Hereafter they are to see the Lord. In this way they attain firm conviction and certainty, and human and satanic devils cannot take this away from them.

Closing Supplication

We ask our Lord to have mercy on us and grant us this kind of firm certainty. We ask our Lord to make us among His friends, to help us say, “Our Lord is Allah,” then follow the straight path, worshipping Him steadfastly and never being neglectful.

This is where today’s topic ends. We ask our Lord to have mercy on us, to let us attain the qualities of having no fear and no grief, and to grant us the blessings of both worlds. For whatever I have explained incompletely or misspoken, I ask Allah, exalted and great, to forgive me, and I ask the readers to excuse me. Thank you all for sharing.

Qur’an translation source: The Clear Qur’an — Dr. Mustafa Khattab. (Quranic Universal Library)

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