Assalamu’alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh
Bismillahir- Rahmanir-Rahim
1. Opening
Friends who are blessed by Allah,…In this era, many people are so confident in their deeds. They give a little charity and feel like residents of Paradise. They pray a few cycles of night prayer and feel the purest of all. But do you know the most authentic sign of a superior believer? That sign is the presence of worry and constant “sacred anxiety” in his chest out of fear of failing to meet the standard of faith that Allah desires. This is not neurotic anxiety or despair, but a high-level vigilance [hyper-vigilance] against sin. Let us reflect on the radical God-consciousness of Allah’s beloved: Rasulullah ﷺ was once anxious for days over a single date. Caliph ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz wept profusely fearing that one of his people might be starving. And ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb—though guaranteed Paradise—still trembled fearing his name was on the list of hypocrites.
Psychologically and spiritually, “sacred anxiety” [holy anxiety] is the emergency brake that guards a person from arrogance, spiritual narcissism, and inner heedlessness. A healthy soul is one that never feels safe from Allah’s plan and never stops self-evaluation. This fear actually cools the soul because it leads to humility [tawāḍhuʿ] and intimate closeness with the Creator.Allah SWT praises the characteristics of those who possess this sacred anxiety in the Qur’an:
وَالَّذِينَ يُؤْتُونَ مَا آتَوا وَّقُلُوبُهُمْ وَجِلَةٌ أَنَّهُمْ إِلَىٰ رَبِّهِمْ رَاجِعُونَ
“And those who give what they give while their hearts are fearful because they will be returning to their Lord.” [QS. Al-Muʾminūn: 60]
This is the anxiety experienced by the Companions. Rasulullah ﷺ also emphasized in a hadith that fear of Allah in this world yields absolute security in the Hereafter:
قَالَ اللَّهُ تَعَالَى: وَعِزَّتِي لَا أَجْمَعُ عَلَى عَبْدِي خَوْفَيْنِ وَلَا أَجْمَعُ لَهُ أَمْنَيْنِ، إِذَا أَمِنَنِي فِي الدُّنْيَا أَخَفْتُهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ، وَإِذَا خَافَنِي فِي الدُّنْيَا أَمَّنْتُهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ
“Allah the Exalted said: ‘By My Glory, I will not combine two fears for My servant, nor will I combine two securities for him. If he feels safe from Me in this world, I will make him afraid on the Day of Judgment. And if he fears Me in this world, I will make him safe on the Day of Judgment.’”[HR. Ibn Ḥibbān]
2. Lessons and Message
Let us enter the chamber of Caliph ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. On a cold night, his wife, Fāṭimah, saw her husband prostrating while sobbing until his tears soaked his beard. His chest heaved, holding back anguish. When his weeping subsided, his wife asked with deep compassion, “O Commander of the Faithful, what makes you cry so deeply?” He answered with a voice trembling in grief, “O Fāṭimah, I am picturing the burden on my shoulders. I am thinking of the fate of the starving poor, the struggling widows, the neglected orphans, and the travelers who run out of provisions at the far ends of the land. I know that later on the Day of Judgment, Allah will hold me accountable for them, and my opponent in court will be Rasulullah ﷺ Himself! I weep because I fear my defense will be rejected before Him.”A ruler of the world weeping over the social rights of his people. Truly a portrait of justice that is both moving and heart-wrenching.
So we can laugh at our sometimes excessive “self-confidence,” let us use a simple, thought-provoking analogy.Imagine three people lining up for a job interview at the largest multinational company in the world.The first applicant is a Harvard professor with dozens of international certifications [like the Companion ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb]. While queuing, his body trembles, he breaks into a cold sweat, and he keeps re-reading his documents while thinking, “Wow, this company’s quality standards are so high—what if my file has a flaw and I get rejected?
”Now look at the third applicant at the end of the row. Let’s call him Tejo. Sorry to say, Tejo’s education is just a two-day crash course, his file is a single sheet, and the photocopy is blurry. Yet Tejo sits relaxed playing games, one leg up, whistling as if he owns the company. He feels he will “definitely get accepted” without any preparation.
Funny and absurd, isn’t it? Someone of the caliber of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, who was guaranteed Paradise, still went to Companion Ḥudhayfah [the keeper of the secret list of hypocrites] weeping in fear, asking, “Is my name on the list of hypocrites? ”Meanwhile, we—whose quality of deeds is as “blurry” as Tejo’s file, whose prayers are often late, whose remembrance is rare—when we pray we directly ask for Firdaus Paradise without reckoning, and our inner selves feel perfectly safe without a shred of anxiety! Let us not suffer from “radical self-confidence” in matters of the Hereafter when our savings of deeds are still empty.
3. Conclusion & Closing
Friends, the profound moral message of today’s sermon is a call to regrow “healthy worry” in our hearts. Experiencing inner dynamism—feeling anxious whether our deeds are accepted or rejected—is a sign that the faith in our chests is still alive and beating. Let us emulate the God-consciousness of the early Muslim leaders. Make every deed we do a reason to bow lower and seek forgiveness [istighfār], not to become arrogant. Use this “sacred anxiety” to re-examine the sincerity of our intentions, the correctness of our worship, and the purity of the food that enters our bodies. For indeed, the fear we cultivate for Allah in this world is what will transform into a guarantee of absolute security and peace in the Hereafter.
May Allah SWT purify us from the trait of hypocrisy and grant us hearts that always tremble out of taqwā toward Him
. والله أعلم بالصواب
الحمد لله رب العالمين
Wassalamu’alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.
Abu Sultan Al-Qadrie
