A102
Surah: 003 - Ayah: 102
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3:102
Animals are devoid of a light such as intellect, therefore their fear does not progress in the form of intellect and knowledge. Therefore when they fear they do so under the influence of the estimative faculty, but in man fear is progressive because of its innate intellect. Accordingly, its standard can reach higher and higher. An example of this is a young child who initially has a fear of non-existent or imaginary things. With time, the more education a child receives, the better (its faculty of) fear works. A similar situation applies in religion also and the fear of God in that, apart from the Perfect Men, the rest of humanity are like children. This is why the Wise Qur’an teaches man to fear God as He ought to be feared, as it says: "O you who believe! Fear Allah with due fear." (3:102). In this command there are two important meanings. The first is to fear only Allah and nobody else and the second meaning is to fear Allah in such a way that the proper state of fear of Him occurs. Regarding this highest standard of fear it is said: "Of the servants of God only the ulama’ fear Him." (35:28). According to Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq, by the ulama’ (those that possess knowledge) are meant the pure Imams, for it is only they who because of the light of knowledge that they have, truly fear God and they are characterised by this attribute of the highest form of fear of God. The perfect fear of God or taqwa is one of the attributes of the Perfect Man and is possessed by him as the given knowledge. This means that the highest criterion of fear of God is true knowledge.
This verse has been referred 1 times.