Fear Of Displeasing God Vs Fear Of Hell Fire To Stay Away From Sins?
Yes except Allah refers to Hell as His displeasure. Allah’s love is His Paradise, so you don’t want to lose His love/Paradise. Allah’s anger is His Hell, so you should avoid His displeasure/Hell. This is how Allah describes it. So we should follow Him as He wants it, not how we want it. “Eat from the good things We have provided for you, but do not transgress in them, or My wrath will befall you. And whoever My wrath befalls is certainly doomed. ” (Qur’an 20:81) This attempt to separate Hell from Allah’s displeasure is the mistake that Sufi makes, which what the video I posted argues against. This is no longer about unconditional love for God, reward and punishment is part of human fitrah, Allah expects us to be true to this fitrah. In fact it’s so highlighted in the Qur’an that even prophets and sahaba focus on punishment more. Indeed, had We not strengthened you [O Prophet], you might have inclined to them a little, whereupon We would have made you taste double the punishment in the world and double the punishment after death, and then you would have found none to help you against Us. (Qur’an 17:74-75) They are those who pray, “Our Lord! Keep the punishment of Hell away from us, for its punishment is indeed unrelenting. It is certainly an evil place to settle and reside.” (Qur’an 25:65-66) Saying,˺ “We feed you only for the sake of Allah, seeking neither reward nor thanks from you. We fear from our Lord a horribly distressful Day.” So [for this attitude] Allah will deliver them from the horror of that Day, and grant them radiance and joy, and reward them for their perseverance with a Garden in Paradise and ˹garments of silk. (Qur’an 76:9-12) Allah has sent down the best statement: a consistent Book wherein is reiteration. The skins shiver therefrom of those who fear their Lord; then their skins and their hearts relax at the remembrance of Allah. That is the guidance of Allah by which He guides whom He wills. And one whom Allah sends astray – for him there is no guide. (Qur’an 39:23) So when you ask, what is the right approach and attitude. This is how it is. Hell serves as one of the main focus for Muslim. As does Paradise. It’s not merely, pleasure and displeasure of God, Paradise and Hell are pleasure and displeasure of Allah. And a Muslim keeps both of these in mind.
I just wanted to be extra careful that’s why I asked if my approach is correct even if I don’t take into consideration my PTSD. An example of why it doesn’t make sense for me to put fear hell fire as the first motivator is that let’s say I am having temptation to be arrogant towards God but then I move back because I will be severely punished, this is just done out of fear of pain and it is not done by heart. This makes me feel like I am a bad person who is only backing away because of the fear of painful punishment otherwise I will be arrogant if the hellfire was not there. But that’s not true. I am not arrogant towards God because of His favors upon me, because He created me otherwise I wouldn’t exist, because of my gratitude and respect towards Him, and because it is very a lowly thing to do. I am not even getting to a level where hellfire is the required motivator, although I will still keep that in my mind knowing that I am not so special to God that He will just let me go after I commit a sin. What’s the proof that what I am saying in the second paragraph is wrong? I am sorry I am asking so many questions but this is very essential to me
Thank you. I now recognize that God doesn’t need us and He can throw us into hell and forget about it and that’s very easy for Him. This was an essential part I was missing before as I thought He was just scaring us and the actual punishment was not expected be that harsh. So, I had that sufi-type connection of love and friendship with God I do feel a lot of fear when remembering my past sins because of punishment of hellfire. But then when I remember that God is very merciful and kind, I feel a great relief that if I improve and try my best to please Him, there is a very high chance that He will forgive me and expect Him to be my friend as long as I am following His orders because He does have compassion and kindness towards us and doesn’t want us to suffer in hell. But I am posting this reply here because I am getting similar kind of feelings (that I had before our discussion) about God’s nature towards us again, that He is kind and merciful and doesn’t want to see us in hell, this feeling I am getting again could be because it is a reality that He is loving and caring. However the changes I have made are that first of all, my motivation is to earn Heaven by pleasing God and avoiding Hell, and secondly, He will cast His enemies into hell for sure, those who do wrong and don’t repent and if I am not being His enemy, I can expect a lot of love and mercy from Him and thus a place in the heaven. Does this still align well with how God wants us to follow His religion? (putting aside my exceptions for now). Thanks a lot for the help