Certainly fear of Allah has saved the lovers of Allah from...

Certainly fear of Allah has saved the lovers of Allah from unlawful items gave His dread to their hearts till their nights are passed in wakefulness and their days in thirst.”[^4] Elsewhere, Imam ‘Ali ( ‘a ) introduces fear of Allah as a sign of good opinion with regard to Allah: “The most fearful of Allah is the one who holds good thoughts about him.”[^5] The Difference between Fear and Sorrow Sorrow occurs in circumstances once favor has been divested of man or when harm is directed at him and causes grief and contrition.

It is natural that this condition is related to a matter which happened in the past; for instance, man has done an indecent action which resulted in bad effects, one has said bad words which resulted in the disgrace and defamation of someone else and is remorseful as a result of it. Or, he had capital from which he could have benefited enormously but has lost it. In any case, sorrow and grief overtake man once he loses opportunities or he is deprived of blessings and/or calamities befall him.

Fear occurs with regard to the occurrences and matters which will occur in the future: he fears that an ordeal will befall him, an affliction or misfortune will be directed at him, and/or a blessing will be taken away from him. In reality, fear and sorrow are two similar qualities of the soul whose adjuncts are different; one is related to the past and the other is connected to future.

For the reason that danger always exists in this world, the being of fear in man is natural because man is an entity that is prone to injury, and there is always the possibility of his health, life and ease and security falling in danger.

The difference between a believer and a unbeliever lies in the fact that the believer does not have an autonomous opinion about the common causes [or ordinary means] and believes that everything springs from Allah, for this reason he fears Allah but a nonbeliever does not conceive Allah, someone in whose hands all the sovereignty lies, and maintains that there are autonomous common causes [or ordinary means].

Of course, in the same way which the believer fears Allah because of conceiving all the authority in Him, it is only in Allah that he puts his faith for the reason that he does not believe in an intermediary role other than Allah.