Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Provisions for the Journey (Mishkat), Volume 2 Lesson 35: The Status Of Piety, Asceticism and Self-discipline The fulcrum of this section of the Noble Prophet’s (S) words is piety [ taqwa ]. There has been a great deal of discussion in various cases and ethical books in regard to piety, and we too have discussed this topic a lot.
In this section, we will embark upon explaining and discussing the words of the Noble Prophet (S) and some of the basic and fundamental issues which are related to piety but, to begin with, we will explain the concept of piety.
The Concept of Piety and Its Relationship with Divine Fear [Khawf] The word ‘ taqwa ’ literally means protecting or guarding oneself from danger and it does not make any difference what that danger might be, but when the word taqwa is employed in ethical or Qur’anic discussions it does not mean protecting oneself from every kind of danger; in fact, it denotes danger which is directed at man’s prosperity and hereafter although in the Qur’an, as well, taqwa has been employed to mean guarding oneself from the danger which other human beings direct at an individual: لاَ يَتَّخِذْ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ الْكَافِرِينَ أَوْلِيَاءَ مِنْ دُوْنِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَمَنْ يَفْعَلْ ذَلِكَ فَلَيْسَ مِن اللّهِ فِي شَيْءٍ إِلاَّ أَنْ تَتَّقُوا مِنْهُمْ تُقَاةً...
“The faithful should not take the faithless for allies instead of the faithful, and whoever does this he shall have nothing of (the guardianship of) Allah, but you should guard yourselves against them, guarding carefully…” [^1] Even so, when discussion concerns ‘ taqwa ’ or the verses of the Qur’an and the hadith s regard piety and the pious, the purport is piety before Allah and the discussion concerns people who fear danger in regard to their religious and spiritual affairs and try to protect themselves from danger because they have fear in regard to their religion.
Therefore, the fountainhead of piety [ taqwa ] is fear and dread of danger and after feeling fear and dread, man takes action to remain safe from or at least stay far from danger. In the Qur’an, sometimes the Day of Resurrection has been mentioned as pertaining to piety because on that day the dangers and results of reprehensible deeds will become apparent. In this regard, Allah, the Exalted, states: وَاتَّقُوا يَوْماً لاَ تَجْزِي نَفْسٌ عَنْ نَفْسٍ شَيْئاً ...