So Fear Them Not, but Fear Me

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 13 October 2025 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — [Watch the original video on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwR-N7KjsZw)

O Allah, set right for us our worldly life in which is our livelihood, and set right for us our Hereafter to which is our return; make life an increase for us in every good, and make death a rest for us from every evil, by mercy and good pleasure from You, O Lord of the worlds.

With the recitation, the conditions are renewed

In the words of Allah, blessed and exalted: ﴿فَلَا تَخَافُوهُمْ وَخَافُونِ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ﴾ (So fear them not, but fear Me, if you are believers).^[1] With the reading of the Qur'an, the conditions that bring security to the Muslim society are renewed for you. Among the criteria of faith is that we fear none but Allah, glorified and exalted be He, and the realization of this faith in society is the foundation upon which the fulfilment of the promises of the Lord of the worlds, glorified be He, to societies is built. So among the conditions and criteria that must be present in the Muslim society is that it fears none but Allah.

This is beautiful theoretical talk, very simple and easy, and we say it every day: we fear none but Allah, we dread none but Allah, we rely on none but Allah, we hope from none but Allah, and we trust in none but Allah. Words of the utmost beauty and refinement, but if they remain within the frame of being mere words, they achieve no results — they achieve no results at all.

The mindset of the defenders

Accordingly, you see the mindset of those who defend their land, their honor and their homes, and the first trait in them is the absence of this fear from their hearts.

It is narrated that, in the past, one of the Tatars would stop one of the Muslims in their own lands, when the psychological defeat had become complete, and say to him: "Wait, I have no weapon with me now; stay standing here until I go and bring a weapon, then I will come back to you and kill you." He would go and return and find him standing in his place; such psychological defeat had overtaken him that he could not move his feet. When a person meets terror, he casts himself into a defeat from which he never emerges.^[3]

Between the power of people and the power of Allah

So the words of the Lord of the worlds, glorified and exalted be He, ﴿فَلَا تَخَافُوهُمْ وَخَافُونِ﴾ (So fear them not, but fear Me), point to an attempt at a very simple comparison between the power of people and the power of Allah. We look at the means as they appear in human eyes: I look at this rifle and consider it the thing that kills, rather than the issuing of the command of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, that it should kill or not kill. How many people have been persecuted for very many years, for decades, and the Lord of the worlds, glorified be He, saves them! And how many people are imprisoned over a procedural error!

So imagine that there are people who struggle their whole lives, and Allah the Exalted keeps their bodies safe, and Allah, blessed and exalted, sparks their minds, so ideas come and sprout, and deeds and results bear fruit; these feared Allah, so the Lord of the worlds, glorified be He, gave them security. And there are people who fear anything at all; one of them even changed his name on his official papers so that no one would know he was Muhammad, or Mahmoud, or Ibrahim, or Ismail. So imagine the mindset of the fearful one — and then he wants to achieve victory! Utterly impossible, impossible in any case whatsoever.

Today's motto

So if we have one brief word this morning, let our motto for our day be: fear of Allah alone.

• If you face a situation in which you must raise the name of Allah, then raise the name of Allah and fear no one else.
• If you face a situation in which you could take money unlawfully because you fear poverty, then fear none but Allah.
• If you see that you can support someone wronged in a situation, do not hesitate.

For fear of Allah, glorified and exalted be He, and the certainty of the people of faith that the One who moves the earth and the heavens is the Lord of the worlds, keep us always in security; because the One who controls our destinies, our deeds and our lives is Allah, Lord of the worlds. No one other than Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, can manage your affairs, arrange your circumstances or move the course of your life. No one in the world can activate your potential or silence it, and no one in the world can bring harm to you or lift it from you; there is none but the Lord of the worlds, glorified and exalted be He: ﴿الَّذِي خَلَقَنِي فَهُوَ يَهْدِينِ﴾ (Who created me, and it is He who guides me), ﴿وَالَّذِي يُمِيتُنِي ثُمَّ يُحْيِينِ﴾ (And who will cause me to die and then bring me to life).^[2] In His hand are the landmarks of everything in the universe.

The stronger a person's beliefs about his Lord become, the higher his standing rises in heaven before the earth, and the more honorably a person dies when he meets Allah, glorified and exalted be He.

A painful scene

Imagine — and I deeply apologize for the comparison — a person who claims to be a man, and someone entered his home and assaulted the people of his household while he stood watching in fear. Then, after that assailant left, he wants to raise his head once more before the people of his household. Is it conceivable that he could? Could he raise his head again and say: "I am the man of the house"? After he was afraid, he can never raise his head again. So if we fear in this world and deal with this negative logic with which we always deal, we will never be able to raise our heads before Allah, glorified and exalted be He, on the Day of Resurrection, nor even sense the mere feeling that we are worthy of this faith.

The other side of the equation

We have a very simple problem: the people of Islam always speak of peace, and that is true, and they always speak of mutual mercy, gentleness, affection and kindness to others, and all of that is true; but we hold only one side of the equation, and we do not want to be weak, or cowardly, or submissive with this kind of submissiveness.

I will not go on longer than that. I ask Allah, glorified and exalted be He, to bring the affair of the oppressed among the Muslims everywhere to a good end, to bring them to their place of safety, to restore to them what was taken from them, and to preserve their security in their homes. I ask Allah, glorified and exalted be He, not to give any wrongdoer, aggressor, wicked one or tyrant power over them. I ask Allah, blessed and exalted, to protect their blood, to cover all their affairs, and to keep their honor safeguarded. O Allah, we ask You to keep our hearts and minds sound, to preserve for us the well-being of faith, and to give us security in ourselves and our families. Our Lord, make this day a witness for us and not against us, and grant us in it righteous deeds by which we draw near to You, O Most Merciful of the merciful; and may Allah send blessings and peace upon our Prophet.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: Āl ʿImrān: 175. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: al-Shuʿarāʾ: 78 and 81. After them the speaker mentioned «والذي يطعمني ويسقين» and «إذا مرضت فهو» in a garbled passage, so they were not included in the body. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: A story along these lines is reported by Sulaymān al-ʿAwda in his book *Kayfa Dakhala al-Tatar Bilād al-Muslimīn* (How the Tatars Entered the Lands of the Muslims), citing Ibn al-Athīr in *al-Kāmil* (12/501); in it the Tatar said to the man: "Put your head on the ground and do not move," until he came with a sword and killed him with it.