From Fear to God-Consciousness:
What God Really Wants From Us.
With Samia Bano

Want to know the best, most #funandeasy way to #breakfree from your #chainsoffear, especially when it comes to your #RelationshipWithGod?

Listen now to this recording of a live Samia did during #Ramadan, the month of fasting and #SpiritualGrowth for Muslims. In this episode, we explore the profound difference between khawf (#fear) and taqwa (#GodConsciousness), and why God calls us not into fear, but into loving awareness of #godscompassion and #godsmercy.

Plus, learn what it means to #trustgod as Rabb al-‘Alamin—the Lord of the worlds—and how that trust can free us from fear and deepen our faith, and so much more.

NOTE: Although Samia frames the concepts in this episode in the context of #IslamicSpirituality, the lessons are relevant and applicable to other faith and spiritual traditions as well.

To Book your Free HAPPINESS 101 EXPLORATION CALL with Samia, click: https://my.timetrade.com/book/JX9XJ

#faithoverfear #faithoverdoubt #fearless #fearlessliving #godislove #RamadanReflection #RamadanReminder #RamadanSpirituality #Taqwa #IslamicReminder #QuranReflection #LoveOfAllah #AllahsMercy #AllahIsMerciful #IslamicTeachings #MuslimReminder #FaithAndSpirituality #IslamicWisdom #HeartCenteredFaith #TrustInAllah #IslamicReflection #RamadanJourney #MuslimFaith #IslamicInspiration #DeenOverDunya #IslamicKnowledge #MuslimCommunity

Here's the audio version of this episode:

Transcript generated automatically

Assalamualaykum, Shalom, Namaste, Sat Sri Akal, Aloha, Holah, Ciao, Bonjour, Buna, Privet, Mabuhay, Dzień Dobry and Hello! It's still Ramadan, and this is my second live during Ramadan.

And the whole point and purpose of this is for us to reflect together on how we can fall even more deeply in love with Allah, because Ramadan is a time for us to fall more deeply in love with Allah. It is, you know, last time I shared with you some of my thoughts on why I believe that is the case, and today I want to share more of my thoughts on that from a slightly different perspective. This is actually a very, very common hadith that you have probably heard.

A hadith for those of you who are listening, who are non-Muslim, who are not familiar with these kind of Muslim terminology, a hadith, by a hadith, I mean a saying of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, right? And Ramadan is the month of fasting for Muslims. It's the time when we are engaging in a lot more worship, different, just up-leveling, up-leveling our game in terms of however much you pray, however much you do charity, however much you do your best to be on your best behavior, the rest of the year, you work on improving yourself even more during Ramadan, right?

And so a lot of times when Ramadan comes and we have all these goals to improve ourselves and make ourselves even better in all these different ways, sometimes you can get so caught up in the doing of everything that we have to do. We set goals for how much Qur'an you want to read every single day. And ideally, for many people, the goal is to finish reading the entire Qur'an over the course of the month, or people set goals to do so many more extra prayers.

And at different times throughout the day, especially during the night and so on and so forth. So there are all of these different goals that you can set. Maybe it's also that you have the goal of getting more active in the community, going to the mosque more often.

Whatever it is, we can get really busy in the doing of all of this. Now, it's all meant to be good stuff, but when you get busy, it actually becomes hard to feel the love. This is like a very important lesson that I've learned, and it really came into a highlight for me in the last year, that when we get busy, it's actually hard for us to realize that we are being loved.

And this was actually something I was talking to, or I was actually listening to one of my spiritual mentors, my spiritual teachers, and he was talking about this idea that when we get really busy, it's hard for us to realize that we are being loved.

And it happened that I think it was later in the day or maybe the next day that I was like busily working away on my computer when my mom came into the room. And in her usual way, she started to express her love for me, right? In terms of she was wanting to give me news about this or that going on.

And she wanted and she was she came to me and kissed me and hugged me. And I was like so busy. I was writing what I thought was a really important, sensitive e-mail and I was like, Mom, I can't focus on what you're saying right now.

I need to do this e-mail. And I sort of went back to doing my e-mail. And then I did that.

And then my mom backed off. She did. And she went off to do something else.

And then I realized, oh my God, this is such a clear experience or manifestation of the fact that when we get busy, it gets hard for us to realize we are being loved, you know? It also made me think about times when, you know, again, I've been hanging out a lot with my nieces and nephews. And you have these experiences when, you know, you want to hug your niece or nephew, you want to kiss them, play with them, but they just, you know, run off sometimes, literally run away from you because they are busy with their play, doing whatever other thing that they want to do, right?

And so this is actually something that happens with us in a lot of different context, and it happens with us in our relationship with Allah, with God also, because the fact is that Allah is always loving us, right? And is always there as the Rahman, the Rahim, the most compassionate, the most merciful, wanting the very best for us and so forth. And yet, we can struggle to realize that we are being loved, true or true, right?

Hey, thanks for tuning in to this episode. Hope you're getting value out of it. For your information, this episode has been sponsored by the Happiness 101 Program.

Are you a ChangeMaker, coach, trainer or healer? Are chains of fear holding you back from making the impact and income you desire? Using a unique combination of positive psychology and the spiritual wisdom of our most effective ChangeMakers, the Happiness 101 Program helps you break through your limiting beliefs and manifest the abundance and success you desire with fun and ease.

Interested? Book a free Happiness 101 Exploration Call with me, your Happiness Expert, Samia Bano. Just use my online calendar link in the show notes.

Now, back to the show. And so think about all of the times when you feel stress or fear in your life. I was actually reading some of the verses in the Quran today, and in particular, I was focusing, I did a topic search for verses related to fear, particularly, I put in the key words fear of Allah, and so there was like a whole set of verses that came up on that theme.
And I was looking at that one, I mean, looking at all of those different verses that came up, and I noticed something about what they were saying. Well, I noticed a number of things. And one of the things, the verses that really struck me is, and it was repeated like this idea, so I'm going to sort of paraphrase, because this idea was kind of repeated in multiple verses.

So one of the contexts was that there was some kind of call to war, or a war was happening, that Muslims during the time of the Prophet Muhammad, that either they were in the midst of a war, and they were feeling fear, the Muslims were feeling fear, and God was responding to that moment, or they were called upon to fight, you know, because they were going to be attacked, and killed and so on and so forth, so they had to, you know, it was like a call to self-defense, and people got afraid, right? And so Allah was responding again to that, to that. And interesting, the part of the response, this is not the whole response, of course, but part of the response was Allah asking the people, are you afraid of these people who are threatening you?

If there's anyone who you should fear, it's me, meaning Allah. There is a verse that said something like, Allah has more right to your fear than these people that you are fearing. There was a verse in which Allah says, these people, when they were called upon to fight in the way of Allah, they were afraid of these people even more than they're afraid of Allah.

And it's like, whoa, what are you doing people? Why are you afraid of these other people? And, you know, there's, so there's just there, you know, there's so much that we can look into.

So first of all, I think I got the message loud and clear that Allah is saying, look, don't be afraid of other people. There's no reason for you to be afraid of other people because think about what fear is. Fear is an emotion that is actually generated by our brains when our brain thinks or, you know, or detects some kind of danger to our safety, to our security, and so then it produces fear.

So then, you know, you take whatever that threat is seriously, and you take action to protect yourself. So fear has a function, and it's actually meant to help us keep ourselves safe.

But on the other hand, you know, when we are living as people of faith, right, you really have to think about, okay, if fear is a response to my detecting some kind of threat to my safety or my well-being, who or what is the source of that threat? So what these verses in the Qur'an are making very clear is that, you know, we think generally that, oh, it's these other people that are the source of the threat to us. But Allah says, no, they're not the source of the threat.

They can't actually harm you, right? Like if, I mean, it's actually, I mean, again, we're talking from a spiritual perspective. I mean, of course, someone can come and shoot you or, you know, grievously injure you with a knife or kick you, etc., etc., and wound you in all kinds of different ways. But from a spiritual perspective, without Allah's will, without Allah's permission, no one and nothing can harm us, right?

And these people with ill intentions, they are in fact just as vulnerable and dependent on Allah as any of us are, as you and me, right? And so when, if we are only thinking about what's going on with us, from the narrow perspective of our very human experience in this world, of course, we see other people as a threat. But when we broaden our perspective, and we include Allah in our awareness of our lives and how everything is functioning, then you realize that actually you have nothing to be afraid of.

If there's anything for you to be afraid of, it would be Allah. Because Allah is the only one who could actually harm you, if Allah wants it, right? And so Allah actually says in some of these verses that I'm, I have the right to your fear.

Don't fear them. If you're going to fear anyone, fear me. And so it's like on the one hand, you know, this is the reality that Allah is making us aware of.

But then on the other hand, this is the most beautiful thing is that even though Allah could harm us, even though Allah could even just wipe us out of existence, or like literally throw us in hell, you know, like take away every single good thing, every good feeling, good thought, you name it, anything that is good, it comes from Allah, right? Or that is what we as Muslims believe. And so Allah is also the one who can take it all away from us.

And so if Allah wants to take away all of the good things, which includes our good thoughts, which includes our good feelings, the good relationships that we have, everything, everything, anything you can think of that is good, we have it because of Allah, and Allah could take it away from us, right? And so, wow, we would literally, even if we were to continue to exist, but Allah took away everything good from us, I mean, that's hell, right? I mean, we would like literally be living hell in that kind of scenario.

And so, on the one hand, Allah could be an object or source of great fear for us, but the most amazing, beautiful thing is actually, because Allah is the Rahman, Allah is the Rahim, Allah is the Rabbal, the Mean. We don't actually have to fear Allah like that. We don't.

And actually, even more importantly, Allah doesn't want us to fear Allah like that. Not really. And that's part of what I really want to dig deeper into with you today, because you know what Allah is really calling us to?

“Because this was the second most important theme and thread that you will find in the verses related to fear in the Quran, or what is translated as fear in most of the interpretations. So there's a second thing that Allah actually does want us to feel and experience, and that Allah is calling us to. And so there's actually two words that are used in the Quran in Arabic.

And you know, like I used to be very confused when I used to just read the translations about this whole idea of fear. Because they just translate everything, like there's two different words being used in the Quran in Arabic, but in the English, you just read fear. They're translated the same as fear.

And so it can get very confusing to understand things. But when you look at the actual Arabic words, you realize, oh, so there is actually two different words being used that are being translated as fear. One, the first word is the word khauf.

Okay? And that's the kind of fear that I was talking about so far, in terms of the fear that is generated by our brain when it detects a threat to our safety or well-being. That's khauf.

Okay? And now Allah says that, you know, and yeah, Allah says, if you have to have khawf of anyone, have khawf of me. You know, if there's anyone who has a right to your feeling khawf, that's me.

You know, that's just, hey, facts. Okay? But it's, Allah is, but actually when you look at all the verses in the Qur'an, Allah is not, doesn't really want us to have khawf for Him.

No. Actually, what Allah wants is the second word that is used, that also gets translated as fear, but it's such a different meaning actually, when you look into it and that's Taqwa. So actually what Allah wants is when we have khawf, when you feel fear, what Allah is actually calling us to is to Taqwa, to feel Taqwa, to experience Taqwa, to grow in our Taqwa.

Taqwa, the other ways to understand and translate Taqwa, other than fear, is God consciousness. That's one of my favorite translations actually of Taqwa. God consciousness.

And so Allah says, oh, you're feeling this khas, actually don't feel khas, come to God consciousness instead. So it's like redirect, Allah is actually teaching us and helping us and wanting us to redirect our khas to Taqwa, to go from fear, which is sensing a threat to our safety and danger to Taqwa, which is God consciousness. And when you think about God consciousness, the very first quality that you become conscious of, of God, is that he's the most compassionate.

He's the Rahman. And then, and then you become conscious of him being the Rahim, the most merciful, right? Or maybe you become conscious of how Allah is the Rabb-ul-Alamin.

You know, last time we talked a little bit about understanding the Rahman quality that Allah has. And, you know, there is actually a teaching that Allah prescribed to himself that every other quality is expressed under the umbrella of Allah being the Rahman. So, yes, Allah is the Rabbul Aalameen, He's the Lord of the world, but He acts as the Lord under the umbrella of being the most compassionate, the Rahman.

Yes, Allah is the Master and King of the Day of Judgment, but He is the Master and King of Judgment that is the most compassionate, the Rahman, right? Think of any other quality that you know of Allah, and it is like Allah has prescribed on to himself, that it is expressed under the amrawa of Allah being the Rahman, right? How beautiful is that, right?

Because like we were talking about last week, what Allah really wants is for us to be in a loving relationship with Allah. Allah loves us as the Rahman, Allah loves us unconditionally.

And all Allah wants from us is for us to love Allah back. There is actually nothing, I mean, if Allah wants to even put any kind of condition to loving us, what would that condition be? We have nothing of our own to give to Allah, you know?

Even our lives, our very existence, you know, Allah has given us. So it's just like the analogy that I was also giving last week of our relationship, the closest we can come to having this kind of experience in our lives, like that I have come to is, you know, experiencing the relationship of love that we have with little babies who are so completely helpless and dependent on us. Like what kind of condition are you going to put on that little baby to love that little baby, when that little baby like literally is completely dependent on you?

You know, they cannot do anything. They cannot even say, I love you. They're not capable of speech even, right?

They cannot feed themselves. They cannot survive on their own. They're completely dependent.

And so if you're going to love a little baby, like what condition can you even put on that love, right? And so there's a beautiful, unconditional quality to the love that we practice or experience for the little babies that we love in our lives, right? And Allah's love for us is even more deep and more beautiful and more unconditional than the love we can feel in any of our human relationships.

And we are even more dependent on Allah and even more helpless before Allah than even a human baby is before other humans, right? And so there's like absolutely, it's just, there's no question of us being able to deserve Allah's love or give Allah something. Allah doesn't need anything, and we don't have anything to give Allah that is not already Allah's.

In fact, even the love that we give back to Allah to the extent that we are able to, even that love is Allah's. We receive it from Allah, and then the only thing we can do is radiate it back to Allah.

So, Allah does not want us to have khaaf in our relationship with Allah. What Allah really wants is for us to have taqwa, to have God consciousness, to be conscious of Him. And when Allah wants us to be conscious of Him, Allah wants first and foremost for us to be conscious of how He is the Rahman, the most compassionate, the most merciful.

And, you know, like last time, I was also mentioning that these days, when I think about Allah as the Rabbul Alameen, which is, you know, the very first quality, actually, that is highlighted in Surah Al-Fatihah, which is the first chapter of the Qur'an. So the first chapter of the Qur'an, the very first verse in that chapter highlights the quality of Allah being the Rabbul Alameen, the Lord of the Worlds. And it also just makes me really, really happy when I am God conscious of Allah being the Rabbul Alameen.

And I wanted to share a little bit with you about that because it just gives me so much happiness. So the Rabbul Alameen normally translated as Lord of the Worlds, right? So I looked at the definition in English of Lord, who is a Lord.

And so according to the English dictionary, a Lord is someone or something that has power, authority, or influence, and is basically a master or a ruler. But interestingly, that's not it. That's, yes, the Lord has power, authority, influence, but the Lord also has a responsibility.

You know, it reminds me of that saying, with great power comes great responsibility, right? And so certainly in the context of even the definition of the Lord, this is recognized that, yes, they're someone who has power, they have authority, and they have influence. But with that, they also have the responsibility to care for, to protect the people or the beings, whatever, that they are the Lord over.

And actually, when you look at the meaning of the Arabic term that is used in the Quran, that Allah uses in the Quran, the rub, you know, the meaning is even deeper and stronger. Because, I mean, again, wow, Allah is not just any Lord, Allah is the Lord, and not just the Lord of this world or some part of this world, he is the Lord of the world. And so now, not only that Allah has power and authority and influence over the world and including over me, but guess what?

I mean, and you don't have to guess at this point. Allah has also, like, literally taken on himself the responsibility to care for us and to protect us and to provide for us.

So when Allah says, I am the Lord of the worlds, Allah is actually reminding us that, hey, I'm here to protect you and take care of you, to provide for you.

I mean, and I mean, again, to remember that every quality of Allah is under the umbrella of Allah being the Rahman. So Allah is the Lord, yes.

He could be a mean lord, right? He could be, he could have been a lord that, you know, was very like, judgmental and harsh with us. But no, Allah, like literally, like, mandated on himself that he would be our lord that loves us.

And the most compassionate, the most merciful. So, like, you know, the...

And so now you think about, think about this, right? That you, you, you be conscious, you have taqwa towards Allah as the Rabbul Alameen, the Rahman-e-Rahim, right? The Lord of the worlds, the most compassionate, the most merciful.

And then, and then you, then you think about those verses that we started off talking about, right? Where Allah is like, why are you afraid of these people? Or any people?

Why? I have promised to protect you, and not just promised to protect you, I'm actively, every moment, Allah is actively protecting us, providing for us, sustaining us, loving us, you guys. Allah does all this for us because Allah loves us, loves you, loves me.

You know? And so it's like, what, I mean, what do we have to be afraid of? When Allah is on our side, when Allah is on your side, when Allah is on my side, what enemy can harm us?

Like, seriously, whether it's a human or shaitan or, you know, like, any monster or spirit, whatever you can imagine up as the thing that you are afraid of, it's like, come on! They have, like, no chance, no chance, zero chance to harm us in any way when Allah is our Protector. True or true?

Oh my gosh. So, you know, yeah. And I'm looking at the time and I was given feedback last week that I should keep things more short with the lives. And so I'm going to go ahead and begin wrapping up. Let me just check the comments really quick. Okay, thank you so much for your comments.

Yeah. Acknowledging. All right, so I don't see any questions, just some really great comments that I really, really appreciate.

Acknowledging and reiterating what I was just talking about. Wait, do we have a question? Yes.

Can you explain a little more about the Taqwa God Consciousness?

Yeah. What would you like to know? And what are you thinking about?

We can apply that God Consciousness if it's not fear.

Yeah. So Taqwa is not Khawf. It's not Khawf.

It's not even anything close to Khawf. And so again, the God Consciousness that- Allah is watching you, right?

Yes. But again, who is Allah? Like, you know, we want to really not just think from our brains, from our minds.

Look, the thing is that Allah has given us different faculties, different ways of knowing things. And there are one of the faculties that we have is our brains, right? And so, our brains basically take in data from the physical world, you know, what your eyes take in, what your ears take in, what your nose, your five different senses, right?

Your touch and so forth, like the data that these senses gather, the brain takes all of that data and processes it and gives it meaning. And so, in that context, it knows, it comes to know certain things. And so, we get to, we also have our minds, right?

In terms of our ability to have language, so we are able to have developed different concepts, different ideas. And what you think, like in terms of your mind, absolutely has an impact on the feelings that you feel, the emotions that you feel, your thoughts have a causal impact on the emotions that you experience. So when you think you're in danger, you feel fear, right?

And so if you don't think you are in danger, then you will not feel fear. So it's, you know, so there is this intellectual level at which we understand and engage with things. But the brain is not the faculty through which we can really get to know Allah.

I mean, the brain, the mind, we can only get to know Allah conceptually, but that understanding is very, very, very, very limited. And Allah is, you know, beyond all of those limits. And actually, Allah has given us a different faculty, another faculty, which is actually the one that Allah means for us to use to get to know Allah, and that is our heart.

Our spiritual heart, right? And so the best way for us to get to know Allah, to become conscious of Allah, is to connect with our own heart, our own spiritual hearts. And so when in our heart, its primary way of knowing things is through feeling.

And when you connect with your heart and you feel Allah's presence, what you feel and the more deeply, it's not in all our non-game. There is depth to the connection, to the openness of our heart, to how deeply we are able to connect to Allah through our heart. And so, the more deeply we connect with Allah through our heart, that is when we are able to begin to feel the different qualities of Allah, like Allah being the Rahman, like Allah being the Raheem, like Allah being a Salam, the source of Peace, and anything else that you can imagine.

Like just a few days ago, we were at an Interfaith event, and one of the panelists at the event was a Sikh. And in the Sikh tradition, you know, their gurus, one of the gurus who, you know, developed a really strong connection, or got consciousness, when, and then he wrote out, he tried to write, express in writing what he had felt of the reality, of God, of the divine. And two of the qualities that are the, the panelists shared that they're, you know, that they're taught, is that the divine is nirbhae and nirvar.

Nirbhae means without fear. When you experience the divine, there's no fear. And when you experience the divine, there's no hate.

And this is, and this is actually something that even like, Muslim, Muslim scholars and Muslim spiritual folks will, and Muslim spirituality will confirm, you know, like when you experience Allah, there's no fear. And there is no hate. Because Allah is the Rahman, the Rahim.

And so like if you are asking, well, what's the practical step for me to like really develop more Taqwa? It's stop intellectualizing and trying to understand Allah and even the idea of Taqwa and all of that. And instead do what you need to do to connect more deeply with our heart, with your heart.

And like really, truly, we cannot do anything on our own. On our own. We are completely dependent on Allah.

So really pray to Allah that Allah please, you know, help me open my heart, help us open our hearts and connect more deeply with you through our hearts. I mean, even like when we, I mean, that's part of like also like if you just look at Surah al-Fatiha again, which is the first chapter of the Quran, it's actually structured, that whole chapter is structured as a beautiful prayer.

And that prayer reminds us of these qualities of Allah, of God, that Allah wants us to be really aware of. And, you know, it teaches us to ask Allah for help. You know, Allah is the only one who can help us in this or in anything, you know?

And so we pray to Allah to please. I mean, it's like you alone do we adore. That's a commitment that we have to make. That's a commitment we get to make. That is something that is within our power. That one thing is within our power.

The choice that we make, you know, it's like, what am I going to think? What am I going to choose to focus on? What beliefs are beliefs am I going to cultivate?

That choice is ours. That is a choice, a power that Allah has given us. So, what Surah Al-Fateha teaches us is that choice to make is that we choose you alone do we adore.

And then you alone do we ask for help. Because you realize we are completely dependent on Allah. There is no other power that we have really, truly, if you think about it, other than the power of choice that Allah has given us.

And so, we can choose Allah or we can not choose Allah, right? And actually, there is something so beautiful in that also, that Allah has allowed us this freedom to not choose Allah. Because that is actually one of the most beautiful aspects of Allah’s love for us.

Is that, and why, which is also why, you know, there's no place for us feeling huff when it comes to Allah. Because Allah's love is so unconditional for us, that it never forces us. It never forces us.

If Allah had wanted, He could have made us into beings that had no choice. And there are lots of beings that God has created, lots of creatures and things that God has created that have no, that don't have a choice. They just love Allah.

There are angels, but there's also, just like think about any other creature other than humans and even this world. And you see that they're all like in the Quran, it talks about how everything sings the praises of Allah. You know, the stars, the moon, the trees, the mountains, you name it, everything, everything sings the praises of God.

We are the ones, the one thing that makes us special, like if you're really going to be like, oh, I'm so special because I'm human. The one thing that really makes us special is that Allah has given us free will, Allah has given us the ability to choose and choose not, not like we can choose to be like, oh, no, I'm not going to love you. I'm going to turn away from Allah.

You know, like we can choose to turn away from Allah. I mean, it doesn't work out very well to make that choice because Allah is the source of everything that is good and love and peace. And so it doesn't work very well for us when we turn away from Allah.

But Allah's love is so beautiful and so unconditional for us that Allah does not force us to choose him and allows us to even turn away from Allah. And so, you know, just going back to what the Quran itself teaches us, what Surah Al-Fatihah teaches us, we make the choice of, you alone do we adore. And, you know, maybe next time we can dive more deeply into what that actually looks like and what the experience of our life is or becomes when you alone do we adore, because that is so, so essential.

And you alone do we ask for help, because that is also so, so essential, because it's an integral aspect of how we love Allah more and better, how we develop that taqwa more, but also, and also how we let Allah love us more and better.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you for the question. I'm just checking the comments.

I don't see any other questions. So I'll go ahead and wrap up. Thank you again so much for joining.

And we will do another live next week. I hope you'll join again. And in the meantime, until we connect again, I just wish you lots and lots of peace and joy.