The Believer is Resolute Against Sins

“Indeed, God is jealous (takes offense). The believer is also jealous. God’s jealousy (taking offense) is due to the servant committing what He has made forbidden.”1

“The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) has expressed many times that God and the believers are jealous.”2

Jealousy, particularly in the context of protecting one’s honor against a sin, refers to guarding against actions that would tarnish it. We may feel jealous and protect someone under our care. However, when this attribute is ascribed to God (may His glory be exalted), we must be more careful and understand it correctly. God is free from the kind of jealousy that we, with our imperfections, comprehend. From our perspective, jealousy may sometimes imply a deficiency, but from the perspective of God, it signifies His mercy toward His servants and His desire for their happiness.

God’s jealousy stems from His mercy surpassing His wrath, so He jealously guards His believing servants from indulging in sins, not consenting to their entry into them. God does not approve of His servant committing sins. The believer should also have a stance against sins. The believer should tremble in the face of sins.

Then, if they can, they should remove them with their hands, and if not, with their tongues, and if that’s not possible either, then they should reject them in their hearts, displaying their discomfort towards sins. Moreover, abstaining from the forbidden earns the believer obligatory rewards. Acting with this awareness will be a great source of motivation for the believer. The believer knows that their Lord is not pleased with them falling into sins and spiritual decline. Because God desires the good of His servant, not their evil. The believer knows that every sin contains a path leading to disbelief.

The Believer is Resolute

Sin is the greatest obstacle in front of his infinite happiness. The prohibitions set by God are boundaries for us, and God has set these boundaries for us. God does not consent to these boundaries being violated. When we exceed these boundaries, which were previously warned to us, we invite the wrath of God upon ourselves. Therefore, we must constantly preserve our vitality, refrain from approaching the boundaries (prohibitions), and not deviate from the straight path. The way to achieve this is through piety and vigilance.

Piety, in a terminological sense, is defined as making efforts to protect oneself from God’s punishment and attain His mercy by obeying His commandments and avoiding His prohibitions. Piety also involves reading and understanding the laws set by God for the universe, such as in the Qur’an, and implementing them in life. Vigilance, on the other hand, means being alert and attentive to the points where any kind of trouble or calamity may arise and dedicating oneself to a task or cause.3 Guarding against the prohibitions set by God, which are boundaries, and not allowing them to penetrate one’s inner world and life, is also vigilance.

Footnotes

1.Bukhari, Marriage, 107; Muslim, Repentance, 36.

2.Bukhari, Marriage, 107; Muslim, Repentance, 35, 37, 38; Tirmidhi, Contentment, 14; Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 2/520, 536, 539.

3.Bukhari, Jihad, 73.