Article appeared Friday, November 8th, 2019 in The News Today, Bangladesh

The Revelation (595) yousuf mahbubul Islam, PhD

Should God be feared? If we do a survey to ask people about this question, we would
get a variety of answers; including God is Most Merciful and Benevolent – why should
we fear Him? Indeed, these are attributes of God, however, looking up references, we
will find the phrase “fear God” repeated numerous times in Holy Scriptures {1}. Rajan
Zed discusses this dilemma in his column, Should we fear God {1}:
“Fear of the God and/or gods finds mention in many religions. We are told to fear
God, fear hell, fear divine judgment, fear God’s omnipotence, submit to God, be
obedient to God, etc. Some go as far as outlining various categories and levels of
fear. Many, however, describe fear of God as a gift. They stress that this fear
does not translate as being afraid. Being a God-fearing person is a positive
quality, they claim, and add that if one fears God, then one does not have to fear
death. Surrender to God safeguards us from all fears, it is stated.” {1}

With these seemingly opposing points of view, should we do some research to settle on
an answer for ourselves? To launch our inquiry, we can start by examining both the
concepts of “God” and “fear”. Regarding God, we need to ask the question, who is God?
Looking up the definition as given in Wikipedia {2}, we find,
“In monotheistic thought, God is conceived of as the supreme being, creator
deity, and principal object of faith. God is usually conceived as
being omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (all-powerful), omnipresent (all-
present) and as having an eternal and necessary existence.” {2}

But what do all these words mean? For example, why does God need to exist
necessarily and eternally? As the universe did not exist before the Big Bang, a Being
with the right kind of power and intelligence must have brought it into existence! If the
Supreme Being did not exist, could “nothing” have created us? At this point can we think
about the concept behind the word “Creator”? How does He relate to us individually? It is
God who has given us existence from nothing. He has designed our DNA, given each of
us a unique personality and has created our souls.

So, God has created an opportunity for our intelligence to know Him through the
things/objects and systems that He has created. Just as we can know of the skills of a
painter by examining the qualities of a painting, we have the opportunity to know about
the Creator through a study of His creation. Carrying the analogy of a painting a bit
further, for example, if the painting Mona Lisa had the intelligence to discover that
Leonardo da Vinci made it, how should it then feel towards him? It is because of
Leonardo that the painting is valuable and famous. Should the painting be in awe of the
painter and adore him in return? Should the painting be indebted to Leonardo? Now,
should the painting fear its painter?

It is obvious that the painter who painted Mona Lisa with love, sincerity and devotion
from scratch can also just as easily destroy or disfigure it. So, what about fearing the
Creator? Can He destroy humans or put them in a furnace if He wanted to – obviously if
we annoy Him to such an extent that He is left with no alternatives? Can such situations
arise? If such an occasion did arise, whose fault would it be? So, the Holy Scripture
Qur’an warns,
 “O you who believe! Fear God as He should be feared…” [3.102]

This is what the messengers of God warned about whenever they were sent – adore
God as He should be adored as our Benevolent Creator and not to annoy Him with
disbelief, ingratitude, oppression and rampant immorality. To help us understand further,
the Qur’an relates the history of peoples who were repeatedly warned but were
destroyed after they persistently rebelled against God.

26.160 “The people of Lot rejected the apostles.”

Lot was a nephew of Abraham {3} who had been sent to the twin cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah as their final prophet, but was rejected by the cities' inhabitants.

26.161 “Behold their brother Lot asked them, "Will you not fear (God)?"”

26.162 “I am to you an apostle worthy of all trust.”

26.163 “So fear God and obey me.”

Why did Prophet Lot ask the inhabitants to fear God and give up their wrong practices?
Why did God need to be feared?

26.164 “No reward do I ask of you for it: my reward is only from the Lord of
the Worlds.”
For spending time with the people, explaining who God is, and delivering God’s bidding,
Prophet Lot did not expect or want anything in return from them.

26.165 “Of all the creatures in the world will you approach males?”
The people of the Sodom and Gomorrah transgressed against the bounds of God{3}. It
was their sin of sexual misconduct that was seen as particularly egregious, with Lot
strongly chiding them for approaching men with sexual desire instead of women. Lot
exhorted them to abandon their sinful ways, but they ridiculed him and threatened to
evict him from the cities by saying that this man wants to be 'pure'.

26.166 “And leave those whom God has created for you to be your mates?
Nay you are a people transgressing (all limits)!”
However, the people insisted on continuing their immoral ways.

26.167 “They said, "If you desist not O Lot! You will assuredly be cast
out!””

26.168 “He replied, "I do detest your doings."”

26.169 “O my Lord! Deliver me and my family from such things as they do!”
Finally, Prophet Lot prayed to God to relieve him from the transgressing people.

26.170 “So We delivered him and his family all!”

26.171 “Except an old woman who lingered behind.”

Lot and those who believed were to be spared, but his wife was to die in the destruction,
as "she is of those who lag behind" {3}. The Quran also draws upon Lot's wife as an
"example for the unbelievers" as she was married to a righteous man but refused to
believe in his message and was thus condemned to Hell.

26.172 “But the rest We destroyed utterly.”

26.173 “We rained down on them a shower (of brimstone): and evil was the
shower on those who were admonished (but heeded not)!”
Keeping faith in God, Lot left the cities during the night with his believing family members and
others who believed in him. When morning came, God turned the cities upside down, and
rained down on them stones hard as baked clay, putting an end to the lives of the people of
Sodom and Gomorrah.

26.174 “Verily in this is a Sign: but most of them do not believe.”

26.175 “And verily your Lord is He the Exalted in Might Most Merciful.”
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{Notes}:
{1} https://www.rgj.com/story/life/2019/01/24/should-we-fear-god-faith-forum/2672468002/
{2} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God
{3} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lot_in_Islam