The concept of piety in terms of language is prevention or prevention in the sense of keeping something from harming it, and this meaning is consistent with all the Qur’anic verses, but when we come to the terminological meaning, very many definitions came and all these terms have added to the concept of piety verbs that are not present, such as saying That piety is avoiding the prohibitions and following the commands, or they say that it is leaving sins and suspicions and keeping the morals of the law, or avoiding prohibitions and following the obedience of God, so they carried it with meanings that are not there, for example, obedience to God is commanded along with piety, such as (Fear God and obey).
{And I have come to you with a sign from your Lord, so fear God and obey me.}
[Surat Al-Imran: 50]
Taqwa is accompanied by hearing, obeying and spending in the saying: {Fear Allah as much as you can, hear, obey and spend well for yourselves, and whoever fears his own selfishness, then those are the ones who will be successful.}
The command to be pious is accompanied by the command to be with those who are truthful:
{O you who have believed, fear God and be with the truthful}
[Surat al-Tawba: 119].
We are commanded to fear God and to say the right thing:
{And let those who, if they leave behind weak offspring, fear for them, let them fear Allah, and let them say good words}
[Surat al-Nisa: 9]
{O you who believe, fear Allah and say good words (70) and He will reform your deeds and forgive you your sins. Whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has won a great victory (71)}
[Surat al-Ahzab: 70-71]
Taqwa was mentioned and then accompanied by reconciliation and obedience to Allah and His Messenger
{They ask you about the Anfal: Say: The Anfal belongs to Allah and the Messenger: Fear Allah, reconcile yourselves with each other, and obey Allah and His Messenger if you are believers}.
[Surat al-Anfal: 1]
God commands those who believe to fear God and to forsake what is left of usury {O you who believe, fear God and forsake what is left of usury if you are believers}.
[Surat al-Baqarah: 278]
Here, piety is accompanied by faith, good deeds and charity {Those who believe and do good deeds have no crime in what they eat, if they have piety and faith and do good deeds, then piety and faith, then piety and faith, then piety and charity, and God loves those who do good deeds} [Surat al-Maida: 93].
This shows that piety and obedience are two different concepts, not as they are explained in the terminology.
So, talking about the terminological meaning confuses the command to be pious with the command to do other things, and this takes us far away from the true concept of piety as we derive it from the Qur’anic verses.
Talking about taqwa from the Holy Quran requires me to first use terms that are not widespread except in narrow fields; at the level of the field of human development, human sciences and psychopathology, and among these terms, I will use the term levels of consciousness with its two parts, low levels of consciousness and high or higher levels of consciousness. I will use the term self-cultivation as a concept to move a person from low to high levels of consciousness. Therefore, I will explain what is meant by levels of consciousness using my understanding of American psychiatrist David Hawkins’ Map of Human Consciousness.
David R. Hawkins divided the levels of consciousness (from 1 to 1000) based on research into human emotions, the behaviors resulting from these emotions, and the energy behind each state of consciousness. He used what he called “kinesthetic muscle testing” or muscle response testing, as a tool to measure the reality and energy force behind a specific thought, feeling, or situation. Through these tests, he saw that each state of consciousness or human emotion (such as fear, anger, love, peace…) has an energy frequency that can be “calibrated” on a numerical scale. A particular emotion is called the level of consciousness when it becomes dominant and forms the mirror through which a person sees life. Those who are dominated by pride, for example, see that life is only for them as an individual or as an ethnic or religious group, practicing oppression on others and not accepting their existence with them except within the sects that are dedicated to them.
Feeling ashamed and ashamed of a situation is a normal feeling, but when this feeling dominates him, he becomes at the level of shame and shame consciousness, he may live in isolation from others so as not to see their opinions about him, and he may despair of life and think about ending his life.
Hawkins divided these levels into 17 levels within two zones, a life-destroying low consciousness zone, starting with the level of shame, shame, indifference, fear and anger. …. And a zone of high consciousness that promotes and develops life, ending with the highest levels of consciousness, which is enlightenment, in which messengers, philosophers and sages are placed, while those who live their lives through shame and a constant sense of shame are placed at the lowest levels of consciousness, and he believes that the first level to move from low levels to high levels is the level of courage, which corresponds to the 200th standard on the scale of consciousness, and for a person to move, he must be characterized by honesty, integrity, courage and responsibility, and therefore he called the level of courage and the level of neutrality and readiness that comes immediately after the region or transition stage, where it tests a person’s ability to rise to the levels of high and low levels.
The basis for its division:
1.Energy/Vibrations:
Every feeling or situation has a certain vibration that affects the body and consciousness.
2. Truth vs. Falsehood:
Interaction through the lower levels reflects a deviation from the truth (fear, lies, shame, disgrace, anger and arrogance), while interaction through the higher levels is closer to the truth (love, peace, wisdom and enlightenment).
3. psychological and behavioral: Each level of consciousness is associated with specific thought patterns and behaviors.
The benefit of this division:
1.Self-diagnosis: It helps a person to know at what level he lives most of his time (is he dominated by fear? anger? love?), i.e. to recognize the emotions that dominate him and whether they are negative for his life and his surroundings or positive.
2. Creating an ascension map: It gives a clear path to move from the lower levels (which consume energy and cause illness and suffering) to the higher levels (which bring mental health and inner peace).
3. Community Understanding:
It can be used to analyze the behaviors of groups and societies (e.g. a culture based on fear versus a society based on love and cooperation).
4. Freedom from suffering: Hawkins’ core idea is that most of our mental illnesses and suffering come from “living in low consciousness,” and that raising consciousness is liberating. In short: Hawkins tried to develop a “human consciousness energy map” to help the individual and society rise from destructive states of consciousness (shame, fear, anger) to higher states (love, wisdom, peace, enlightenment), and what is worth noting is that Hawkins lays out a method that makes it easy for humans to leave low levels of consciousness and move to higher levels, and he believes that humans should allow themselves to feel and sense these negative emotions for no more than ninety seconds, without reacting through them or resisting them, and he believes that a person should allow himself to feel and sense these negative emotions for no more than ninety seconds. So resisting them prolongs the time they stay with him and leads to the possibility of interacting with them, and after those ninety seconds, the energy of these feelings will decrease and he can consciously allow them to leave when they do not represent the appropriate solution and thus avoid the bad effect that occurs if they are interacted with, and I will give two examples of these low emotions and the effect of interacting with them.
First example:
Hawkins believes that this is a normal feeling of human nature, but it is a negative feeling, so he believes that to interact with it, a person must allow himself to feel that pride for a little while without interacting through it, as well as not resisting it, after a while the energy of this feeling will decrease to become a person in his normal state, so that pride does not have a harmful effect at the level of the individual or society, Hawkins believes that the issue is when pride becomes the dominant feeling for that individual and dominates his life continuously, pride will move from just a momentary feeling to a conscious level, that is, it becomes a way of life, Hawkins sees that the issue is when pride becomes the dominant feeling in that individual’s life continuously, the pride will move from a momentary feeling to a conscious level, that is, it becomes a lifestyle. This leads to tyranny and arrogance. Pride may be a positive energy in closed tribal societies that rely on the strength of its members to mobilize and advocate for the group and uphold jahiliyya, but it is an Iago, which leads to the rise of jahiliyya. But it is an Iago, which leads to practicing injustice on others and leads to conflict, insecurity and exposing the community concerned to turmoil and fighting, and the poets of the tribe, for example, who glorify it and publish its qualities and history in poetry competitions, are an example of the level of awareness of pride that is harmful to that community.
Pride at the individual level depends on the abundance on which that individual depends and makes him feel proud, but when that abundance disappears, he feels the bad effects of that pride, he may feel heartbreak, regret and extreme sadness, all of which affect his health and quality of life.
The second example is feeling responsible when something goes wrong:
When an individual makes a certain mistake in front of a group of people, he may feel ashamed, humiliated and disgraced, and remains locked away from hearing people’s opinions about him or avoiding meeting them, this feeling when it becomes dominant may be a reason for that individual’s social isolation and his constant thinking about the past that he represents. This prevents him from progressing and developing in his life, and his constant feeling of guilt and self-blame, all of this may cause him psychological diseases ranging from low mood Depression to other psychological disorders such as panic disorders and schizophrenia, or organic diseases with a psychological dimension IBS.
From here we can enter the concept of taqwa in the Qur’an.
{Satan whispered to them to show them what was hidden from them of their shame, and said, “Your Lord has not forbidden you from this tree, except that you should be angels, or that you should be of those who are immortal. (20) And he gave them an oath, saying, “I am one of those who advise you.” (21) And he guided them with deceit, and when they tasted the tree, their nakedness appeared to them, and they began to prune them from the leaves of the Garden, and their Lord called to them, “Did I not forbid you from that tree, and say to you that Satan is a clear enemy?” (22) They said, “Lord, we have wronged ourselves, and if you do not forgive us, we will not be able to forgive you. If you do not forgive us and have mercy on us, we shall be among the losers. (23) He said, “Descend, one of you is an enemy to another, and you have in the earth a stable abode and an enjoyment for a time.” (24)
[Surat al-A’raf: 20-24]
These verses begin by explaining what Satan did to Adam and his husband, and all he did was to show them, through whispering, what was hidden from them of their misdeeds and nothing else, and that what hides these misdeeds is the garment of piety referred to in the verse:
O children of Adam, We have sent down to you a garment to cover your modesty and a garment of piety; this is better; this is from the signs of Allah , that they may remember (26).
So piety is a garment that was revealed to all the sons of Adam to hide their misdeeds and feathers, and the verse concludes by saying The meaning would be very, very different if it ended with “May they remember,” and it would be very different if it ended with “May they remember.
When he says(remember), he is talking about an event that is immediately recalled to memory, that is, the information about it is present, memorized, and ready without the need for diligence and deduction again, while the subject under recollection is itself present and in front of you to confirm the truth of what has been described, so you see all the descriptions that were said about it as facts.
However, if he says(remember), this calls for diligence and the use of the mind to recall a past or absent piece of information that is not preserved in memory, so that it can be recalled, considered and understood. I will give examples of this in some Quranic contexts: –
Here, the people of Pharaoh remind themselves of the events that happened in front of them, which they remember well {We took the people of Pharaoh with years and a shortage of fruits , so that they might remember[Surat Al-A’raf: 130].
If the speech was addressed to us, he would have said, “May you remember,” because then we would need to read it, understand it, extrapolate it, and know when, how, and why it happened.
As for the next verse, it speaks to people in any age, as the event is right in front of them {And what he has sown for you in the earth of different colors, there is a sign for those who remember}[Surat al-Nahl: 13]
In the case of remembering, it takes time and effort to recall the information, he may need someone else to help him get the truth, and there is resistance and push and pull in trusting the matter or not.
When you read the next verse, you will find your mind working with all its energy to wonder why he forbids us from this marriage, and what is the reason? You will look beyond that context because you really need an explanation, and you will need to know who is a polytheist and a polytheist, and who is a believing slave and a woman, etc.and because of this strong mental storm that will surround the listener, he will conclude it by saying that they may remember.
{And do not marry polytheists until they believe – and a believing woman is better than a polytheist, even if you like her. And do not marry polytheists until they believe – and a believing slave is better than a polytheist, even if you like him. than a polytheist, even if you like him. These are those who invite to the Fire, and Allah invites to Paradise and forgiveness by His permission, and He shows His signs to people so that they may remember.}
[Surat al-Baqarah: 221]
In the case of parables, the hearer needs to turn things over, study them, compare the parable with what exists in reality, and see its truth, so He concludes the verse with “they will remember ” {We have multiplied for people in this Qur’an from every example , that they may remember}
[Surat Al-Zamar: 27]
Pharaoh needs to recall the revelations that Moses and Aaron brought to him that prove their message, whether he remembers any of them to decide whether to believe them or reject them:
{Speak softly to him that he may remember or fear}
[Surat Taha: 44].
So the verse of the garment of piety is concluded with the words“May they remember” because you do not need to remember the badness and recall it every time to know whether it is bad or not, so you must enumerate all the badness and be familiar with it and do not need to question it every time, but you only need to close it once you feel it, and this does not require a long time, and we saw how Hawkins has set the range of ninety seconds, which is very many by the measure of what the Qur’an mentions.
Another verse confirms this:
{Those who practice piety, when they are touched by a specter of Satan, remember, and behold, they are enlightened [Surat Al-A’raf: 201]. Those who encounter a situation that requires interaction may deal with it with recklessness, anger, arrogance, pride, lies, or racial, sectarian, religious discrimination…. all these are bad things that produce harmful actions if activated. However, those who practice taqwa well remember that these are satanic whispers, close these feelings immediately and do not respond to them, so they turn to react from a higher consciousness, and then they are sighted. Piety is the closure of dealing with these emotions that produce harmful actions, whether they are harmful to oneself or to the external environment, leaving only one door, which is reform and upliftment. {“O children of mankind, there will come to you messengers from among you who will recite to you My signs, and whoever fears and reforms, there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve” [Surat al-A’raf: 35].
{When they have reached their due date, then hold them together in good behavior, or part with them in good behavior, and bear witness with two just men from among you, and bear witness to Allah, for this is a warning to those who believe in Allah and the Last Day. And whoever fears Allah will make a way out for him (2) and provide him from wherever he does not expect, and whoever trusts in Allah is his guardian, for Allah is all-powerful, and Allah has made everything a destiny (3)}
[Surat al-Talaq: 2 to 3]
The pious, then, are those who close the door to interaction through harmful lower levels of consciousness. This closure opens the door to elevation and self-improvement, as we see in the following verses:
(7) Inspire it with its debauchery and piety (8) May he who purifies it succeed (9) and may he who defiles it fail (10)} [Surat al-Shams: 7 to 10] These verses speak of a stage in which the soul was settled, a second stage in which it was inspired to debauchery, and a third stage in which it was inspired to piety, as if it were a stage of maturity and adulthood in which man becomes fully responsible for the processes of debauchery and piety, that is, responsible for determining his fate, whether he is one of the pious or one of the wicked. He has succeeded who has purified it, purified it and elevated it from its old state and nature, and he has failed who has defiled it and left it in the state of immorality{Are we not to make those who believe and do good deeds like those who are corrupt in the earth, or are we to make the pious like the immoral} [Surah S: 28]
There are hadiths that lead us to the same idea, if we read them from this point of view to explore the validity of their meanings after matching them with the Qur’anic verses, as the one who cannot prevent anger, can wash with water, which has the same meaning, as he gives himself more time until the energy of anger decreases and the person becomes able to retreat: On the authority of my grandfather Attiyah, he said: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: ” Anger is from the devil, and the devil is created from fire, but fire is extinguished with water, so if one of you gets angry , let him perform ablution.”
Imam Ahmad and Abu Dawud narrated from Abu Dharr that the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “If one of you gets angry while standing, let him sit down, if the anger leaves him, otherwise let him lie down.”
Why sit, lie down, or wash with water when angry?
It is scientifically proven that anger Increases body temperature, this increase has an impact on proper decision-making, as it disrupts areas of the brain It makes a person make bad decisions or actions. The task of washing is to lower this heat, to move from one state of mind to another, to reduce the energy of anger. Also, when a person is angry, his muscular movement increases, which increases the chances of committing violent acts as a result of that anger, so he needs to change his posture from moving and standing to sitting. Note the energy of anger here, for example, in the example of the Prophet Moses and how his brother Aaron dealt with him, where he practiced piety in the most pompous form:
{When Moses returned to his people, angry and sorrowful, he said, ” What a shameful thing you have left me after me, for you have hastened the command of your Lord.” He threw down the tablets and took his brother’s head and dragged him to him.}
[Surat al-A’raf: 150]
Anger is one of the evils disguised as piety, and man feels anger according to the external factors that motivate him after Satan removes the garment of piety from him, and then Satan decorates the matter for him to react based on that anger, and the fact that anger is an evil, I do not need someone to explain it to me again to remember it, but it must be known to me at all times, and that is why he concluded it by saying (May they remember) and did not say that they remember.
We conclude that bad feelings are negative feelings of the human psyche disguised as piety. These feelings are triggered by external factors, so Satan works to remove the garment of piety and make them visible for humans to react through them after Satan decorates what they do.
Here it is worth pointing out the error in one of the hadiths that talk about taqwa:
On the authority of Anas – may Allah be pleased with him – he said: Three men came to the houses of the wives of the Prophet (peace be upon him). They ask about the worship of the Prophet (peace be upon him). When they were told, they looked like they had said it. They said: Where are we from the Prophet, peace be upon him, who has been forgiven of his sins, both fore and aft? One of them said: I, on the other hand, pray the night away. The other said: And I fast all day and don’t break my fast. The other said: I am celibate and never marry. The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, came to them and said: “You are the ones who said such and such? By Allah, I am the one who fears and worships Allah. But I fast and fast, pray and sleep, and marry women, so whoever desires my Sunnah is not from me.” Agreed upon.
This expressive sentence [[By Allah, I am the most fearful and pious of you to Allah]] It was said on the tongue of the Prophet and was fabricated against him, as he could not recommend himself, and he is the one who was ordered to tell them that we are but human beings like you, but God bestows upon whom He wills of His servants, and he is also the one who recites to them the following saying
{O mankind, We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into peoples and tribes to know each other, for the most honorable of you before Allah is the most pious of you, for Allah is all-knowing and all-knowing} [Surat al-Hujrat: 13].
This is because he knows what Allah does to the pious:
(51) The righteous are in a safe place (51) in gardens and eyes (52) clothed in sandals and brocade, facing each other (53) likewise we have married them with fairy lights (54) in which they are invited to feast on every fruit in security (55). (55) They shall not taste death therein except the first death, and He has protected them from the punishment of hell (56) as a favor from your Lord; this is the great victory (57)}
[Surat al-Dukhan: 51-57]
How can he say to them, “I am God-fearing? He is also the one who ordered him to tell them
{I do not know what will be done to me or to you; I only follow what is revealed to me, and I am but a clear warning [Surat al-Ahqaf: 9].
Satan’s mission is to remove the garment of piety and then adorn it, making man in a vortex and a closed circle of interaction through misdeeds, so that he cannot be guided to the straight path, and this is his purpose:
{Say: “By the way you have seduced me, I will make for them your straight path (16), then I will bring them from between their hands and behind them and from their right and left sides, and you will not find most of them thankful (17). [Surat al-A’raf: 16-17].
He recognizes his weakness in front of God’s faithful servants; he cannot seduce them:
(39) Except for your faithful servants among them. (40) He said, “This is a straight path for me. (41) My servants have no power over you except those who follow you. (42) And Hell is the promise of all of them.” (43)} [Surat al-Hajar: 39-43]
Then God shows us again that Satan’s scheming was weak, all he does is to remove the garment of piety to show us our misdeeds so that we react to them, and unfortunately we do not remember him in any bad behavior we do:
{Those who believe fight in the way of Allah, and those who disbelieve fight in the way of the oppressor, so fight the devil’s enemies, for the devil’s plot is weak [Surat al-Nisa: 76].
In many verses, the Qur’an states that the Straight Path is associated with guidance, that is, it is a state of consciousness to which one is guided and through which one interacts.
{Men were one nation, so Allah sent the prophets as heralds and warners, and sent down with them the Book with truth to judge between men in matters in which they differed, and there was no disagreement in this matter except among those who had received it. Allah guided those who believed to the point of disagreement on the truth with His permission, and Allah guides whoever He wills to a straight path[Surat al-Baqarah]: 213]
{O People of the Scripture, there has come to you our messenger who explains to you many of what you have been hiding from the Scripture and pardons many things. (15) God guides those who follow His will by the paths of peace and brings them out of darkness into light with His permission and leads them to a straight path (16)}.
[Surat al-Ma’idah: 15-16]
{And those who disbelieve in our signs are deaf and dumb in the darkness: Whoever Allah wills, He will lead him astray, and whoever He wills, He will set him on a straight path [Surat al-An’am: 39].
But here he explains what that straight path is, explaining it as a valuable religion, i.e., it is higher systems, values and principles, and not just a mere cessation of prohibitions, which is piety, but the straight path is a high spiritual dimension, beyond the low dimension that piety works on.
{Say, “ My Lord has guided me to a straight path, a religion of righteousness , the way of Abraham, and he was not of the polytheists.}
[Surat al-An’am: 161]
{And likewise We have revealed to thee a spirit of Our command; thou knewest neither the Scripture nor faith, but We have made it a light by which We guide whomever We will of Our servants, and thou art guided to a straight path}.
[Surat al-Shura: 52]
To summarize, the Qur’an presents the Straight Path as the final destination to which man is guided, in which man lives according to a higher consciousness, which is the light that man lives outside the framework of darkness. Thus, Satan obstructs this Straight Path, preventing them from being guided to it through his whispering and urging them to go astray at the beginning of the path. By removing the garment of piety at every situation, he whispers to man to show him his bad deeds, and the interaction from them leads to delusion because the resulting actions are harmful to oneself and the surrounding society. These abuses are inherent feelings in the nature of the human soul, but nevertheless, the human soul has another extension, which is the human soul, which gives the soul the ability to expand or move – after practicing piety – from the low level of consciousness to the spiritual aspect as a higher consciousness and another dimension, this spiritual consciousness had begun with Adam, peace be upon him, and lost it when he followed Satan’s whispering, which is the state of descent referred to in the saying
{Satan removed them from it, so he brought them out of what they were in, and We said, “Descend, one of you is an enemy to another, and you have a permanent abode on earth and a time of enjoyment.}
[Surat al-Baqarah: 36]
{We said, “Descend from it all of you, since you will receive guidance from me, and whoever follows my guidance will not fear, nor will they grieve.}
[Surat al-Baqarah: 38]
This spiritual awareness comes through divine guidance using tools such as hearing, sight, and heart, and whoever follows it will not go astray or be misguided.
(123) And whoever turns away from the remembrance of me, he will have a miserable life, and on the Day of Resurrection he will be turned into a blind man (124) He said, “Lord, why did you turn me into a blind man when I used to be wise? (124) He said, “Lord, why did you make me blind when I used to be sighted?” (125) He said, “Likewise, our signs came to you and you forgot them, and likewise today you will forget them.” (126)} [Surah Taha: 123-126]
Strengthen Allah and fear Him as much as you can:
{“O you who believe, fear Allah with all your heart, and do not die until you are Muslims” [Surah Al-Imran: 102].
{Fear Allah as much as you can, listen and obey, and spend well for yourselves, and whoever is careful of his own selfishness, those are the ones who are successful [Surat al-Taghabin: 16].
Dr. Muhammad Shahrour, may Allah have mercy on him, has a beautiful ijtihad in these verses where he divides piety into piety of Islam and piety of faith, and then combines the two to become piety of charity. In reference to another verse that I will cite here:
{Those who believe and do righteous deeds have no crime in what they eat, if they are pious and believe and do righteous deeds, then pious and believe, then pious and believe, then pious and do righteous deeds, and God loves the righteous}
[Surat al-Ma’idah: 93]
In the first verse, fear Allah with the righteousness of piety is the least that is required to be practiced from piety, as it means here to close all the bad things so that they do not interact with them towards the instinct, and this instinct is shared by everyone, and is known to everyone, so without courtesy (the righteousness of piety ) , any activation of a bad thing that causes harm must be immediately suppressed. Because the verse concludes that you should not die unless you are Muslims, it strengthens the level of known and predetermined evils, and not practicing these means falling into interaction through evils and thus practicing criminality.
As for the other verse, Fear God as much as you can, it came in a wide context, where God warns those who believed in the sedition because of money and children and how to deal with them, here a person can fall into injustice to himself or others, no matter how careful he is, so he ordered them not to proceed from those bad things, as the matter here may need analysis, deep thinking, and brainstorming, and in the midst of this thinking is prone to error, in such situations they need to remember because it is difficult for them to remember, the matter is not so clear and obvious until they remember.
{O you who have believed, your spouses and children are your enemies, so beware of them, and if you pardon, forgive and forgive, then Allah is a merciful forgiver (14) Your wealth and your children are a temptation. (15) So fear Allah as much as you can, listen and obey, and spend for the good of yourselves, and whoever is careful of his own selfishness, those are the ones who will be successful (16)}
[Surat al-Taghabin: 14-16].
