بِسْم الله الرحمن الرحيم
4) Continual Observance (of Allah)
Adorn yourself with the continual observance of Allah openly and in secret, journeying to your Lord between fear and hope since they are for the Muslim like two wings to the bird.
So advance to your Lord with your whole being, and let your heart be filled with the love of Him.
To be continually aware of Allah and not want to displease Him is required in the pursuit of knowledge, and in life generally.
المراقبة is more specific than الخشية.
E.g. الخشية is seeing your father and abstaining from something he forbade you to.
المراقبة is to know that your father is constantly monitoring you through some means wherever you go.
In this, we have to remember الاحسان: To worship Allah as if you see Him, and if you can't do that, then know that He sees you.
Ibn Uthaymeen comments on this, saying that المراقبة الله is one of the fruits of الخشية. A person is always with Allah, and worship Allah as if he sees Him.
So he makes ablution before prayer, as if he's implementing the command in the verse [5:6], as if he sees the Prophet ﷺ making it and commanding him to do so. He doesn't waste water, because he knows that the Prophet ﷺ used to do it with only a glass of water. He makes sure water reaches every spot, because he knows the Prophet ﷺ ordered a man who has a space equivalent to a coin where water didn't reach to repeat his ablution. He knows it's not just a physical act, and his sins are being washed away with this water. He says the two testimonies of faith and the dua at the end- purifying himself of both filth and sins; inside and out.
Then he prays, knowing that he's standing in front of Allah, and that Allah sees Him. Undoubtedly, his actions are different to a person who runs into the bathroom, splashes water on his face, runs to prayer, and prays with his mind wandering here and there - completely oblivious to Allah's observance.
Perfection of المراقبة الله is the crux of our acts of worship.
".....journeying to your Lord between fear and hope since they are for the Muslim like two wings to the bird...."
Imam Ahmed رحمه الله said that the fear and hope of a person should be of equal parts. If either dominates him, he'll be destroyed.
We should be in a balanced state between the two. A bird has two wings, if both operate, he stays balanced in flight. If one weakens, he'll go circling down. The believer should be between hope in Allah's mercy, and fear of His punishment.
If you have more fear than hope, you'll fall into despair. You'll become despondent because you're thinking of all the sins you do, and the Shaytan tells you what's the point in doing any good, that you're doomed anyway, etc. Don't ever give up hope in the mercy of Allah.
If you have more hope than fear, you'll persist on sinning, saying that Allah is الغفور الرحيم. But He's also شديد العقاب.
They'll quote the Hadith, "All my nation are going to Paradise" and leave out the end, "...except for the one who refuses. Whoever obeys me will enter Paradise, and whoever disobeys me has refused"
So when you intend to do a good deed, make your hopes predominant. Have hope that Allah will accept it and increase your faith. As long as you're doing what Allah commanded you, with the correct intention, and following the Sunnah, you'll be successful.
When you intend to sin, fear should dominate your heart and prevent you from sinning. If you're a sinful person, fear of Allah should dominate your emotions, thoughts, and words. Fear of Allah prevents us from falling into destruction.
Other scholars looked at it from another perspective: To have hope as the predominate emotion in times of sickness.
Jabir Ibn Abdullah AlAnsaree narrated that he heard Allah's Messenger ﷺ say, three days before his death:
« لاَ يَمُوتَنَّ أَحَدُكُمْ إِلاَّ وَهُوَ يُحْسِنُ الظَّنَّ بِاللَّهِ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ »
"None of you should ever die, except while assuming the best of Allah"
This is the time when Shaytan tries his hardest to undermine our deeds and break our faith in Allah. If fear is the dominating emotion, we'll lose hope in the mercy of Allah.
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