CIRA international find Islamic balance; fear and love of Allah?

In answer to the video "Sin and Salvation, Part 3 - Does Allah Love Sinners?"

The Quran says, Fear of God, awareness of the seriousness of His threats avoids one from falling into self-complacency, makes one feel obliged at all times to act upon Divine Commands and regard the righteous good deeds as insignificant in the face of divine perfection 7:99,70:24-8. This state of mind further frees one from any tinge of idolatry as it makes one aware that no protector ultimately exists outside of Allah 

6:14,51,70,17:111"Praise to Allah, who has not taken a son and has had no partner in [His] dominion and has no [need of a] protector out of weakness; and glorify Him with [great] glorification" 33:17"Say, "Who is it that can protect you from Allah if He intends for you an ill or intends for you a mercy?" And they will not find for themselves besides Allah any protector or any helper".

That notion is such a crucial component of faith that after introducing His identity through His observable attributes, God describes His servants as those who, among other lofty characteristics, fear the seriousness of His threats more than they desire His reward 25:60-77.

Fear however can never be the sole constituent of belief, it must be balanced with 2 other elements; hope 12:87 and love for God

32:16"call upon their Sustainer in fear and in hope"  

21:90"These people exerted their utmost in righteous deeds and called upon Us with love and fear and they remained humble before Us".

From a philosophical viewpoint, fear,  whether in the natural or spiritual world, is an asset without which survival is impossible. But it must be balanced and controlled or else it leads to stagnation and even death. As is taught to us by the Creator, spiritually, fear must be balanced with love and trust.

The correct attitude is to never fall into either extreme, becoming self-complacent or hopeless of God's mercy. This upright perspective leads one to continuously strive to increase safety/iman in Allah. 

This balanced attitude is reflected in the saying of the prophet 

“If the believer knew what was with Allah of punishment, no one would hope for Paradise; and if the disbeliever knew what was with Allah of Mercy, no one would despair of attaining Paradise".

Elsewhere the Quran describes the successful as those who "hope" to meet their Lord and "hope" for His forgiveness 2:218,18:110. This is a sign of humility, when even within the same verse, those people are reassured that Allah is surely forgiving and merciful, they still keep in mind that salvation is ultimately in God's hands

2:218"Surely those who believed and those who fled (their home) and strove hard in the way of Allah these hope for the mercy of Allah and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful".

The believer in those concepts, the one who knows what God demands of Him and what not, what His Sustainer loves in His servant and what not, continuously toils in the path of truth, without pride and self content. Contrary to the scripturaly indifensible concept of an unconditionally loving God, which leads to conceit and self-righteousness, the one striving to meet God's explicit criteria of approval, constantly remains God-conscious. He remains humble, never thinking he is beyond reproach, fearing the seriousness of God's threats as well as hoping for His mercy, until he meets his Creator.

39:23"Allah has sent down the best statement: a consistent Book wherein is reiteration. The skins shiver therefrom of those who fear their Lord; then their skins and their hearts relax at the remembrance of Allah. That is the guidance of Allah by which He guides whom He wills".

The Love is evident in the word IMAN that denotes profound and sincere feeling of safety implying that one is in complete trust of a protective entity, that is, God. One cannot feel safe in an entity without having love for that entity, and knowing in turn that the entity is loving. This is where the Quran explains that this love isnt reciprocal, but more intense when coming from God. He is as al-rahman, the intensification of rahma. The root R-H-M means WOMB. Therefore in order to imagine what this word actually means one has to picture the womb and what it does to the fetus. It nurtures, protects, provides warmth, love etc. without even the fetus being aware of it. This word describes God's unconditional, intricate, unfathomable love for His creatures.

There are several literary devices the Quran uses to illustrate the concept of divine love. For example in sura fatiha. Allah is firstly called rabb/the Raiser or Sustainer. Since it is a word implying authority, and that authority doesnt necessarily evoke the concept of love, immidiately after, God is called al rahman. It is in the intensive form, but another characteristic of the word is that it does not cover the future. Which is why rahim comes next, undetermined in time. This makes the rabb take care with love now by answering present needs, and does the same for later needs. However, to strike a balance in human psyche, who is now told that the master answers with intense love, the concept of accountability is introduced malik yawm eddin/master of the day of judgement. This is because intense love is most often abused of, negatively taken advantage of.

So, although God's love in unconditional when it comes to caring for His creatures and making all necessary arrangements for their ultimate success, such love does not confuse His perfect justice and does not prevent Him in the least from applying the appropriate sentence no matter how severe. This is the Quran's supreme precision, pragmatism, consistency in the manner it conveys its concepts and interconnects them from word to word, verse to verse, chapter to chapter.

Mercy is a particular attribute of God, described as being "ordained" upon God's self 6:12,54. None of the other divine attributes have been described with this expression

"kataba ala nafsihi".

This statement is meant to emphasize that Allah is merciful but also that Allah made mercy a self imposed mandate upon himself. When something is written, it conveys the sense that it is well established and solid. God is the Creator and Owner, Sustainer of the universe. He makes it function in accordance with the laws He likes and these laws are rooted in His mercy. He in addition decided to inform His servants of that self imposed commitment, yet He ows them nothing. The prophet portrayed that notion by paralleling a mother's love for her baby to God's love for His creation. While the companions were looking at a woman frantically searching for her child, the prophet said

"Do you think that this lady can throw her son in the fire?" We replied, "No, if she has the power not to throw it (in the fire)." The Prophet then said, "Allah is more merciful to His slaves than this lady to her son".

Another hadith demonstrates how, if Allah were to create anything to make it enter into one of the abodes of the hereafter, it would be to make it enter paradise 

"The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "(The people will be thrown into Hell ( Fire) and it will keep on saying, 'Is there any more?' till the Lord of the worlds puts His Foot over it, whereupon its different sides will come close to each other, and it will say, 'Qad! Qad! (enough! enough!) By Your 'Izzat (Honor and Power) and Your Karam (Generosity)!' Paradise will remain spacious enough to accommodate more people until Allah will create a new creation and let them dwell in the superfluous space of Paradise". 

These new creation could be the dwellers of hell that will eventually be admitted to paradise, or something else known to Allah.   

Divine mercy is thus hardwired into the teachings of the prophet and the Quranic revelation,

even in those passages most quoted by Islam critics attempting to cast it into an evil and wantonly violent religion. There is simply no plausible way to understand the Quran in a manner bereft of mercy and compassion. An interesting parallel can be made with a statement from the Tanakh

Psalms89:3"a world which manifests Your loving kindness, You did build".

Giving requires a receiver. So God created human beings to be the recipients of His bounty. He has brought mankind into existence and established a system of moral accountability it is therefore natural that He makes all necessary arrangements for a just retribution

41:2"A revelation from the Beneficent, the Merciful Allah"

Spiritual guidance is a natural consequence of this Mercy, despite most men being unworthy of it

43:5"shall We then turn away the reminder from you altogether because you are an extravagant people?"