Keywords: Piety, fear of God, godliness, abstinence, iman,聽hadith,聽Sufism, Qu鈥檙an,聽sura, heart, sirr, wara鈥, khawf, muhasaba, 鈥榮piritual stations鈥, makamat, muttakiyan, fana, Kubrawi.
Abstract:聽Taqwa聽is a verbal noun from taqa 鈥榯o fear [God]鈥, itself a secondary formation from form VIII of w-k-y, ittaqa 鈥榯o fear [God]鈥 (see on this phenomenon, Wright, Arabic Grammar, I, 搂 148 Rem.b). From this same secondary formation is derived the adjective taqi, pl. atqiya 鈥榩ious, God-fearing鈥, in fact a synonym of the form VIII participle muttaqi. Depending on context, the denotations of the term in classical Islamic religious and mystical literature include 鈥榞odliness鈥, 鈥榙evoutness鈥, 鈥榩iety鈥, 鈥楪od-fearing鈥, 鈥榩ious abstinence鈥 and 鈥榰prightness鈥. As a social ideal,聽taqwa聽originally connoted 鈥榙utifulness鈥, 鈥榝aithful observance鈥, a meaning which was discarded in most later Islamic ethical thought.
In the poetry of Labid (d. 40 AH/660 CE), for instance, the social connotation of聽taqwa聽as 鈥榤oral behaviour鈥 or 鈥榬everential dutifulness鈥 with respect to one鈥檚 tribe or relatives appears to have fused with the Qur鈥檃nic religious ideal of 鈥榝ear of God鈥, so that 鈥渃oncepts for a 鈥榬espectful relationship鈥 between the members of a tribe and the 鈥榬everential behaviour鈥 towards God seem even to be interchangeable and identical鈥 (M.M. Bravmann, The Spiritual Background of Early Islam, Leiden 1972, 117), but this combination of social and spiritual meanings of聽taqwa聽is now obsolete.
Author
Dr. Leonard Lewisohn
A respected聽author, translator and lecturer in the area of Islamic studies and a specialist in Persian language and Sufi literature, the late Dr Lewisohn (1953 – 2018) was a Research Associate at the London Middle East Institute at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), and Associate Member of the Centre for Iranian Studies also at SOAS聽. Dr Lewisohn’s works include聽Beyond Faith and Fidelity: the Sufi Poetry and Teachings of Mahmud Shabistari聽(London, 1993), a critical edition of聽Divan-i Muhammad Shirin