I was about to present a Sahih Hadeeth, in which Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam relates a story about three men. Listen carefully because this has been told by Nabi Kareem sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, not any old person. This is an agreed upon Hadeeth which tells us that we can't even imagine how much Allah ta'ala likes this fear. There is another Hadeeth, which tells us that we won't go to Paradise because of salaah, fasting or Hajj, but rather it will be because of a good heart. Correct your heart, clean your heart. Your heart is dirty and yet you circumambulate the Kabah or cling to the rails at the Rawdah Mubarak. You do these things and yet you are dishonest and have a dirty heart. Astaghfirullah ta'ala rabbi. I often give the example of going into the bathroom with soap, shampoo, towel and everything and then coming out just as dirty and smelly as when you went in. People would ask you, didn't you have a bath? This is exactly our condition, we go to the Ka’abah, do tawaf and yet come back just as dirty as before. Who can claim that they have done tawaf, or presented themselves at the Master's sallallahu alayhi wasallam door? If you truly presented yourself to the Master sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, then you wouldn't come back dirty. Your body would be fragrant with the smell of obedience and your face would be radiant with the noor of submission. And then others would benefit from you as well. Nabi Kareem sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that fear is such a light that when it enters the heart sins are removed from the body as dry leaves fall off a tree. But we don't have fear in our hearts.
Coming back to the hadeeth, three men were on the way somewhere when it began to rain, so they went in a cave to seek shelter. Allah ta'ala was going to test them, and this story was to reach us and the meaning of 'wat taqullah' was to be taught to us. A big rock fell in front of the cave and completely blocked the mouth of the cave. The three men were trapped in the cave and there was nobody else there. There was only the Rabb, who looks after everyone, 'rabbakum', and whoever has a connection with Him will be saved. If there were someone like me he would start shouting and screaming or digging. But these three understood their situation was about 'Innal laha kana alaikum raqiba' and that they had to call their Sustainer, who has Himself said that He is closer to you than your jugular vein. Call Him who is the closest to you if you have any association with Him. If you have made a link with Him, then not just a rock, but even a mountain will move.
One of the three men said, "Call our Protector and present our connection with Him. See what kind of relationship you and I have with Him. Quote your stories of your fear of Him." Who was there to listen, inside a dark cave with nothing there except the three of them? But they knew that Allah was listening.
The first man said, "I will describe what happened because of my fear of You. A man came and asked for employment. I gave him a job and offered him some money for his work. He did not take the money and left. I bought a goat from that money and there was so much prosperity from that goat that within a few years I had a herd of goats, I acquired farms, orchards and much else. Then that man came back and said he was severely in need, and could he have his money. I said, yes I will give it to you, you see all this in front of you, it's all yours. He said I was joking, but then I explained, “I invested the money you left and all this has resulted out of its barakah, so how can I say that it is mine. It is all yours, so take all the harvest.” There was nobody there, if I wanted I could have just given him the amount he had left, and kept everything else. O Allah, I only did this because of my fear of You. 'Innal laha kana alaikum raqiba', I knew that you watch over me, so I did this out fear of You, if You accept this deed then give us something here." Immediately the rock moved a little.
The second man said that he had a cousin who was a beautiful girl. You can see that the first test was for money and now this was a test of the nafs. "The girl was very poor and she came to me asking for money. I said I would only give her money if she slept with me. She said, you should fear Allah, don't you have any shame? I said that I would not give the money unless she fulfilled my desire. She was helpless and in severe need of money so she agreed. We met in private and were about to commit the sin when the woman said, “What you are doing is very wrong. Remember that you are doing this with a helpless woman. Don't you fear Allah?” I was at that point where fear of Allah could not do anything, and could not have stopped me. But when she reminded me of fearing Allah, I shuddered. I gave her the money, and said I would give her more. I sincerely repented and promised that from that day I would never do anything like this. O Allah I turned back from the point where it is impossible, only You were there and I did it because I fear You." The rock moved away a bit more from the mouth of the cave. I don't remember the third person's story at the moment because I read the Hadeeth long ago. That was also a beautiful story.
So it is proved that whatever they did was because of their fear of Allah, and only of Allah and nothing else. Allah ta'ala helped them and took them out of the cave. When the Sahabah heard this story they understood that the sign of 'wat taqullah' is that there is so much fear of Allah inside you that you can't sin, you cannot be disobedient. The meaning of fear is that you become obedient to Allah and everything you do is for Allah. Be firm on the commands Allah has given. We should take a look inside ourselves and see whether we fear Allah ta'ala. How many salaahs do we leave, how much we do against Allah's orders, and what kind of claims do we make about fearing Allah? And how do we measure these claims?