lest he see you—while you have no fear of Allah’s seeing you in that very state!
Allah the Exalted says: “What is the matter with you that you do not ascribe majesty to Allah?” ⦗13⦘ [Nūḥ: 13]—meaning that you do not treat Him as One whom you venerate. The word waqār denotes greatness; thus His words: “and that you honor Him…” [al-Fath: 9].
Al-Ḥasan said, “What is wrong with you that you neither acknowledge Allah’s right nor thank Him?!” Mujāhid said, “You show no concern for the grandeur of your Lord.” Ibn Zayd said, “You do not deem Allah worthy of obedience.” Ibn ʿAbbās said, “You do not recognize the due of His greatness.” (1)
All these explanations return to a single point: had they truly magnified Allah and recognized the right owed to His greatness, they would have affirmed His oneness, obeyed Him, and shown gratitude to Him; for obedience to Him, avoidance of His prohibitions, and a sense of shame before Him all correspond to the measure of His dignity within the heart.
For that reason one of the early Muslims said: “Let Allah’s dignity be so great in your heart that you would be ashamed to mention His name together with something unseemly.” You would not say, for instance, “May Allah condemn the dog, the swine, or the filth,” and the like—this restraint is an aspect of reverence for Allah.
Another aspect of that reverence is never to place any created being on a par with Him: not in speech—saying such things as, “By Allah and by your life,” “I have none but Allah and you,” or “It is as Allah wills and as you will”; not in love, exaltation, or glorification; not in obedience—obeying a creature’s commands and prohibitions exactly as, or even more than, you obey Allah, as is the habit of most tyrants and libertines; not in fear and hope—regarding Him as the least of those observing you; not by belittling His right and saying, “He will overlook it”; not by giving Him only what is left over while giving precedence to created beings; nor by placing Allah and His Messenger on one side of an issue and people on the other, then siding with the people instead of with Allah and His Messenger.