Exegesis of Sūrah Fāṭir

Question: What is the meaning of the Almighty’s words, “Only those of His servants who possess knowledge truly fear Allah; indeed Allah is All-Mighty, All-Forgiving” (Fāṭir 35:28)? Does this imply that anyone who is not a scholar fails to fear Allah? And which scholars are meant in the verse?

Answer: After enumerating His cosmic signs—the various creatures and the diversity of their colours—Allah, exalted is He, said: “Only those of His servants who possess knowledge truly fear Allah.”

The “scholars” referred to here are those who possess the revealed, prophetic knowledge that has been inherited from the Messenger ﷺ: knowledge that acquaints a person with Allah, His signs, His power, and His bounty toward His slaves. It is these people—those who know Allah—who fear Him as He ought to be feared. This verse is one of the many texts that praise and commend the scholars, because they are the ones who fear Allah in the fullest sense, so long as they act upon what they know and fulfil its rights.

As for the scholars of misguidance, they are not included—such as the Jewish scholars of old and anyone who follows their path of deviation. The verse concerns only those scholars who put their knowledge into practice, for Allah has declared that they are the people who fear Him.

Allah has likewise joined their testimony to His own when He said, “Allah bears witness that there is no deity except Him—as do the angels and those endowed with knowledge” (Āl ʿImrān 3:18). He also said, “Say, ‘Are those who know equal to those who do not know?’” (al-Zumar 39:9). Many texts convey this meaning, and the present verse is among them.

As for those who are not people of knowledge, some of them do fear Allah according to the measure of their awareness of Him; yet the greatest and most complete fear of Allah is found in the scholars. The knowledge intended here is the prophetic, sharʿī (revealed-law) knowledge.