words arising from a servant’s fear of Allah attest to his faith in Allah. Allah forgave the man who feared Him when he instructed his family to burn him and scatter half of him on land and half at sea, even though he had never done any good whatsoever.
He said:
“By Allah, if Allah has power over me, He will surely punish me with a punishment He has inflicted on no one in all creation. Then Allah commanded the land, and it gathered whatever of him it contained; and He commanded the sea, and it gathered whatever of him it contained. Allah asked, ‘What drove you to do what you did?’ He replied, ‘Fear of You, my Lord.’ So He forgave him.”
This is recorded in both Sahīhs (1).
If, despite his doubt concerning divine power and the resurrection, he was forgiven for doing this because of his fear of Allah, it follows that fear of Allah is among the greatest causes of forgiveness for substantive matters, assuming them to be sins.
Chapter (2)
The Rāfidī (3) said: “Abū Bakr said that he wished that, at the portico of Banū Sā'idah, he had pledged allegiance by placing his own hand upon the hand (4) of one of the two men; then (5) that man would have been the ruler, while he himself would have been
(1) The hadith is narrated with similar wording from Abū Hurayra, may Allah be pleased with him, in *Sahīh al-Bukhārī*, 9/145 (Book of Tawhīd, chapter “The Saying of Allah Most High: ‘They Wish to Change the Word of Allah’”), and *Sahīh Muslim*, 4/2109–2110 (Book of Repentance, chapter “The Vastness of Allah Most High’s Mercy”). The same account is also reported, with variations in wording, from Abū Hurayra, Abū Sa‘īd al-Khudrī, and Hudhayfa ibn al-Yamān, may Allah be pleased with them: *Sahīh al-Bukhārī*, 4/176 (Book of the Prophets, final chapter, “Abū al-Yamān Narrated to Us”), from Abū Hurayra and Abū Sa‘īd; 8/101 (Book of Softening the Heart, chapter “Fear of Allah”), from Hudhayfa and Abū Sa‘īd; and *Sahīh Muslim*, 4/2110–2111 (Book of Repentance, chapter “The Vastness of Allah Most High’s Mercy”), hadiths 25 and 27. The hadith is also found in *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, 2/1421 (Book of Asceticism, chapter “The Remembrance of Repentance”), and *al-Musnad* (al-Halabī ed.), 3/77–78; 5/4, 383, 407–408.
(2) The word *fasl* (“chapter”) is omitted from (H) and (R). In (Y), the reading is: “Chapter Nineteen.”
(3) In (K), p. 133 (M).
(4) The word *yad* (“hand”) is omitted from (H).
(5) (K) reads: “and he would have been.”