CENTRE OF FEAR AND LOVE

Islam emphasizes that one should direct one’s attention solely towards God, making Him the sole focal point of one’s attention wholeheartedly.

The essence of monotheism is to have complete trust in one God and to be deeply attached to Him with one’s heart and mind. It means making God the central focus of one’s emotions, both in terms of fear and love. The human mind and heart naturally seek a focal point, someone upon whom they can rely, place their hopes, trust wholeheartedly, and whose remembrance becomes the essence of their lives.

A human being cannot survive without having a centre for his existence. Whether it be wealth and power, idols and deities, or any other thing, if this centre is something other than God, it amounts to polytheism. But when one makes only God, the Lord of the Worlds, the centre of one’s existence, it is called monotheism, the belief in the oneness of God. Islam emphasizes that one should direct one’s attention solely toward God, making Him the sole focal point of one’s attention.

When a person makes God one’s deity, one acknowledges the existence of a true Being as one’s deity. In contrast, when someone makes something other than God one’s deity, one has bestowed deity status upon something that does not truly exist, even if they have constructed an imaginary form of that hypothetical deity. The person who worships God as one’s deity has discovered the real source of power.

On the other hand, someone who worships something other than God as one’s deity is attached to something that lacks actual existence. A worshipper of God is blessed with eternal bliss, while a worshipper of something other than God faces nothing but eternal deprivation.