Gardens of Wisdom

[irfansaeed]

Asalam O Aliakum,
i am thinking about the role of fear in human life. what are its boundaries? What is the positive and negative role of fear? Would you explain in the light of Quran. Why Quran uses it as a tool to channel the human behavior?


Irfan

[Idris]

Asalam O Aliakum,
i am thinking about the role of fear in human life. what are its boundaries? What is the positive and negative role of fear? Would you explain in the light of Quran. Why Quran uses it as a tool to channel the human behavior?


Irfan

Salaamun alaikum brother.
Fear, like anger, is an emotional feeling meant to protect LOVE. It is a defense emotion that prepares a person to identify and move away from harm (the cause of the fear).

A person does not experience fear until there is threat to what he loves.

The cause of fear may either be present/imminent or it is only anticipated. Fear for an anticipated/likely harm is regarded as ANXIETY.

The boundary/extent of fear is related to the extent of damage that is anticipated.
The positive role of fear is that it is protective – a person who does not fear or have anxiety is doomed. It is in the same sense as pain.

The negative role of fear is that it can be manipulated and mismanaged in the same sense as pain.

Wrong thought can create unwarranted fear that may pull a person down.
Fear is naturally a tool that channels human’s behavior. Al-Islam only expresses the truth (consequences) perhaps we fear and adjust our style of life. It is like the warning about the consequences of smoking or driving while heavily drunk.

You may want more clarification. Please feel free to ask for the details.
Salaamun alaikum.

[irfansaeed]

Aslama O Alikum,
Does the fear precedes the intellectual acceptance of something. if your answer is "YES" then do you agree that people cling to their irrational believes because of the false indoctrination of fear from their childhood.


Wasalam
Irfan

[Idris]

Assalamu alaikum dear.

Does the fear precedes the intellectual acceptance of something.

I do not understand this statement. If by intellectual acceptance, you mean attentive study and acceptance of the fear - YES.

Fear is elicited by our state of mind; the thoughts running through the mind at the time. We need to think (attentively) to uncover the cause of the fear sometimes.

if your answer is "YES" then do you agree that people cling to their irrational believes because of the false indoctrination of fear from their childhood.

Every human being is indoctrinated as a child. An adult is expected to liberate himself. Parents/care-givers could not have done otherwise.

It means therefore that a person may continue to fear irrationally due to the earlier indoctrination or learning. This fear, in-turn, could make a person to cling to an irrational belief or do irrational things. With a wrong premise, it does not matter how logical is the process – the result may be wrong.