“Taqwa (piety) is the title of the spiritual journey starting with abstaining from the forbidden and fulfilling requirements. Further progress is made by being wary of whatever actions have questionable benefit. Finally, the Sunnah is embraced firmly. In the same vein, taqwa also denotes the comprehension of the mystery and wisdom hidden under the phenomena decreed by God Almighty by means of practical experience. Taqwa also penetrates all phenomena, benefiting fully from laws of existence by means of scientific research. That is, possessing taqwa means worshipping the Lord in terms of both theological and physical laws.”¹⁾

“O you who believe! Keep from disobedience to God in reverent piety, with all the reverence that is due to Him, and see that you do not die save as Muslims (submitted to Him exclusively).” (Al Imran, 3:102).

“The servant will not achieve the status of being one of the God-fearing until he leaves that in which there is no harm for fear of that in which there is some harm.”²⁾

“… a traveler on this path must always keep piety as their compass. They should not give up their piety to fulfill the requirements of the creative commands. These two sides of piety cannot be ignored:

1) Complying with the principles of the religion and obeying Divine commandments, i.e. the ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts.’

2) Complying with God’s laws that are prevalent in the universe and fulfilling our duties without waiting for things to happen on their own.”³⁾

“In our world, at a certain time, the study of the creative commands and taking them into account have been neglected. When we ignored the principles of ‘observing the creative commands’ and ‘reading the book of the universe,’ which is an important factor in benefiting from the Qur’an, which we consider as a very important part of piety, when we did not appreciate them, we were defeated. Moreover, we have seen the success of the West in studying the world very well and even concentrating on it by ignoring everything else. We have attributed the progress and success of the West to their focus on the world. This time, we have said: ‘We will study and evaluate the laws of creations and we will catch up with them,’ but in a very strange way, we have started this attempt by throwing aside the values we hold sacred.”⁴⁾

“In these days, I thought about the principles of piety and righteous deeds, which are the most fundamental principles after faith in the eyes of the All-Wise Qur’an. Piety means abstaining from prohibitions and sins; and righteous deed is to act in the circle of Divine commandments and to gain spiritual rewards. Although repelling evil is always preferable to attaining benefit, in this time of destruction and debauchery and tempting low desires, this piety, which means repelling mischiefs and abandoning major sins has gained a great priority. As this age is characterized by destructive and negative tendencies, it is vital to first keep oneself from what is prohibited by God against these distortions. Those who fulfill the religious obligations and do not commit major sins are saved.”⁵⁾

“Will, intellect, emotions, and the spiritual faculty sensing God directly, which constitute the four elements of the conscience and four faculties of the spirit, have an ultimate aim. The ultimate aim of the will is worship of God; that of the intellect is knowledge of God; that of the emotions is love of God; and that of the spiritual faculty is direct witnessing of God. The perfect worship known as taqwa (piety) comprises the four. The Shari’a both cultivates these, and corrects them, and takes them towards their ultimate goals, and delivers the three faculties of the soul (intellect, desire, and anger) which are left free in their original disposition, from excessiveness and insufficiency, and guides them to justice, which includes wisdom, chastity, and blessed courage.”⁶⁾

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