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What is the difference between khashyah (reverential fear) and khawf (fear) of Allah the Almighty?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Fear is a tremor that afflicts the heart when anticipating something undesirable or the loss of something beloved, and it may or may not be accompanied by veneration. As for khashyah (reverential fear), it is like fear, but it is only accompanied by veneration and awe. It is the breaking of the heart from constantly standing before God. Khashyah is of a higher rank than fear because it only arises from knowledge of that which is feared, in accordance with His, the Almighty’s, saying: "Only those fear Allah, from among His servants, who have knowledge."

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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