وَالَّذِينَ يُؤْتُونَ مَا آتَوا وَّقُلُوبُهُمْ وَجِلَةٌ أَنَّهُمْ إِلَىٰ رَبِّهِمْ رَاجِعُونَ (60)
(23:60) who give whatever they give, and whose hearts are filled with awe by the very idea that they shall have to return to their Lord: *54
*54) This verse (60) may be elaborated like this: "They serve their Lord and try their best to obey Him and do righteous deeds, but alI along they remain humble in their hearts and are not puffed up with the pride of their piety: nay, in spite of all their good deeds, their hearts are always filled with awe that they shall have to render an account to their Lord, and they are not sure whether they will come out successful in the judgment of their Lord or not."
A concrete interpretation of this verse is afforded by Caliph 'Umar. Although he served his Allah in a way that was exemplary, yet he was so afraid of accountability to Him that he is reported to have said before death: "f shall consider it a favour, if I am neither rewarded nor punished in the Hereafter." Hadrat Hasan Basri has expressed the same thing in a beautiful manner: "A believer obeys Allah and is yet fearful of Him, and a hypocrite disobeys Allah and is yet fearless of Him."