Appearance
“So We Feared”: Can Fear Be Attributed to God?
وَأَمَّا ٱلْغُلَـٰمُ فَكَانَ أَبَوَاهُ مُؤْمِنَيْنِ فَخَشِينَآ أَن يُرْهِقَهُمَا طُغْيَـٰنًا وَكُفْرًا
“As for the youth, his parents were believers, and we feared that he would overwhelm them with transgression and disbelief.” (18:80)
The question
In so we feared that he would overwhelm them, who feared, and how can fear be attributed to God?
Views answered: Sayyid Murtaḍā
Jawādī Āmulī’s argument
To the objection that fear cannot be attributed to God, Sayyid Murtaḍā answers that the apparent meaning makes the fear Khiḍr’s, and offers several meanings of fear, some fitting Khiḍr and some fitting God: knowledge, a fear born of uncertainty, and aversion. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī gives his own answer: khashyah is not a particular emotional state but the avoidance of an undesirable outcome. God did not want believing parents to be led into misguidance by their son. Whether we feared is God’s word or Khiḍr’s, fear attributed to God belongs to the level of His action, and in that meaning it is used literally.
Views compared
Sayyid Murtaḍā’s view is given as al-Tasnim reports it. Each point opens al-Tasnim at that place.
Whose fear? Read →
Sayyid Murtaḍā
The apparent meaning of so we feared is that the fear was Khiḍr’s, not God’s.Jawādī Āmulī
We feared may be God’s words or Khiḍr’s; either way, if it is God’s, it must be understood at the level of His action.What “fear” means here Read →
Sayyid Murtaḍā
Several meanings: knowledge (Khiḍr knew, by God’s notification, what the youth would do); a fear born of uncertainty; or aversion, as God finds some things detestable (17:38).Jawādī Āmulī
Khashyah is not an emotional state but the avoidance of an undesirable outcome: God did not want believing parents led into error by their son. Attributed to God in this sense, at the level of His action, it is literal, not figurative.Reading guide
Each step opens al-Tasnim at that point.