خشى
Attested forms : يَخْشَوْنَ 7 · خَشِىَ 4 · يَخْشَىٰ 4 · خَشْيَةِ 3 · تَخْشَوْهُمْ 2 · ٱخْشَوْنِ 2 · يَخْشَ 2 · خَشْيَةَ 2
Core meaning
To dread: the fear that keeps one alert and governs conduct, turned first toward God.
Uses
خَشِىَ, يَخْشَىٰ, ٱخْشَوْا۟ → "to dread" : the fear that orients: one chooses whom to dread, God or people.
يَخْشَوْنَ … بِٱلْغَيْبِ → "to dread even though He escapes the senses" : to dread God, who escapes the senses.
- «إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ يَخْشَوْنَ رَبَّهُم بِٱلْغَيْبِ» — "Those who dread their Guardian even though He escapes their senses" (67:12)
خَشْيَة → "out of dread", "as one dreads" : the noun: fear as the motive of a gesture.
Evidence from the text
The text sets the word beside its neighbours, and the difference is read in the same verse: those who "dread their Guardian and fear the worst of reckonings" (13:21); those "who dread their Guardian even though He escapes their senses, and are apprehensive of the Hour" (21:49). Dread bears on God, fear on an expected harm, apprehension on a coming term. The formula "do not dread them, then, but dread Me" (2:150, 5:3, 5:44) and the sentence "God is more worthy that you should dread Him" (9:13, 33:37) say that everything turns on the object of the fear.
This fear does not paralyse: it makes one act. It moves one to care for weak descendants (4:9), it is the condition of the reminder (20:3, 79:26, 87:10) and of the warning (35:18, 36:11, 79:45), and it goes with knowledge (35:28). It can also mistake its object: to dreads men as one dreads God (4:77), to dread spending (17:100) or the decline of a trade (9:24).
Distinctions
- خوف — to fear: fear of a danger or a loss, whereas خشى says the fear that orients conduct
- شفق — to be apprehensive: fear stretched toward a coming term
- رهب — to revere: the reverential fear that moves one to obedience
See also
وقى (to guard oneself)