In many places in the Qur’an, Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) makes this statement:
Transliteration: Laa khawfun `alayhim wa laa hum yahzanuwn
Translation: No fear upon them and they will not grieve.
You can locate this in many ayat of the Quran, such as: Surah Baqarah verse 38, Surah al-An’aam verse 48, and Surah Yunus verse 62, and others.
We’ll break this statement into two parts inshaAllah: the first part, it deals with fear (laa khawfun `alayhim), and the second deals with grief (wa laa hum yuhzinuwn).
The keyword of the first part is khawf (خَوْف), which means fear–fear for the future, and fear for the akhira. In particular, in these ayat, it means fear of what horrors one will face in the hereafter–like the bridge over hell.
The keyword of the second part is huzn (حُزن), which means grief–grief for the past, and grief for the dunya. In particular, in these ayat, it means grief of the life of this world.
Reflect on that inshaAllah and you’ll realize that these two statements cover everything–everything in the past, everything in the future. Everything that happened in this world, in this life, and everything that can happen in the next life.
Now that you know what it means, whenever you see it, remind yourself of what it means. You’ll find it benefits your understanding, bi idhnillah.
And subhanallah, if you look at the Arabic, you find parallelism: one deals with past, one with future. One with this life, one with the next. And indeed, the Qur’an is an example of the most beautiful speech, the speech of Allah (سبحانه وتعالى), Lord of the worlds.
Also interesting: if you had an exam yesterday that you utterly, totally, and completely bombed, and another one coming up tomorrow, which would you be more worried about? Most people would worry about the one coming up. And that is the aspect the ayat deal with first–future. Subhanallah.
May Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) grant us all amazing insight and understanding into the Qur’an, ameen.
(1) Al-Mubarakpuri, Safiur-Rahman. Tafsir Ibn Kathir (Abridged). Comp. Abu Al-Fida Ismail Ibn Kathir. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. Maktaba Dar-Us-Salam, 2003. 203.
(2) Al-Mubarakpuri, Safiur-Rahman. Tafsir Ibn Kathir (Abridged). Comp. Abu Al-Fida Ismail Ibn Kathir. 2nd ed. Vol. 4. Maktaba Dar-Us-Salam, 2003. 627.