Fear and Hope

To proceed. Hope and fear are two wings by means of which those who are brought near fly to every commendable station, and two mounts on which every steep ascent of the paths of the next world is traversed. And nothing but the reins of hope will lead to the vicinity of the Merciful and the joy of the Gardens the man who is distant from hoping and heavy with burdens, who is encompassed with what the heart abhors and with toils of members and limbs. And nothing shall avert from the fire of Gehenna and the painful punishment the man who is encompassed with the blandishments of lusts and the marvels of pleasures except the scourges of threatening and the assaults of violence. Consequently there is nothing for it but an exposition of the essence and merits of them both, as well as the way of arriving at a junction between the two of them, in spite of their polarity and mutual antipathy. And we join the mention of them in a single book which is comprised of two parts, the first part concerning hope and the second part fear. As for the first part it is made up of an exposition of the essence of hope and an exposition of its merit; and an exposition of the therapy of hope and the way in which hope is induced by it.

[Excerpt from IhyaUlumudin by Hujjatul Islam, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali - Translated by: William McKane]