People often translate Taqwa as "fearing God". This is not a proper translation, and can be taken to mean the Allah makes his creation afraid and scared, which is not true at all.

In Islam the concept of fearing God is NOT to be scared of HIM, but to be ashamed, scared or sad at doing something which would "displease HIM".

There is no English translation for this idea, which is known as TAQWA.

We all know that the most important duty of a Muslim is to believe in Allah and to have total submission to Him, i.e. His wishes are our commands. We also know that if we displease him, then on the Day of Judgement, we will have to answer for it.

The important thing is that if we ever do anything either accidentally or on purpose we should be "aware" of what we have done and its consequences, and so we should ask for forgiveness from Allah.

To reach this state of awareness is very difficult and we human beings would never have been able to reach it without Allah's help and guidance.

Allah says in Suratul Baqarah "Worship me to ward off evil". This shows the concept of worship i.e. total submission and love of Allah is very important to keep away evil.

Imam Ali (A) says in the Nahjul Balagha that: "... O creatures of Allah, the best advice for himself is he who is the most obedient to Allah, and the most deceiving advise to himself is he who is most disobedient to Allah."

In Surah an-Nur, Allah says he will guide those who wish to be guided. This shows us that it is only through the love and worship of Allah that we will be guided on the "right path" to heaven.

(FURTHER REFERENCE; ANECDOTES OF REFLECTION PART 3 CHAPTER21)