The religion of Islam has a group of fundamental characteristics that act as a root or foundation for every believing Muslim.  From the specific characteristics, many other positive attributes and traits will branch off. These fundamental traits include faith, devotion, love, sincerity, courage, and commitment. The complete opposite of these traits are those that destruct and negatively impact an individual in numerous ways, and ultimately leads to the development of many more negative traits and characteristics.  One of these negative traits is cowardliness, which is the exact opposite of courage. Being the exact opposite of a trait that is known as one of the most important characteristics of a believing individual obviously means that this trait should not be developed nor be a part of someone’s individuality. Cowardliness is exhibiting the characteristics of a coward, who is an individual that is contemptibly lacking in the virtue of virtue as they fear enduring tough situations and standing up to what they believe in or what is right.  This is one of the many things mentioned by the religion of Islam, where refraining from developing actually benefits the person mentally and spiritually.  

In the religion of Islam, the trait cowardliness is looked down upon greatly due to the negative effects it can have on an individual. It is said that because of one’s cowardliness and fear that can lead to the development of many other negative traits such as dishonesty, treachery, and many others. Now one might ask, where does this trait come from? Prophet Muhammed PBUH says that cowardliness comes from having little or a limited amount of faith in Allah SWT, or it comes from ignorance, to the point where one does not act upon what is right at the right moments. When doing this, an individual who has the characteristics of a coward is revealing that their personal gains from refraining from doing something right is far more important than anything else.  Allah SWT does not like this characteristic to be an apart of the individuality of believing Muslims as that ultimately leads to committing one of the greatest sins which is treachery.

Allah SWT says in the Holy Quran: {O you who believe! What is the matter with you, that when you are asked to march forth in the Cause of Allah (i.e. Jihad) you cling heavily to the earth? Are you pleased with the life of this world rather than the Hereafter?)

In this holy verse, it is referring to those physically fighting to defend the religion of Islam during the prophet PBUH’s time; however this is relevant to today’s world. This verse is stating that some of those who needed to fight at the time to defend the religion of Islam chose not to as they were cowards who preferred the worldly life over the afterlife.  This verse may be directed to those fighting at that time, but one can extract many lessons from it. Fighting for the truth can be through physical terms and verbal terms. Fighting for the truth verbally requires one to leave all of the fears they have and to realize that what is being done is what Allah SWT wants.

A clear example of cowardliness in today’s world is when we witness people choosing to do the wrong thing simply becase they either fear other people’s judgments and actions that could be taken against them. At these moments one needs to realize that Allah SWT is with those who support his messages and teachings and He is the ultimate protector.

In order to refrain from developing negative traits, like cowardliness one has to put a specific role model in mind. For example, Imam Ali AS possessed all types of courage and no matter how tough the obstacles he was faced with, he did not back down. Because of this it is seen that Allah SWT protected him and his household and they are now known as the greatest symbol of courage and moral excellence.

At the end of the day each individual should look upon their actions and ask, did I do my very best to be courageous? Was I a coward today instead of a hero? Did I stand in the face of what was wrong? Did I fight for the truth?

Therefore because Allah SWT set the perfect example of human individuals through the Ahulbayt AS, one should always strive to be like the description Imam Ali AS set for the believing Muslims. For describing believing Muslims Imam Ali AS says: “A believer has a cheerful face, a sorrowful heart, a very broad chest full of generosity, and a very humble heart. They hate high position and dislikes renowned. Their grief is long, their courage is far reaching, their silence is much, and their time is occupied. They are grateful, enduring, buried in their thoughts, sparing in their friendship with others, of bright demeanor and of soft temperament. They are stronger than stone but humbler than slaves.”