Imam Khomeini has devoted a whole hadith chapter in Forty Hadith to this issue of fear and hope, and has examined the station of these attributes from the aspect of Gnosticism.
Accordingly, another consequence of the principle of man’s indescribability is his coexistence with fear and hope, in such a way that these two attributes are equiponderant in him.
According to his view, the cause of fear and anxiety of a believer is that since he evaluates the relation between himself—one that is utterly in want—and God Almighty—Who is Absolute Self-Sufficiency—and sees one side as total deficiency and shortcoming and the other side as All-Beauty and Splendor, and as he fails to acknowledge and respect the right of God as He deserves, he experiences dread and apprehension.
His hope also stems from the fact that he discerns that God, the Most Sublime, has bestowed everything upon him without the least claim, and given him the promise of excessive forgiveness and clemency. In short, he is hopeful of the perpetual mercy of God.