PATIENCE | صبر

 

INTRODUCTION

Patience, or Sabr صبر, holds a central place in Islam, symbolizing strength, resilience, and trust in Allah's plan. It is one of the highest virtues emphasized in the Quran and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Patience is not just about enduring difficulties but also about maintaining faith and composure during life's challenges. Patience is essential for spiritual growth and success, as Allah promises His rewards to those who remain steadfast. Patience allows believers to overcome trials with dignity and faith, relying on Allah for guidance and strength. Many spiritual and physical benefits of patience must be implemented in our routine life and every aspect of life. A few of those benefits are:

·         it helps you respond calmly to stressful situations, avoiding impulsive reactions.

·         by accepting life’s challenges with patience, one finds peace and contentment, reducing anxiety and frustration.

·         patience fosters understanding and compassion, leading to healthier relationships.

·         in both worldly and spiritual matters, patience ensures perseverance, allowing for growth, learning, and long-term success.

In Islam, patience is not just a virtue; it's a way of life that shapes how believers face trials and interact with the world.

PATIENCE ACCORDING TO THE QURAN AND HADITH

Patience is the key to success in both this life and the hereafter. Allah has emphasized the virtue of patience numerous times in the Quran, making it a fundamental aspect of our faith. It is the way of the prophets and messengers, and those who are closer to Allah are tested more severely. This is mentioned in the Quran 29:2-3 “Do the people think that they will be left to say, "We believe" and they will not be tested? But We have certainly tested those before them, and Allāh will surely make evident those who are truthful, and He will surely make evident the liars. Surah Al-'Ankabut - 2-3 - Quran.com and in the Quran 2:214 Allah mentioned to our prophet Muhammad ﷺ and His ﷺ companions when “Or do you think that you will enter Paradise while such [trial] have not yet come to you as came to those who passed on before you? They were touched by poverty and hardship and were shaken until [even their] messenger and those who believed with him said, "When is the help of Allāh?" Unquestionably, the help of Allāh is near.” Surah Al-Baqarah - 214 - Quran.com This ayah was revealed for the believers at the time of prophet Muhammad ﷺ (His ﷺ companions) when they used to complain to Him ﷺ for their sufferings. There is a narration of Sahih al-Bukhari 3852 that supports this ayah and was used by Hafiz Ibn-Kathir while writing the commentary (tafsir) of the Quran, here is the link to the tafsir/commentary of this ayah: Tafsir Surah Al-Baqarah - 214 - Quran.com. According to this narration narrated by Khabbaba (may Allah be pleased with Him): I came to the Prophet (ﷺ) while he was leaning against his sheet cloak in the shade of the Ka`ba. We were suffering greatly from the pagans in those days. I said (to him). "Will you invoke Allah (to help us)?" He sat down with a red face and said, "(A believer among) those who were before you used to be combed with iron combs so that nothing of his flesh or nerves would remain on his bones; yet that would never make him desert his religion. A saw might be put over the parting of his head which would be split into two parts, yet all that would never make him abandon his religion. Allah will surely complete this religion. https://sunnah.com/bukhari:3852 This hadith and the mentioned Quranic verses elaborate on how severely the believers were tested and to understand the level of intensity of their tests is that our prophet Muhammad ﷺ is giving the example of those people to His ﷺ companions.

People often wonder why even non-believers and people with weak Iman face trials, despite their distance from Allah. The answer lies in the very purpose of life: it is a test for everyone, whether one believes or not. The difference, however, lies in the reward after the test. For a believer, the reward is twofold—both in this world and in the hereafter. For a non-believer, Allah grants them what they strive for in this life, in one form or another, but there will be nothing for them in the hereafter. As mentioned in the Quran (2:200-201), “And among the people is he who says, "Our Lord, give us in this world," and he will have in the Hereafter no share. But among them is he who says, "Our Lord, give us in this world [that which is] good and in the Hereafter [that which is] good and protect us from the punishment of the Fire.” Surah Al-Baqarah - 200-201 - Quran.com The distinction between the rewards of believers and non-believers is clear: those who seek only the dunia will receive it, but those who seek both the dunia and the akhirah will be rewarded in both realms, and the amazing thing about patience is that while suffering from a test that includes every form of test that is mentioned in the Quran 2:155 “And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient, Surah Al-Baqarah - 155 - Quran.com, even if an individual suffers it with patience and gratitude or be impatient and ungrateful, the time and the test will pass and he/she will have to suffer from the test till the test is over, and it will be completed by the time that Allah decrees (not before that, not after that). So, the best thing to do while suffering from a tough condition is to be patient, be grateful, and seek Allah’s assistance all the time, this will allow us to get Allah’s closeness and rewards from Him in twofold (here in dunia and the hereafter) while the time will pass when decreed by Him.

Allah mentions the whole doctrine of patience in the following verses. These verses contain complete guidelines for a believer to learn what to do when faced with a calamity or a trial from Allah in any shape or form, following which can lead to success in life and the hereafter, and to get the closeness of Allah. Allah mentioned in the verses of the Quran 2:152-157 “So, remember Me; I will remember you. And be grateful to Me and do not deny Me. O you who have believed, seek help through patience and prayer. Indeed, Allāh is with the patient. And do not say about those who are killed in the way of Allāh, "They are dead." Rather, they are alive, but you perceive [it] not. And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient, Who, when disaster strikes them, say, "Indeed we belong to Allāh, and indeed to Him we will return." Those are the ones upon whom are blessings from their Lord and mercy. And it is those who are the [rightly] guided.” Surah Al-Baqarah - 152-157 - Quran.com These verses are elaborated below step by step to understand the true teaching of the Quran and to learn the way to get the closeness of Allah by following His instructions in any trial.

1.        So, remember Me; I will remember you. In the first ayah, Allah mentioned that if you want Allah to remember you, then remember Him by doing dhikr, praying prayers, calling Him for assistance and help, asking Him for everything, and by doing other religious practices to get Allah’s closeness, etc., and if think this in the way of getting His assistance, the rule is simple, obey Him, remember Him, and call Him and He will remember you by listening to your dua, as Allah said in the Quran 40:60 “Call upon Me; I will respond to you.” Surah Ghafir - 60 - Quran.com

2.       And be grateful to Me and do not deny Me (don’t be ungrateful). In the second part of the same ayah, Allah instructed us to be grateful all the time by looking at what we have in hand and not at the things that people have. It is instructed in the Quran 04:32 “And do not wish for that by which Allāh has made some of you exceed others.” Surah An-Nisa - 32 - Quran.com So, Allah teaches us to focus on what we have been blessed with and be grateful for that and wish not for what Allah has provided others. The word used at the end of this ayah is تَكْفُرُونِ that is originated from the word كْفُرُ or KUFAR which means ‘to deny Allah by not accepting Him as the only God’, this shows how intense this act is if someone becomes ungrateful or does not thank Allah, is it as if he has denied the existence of God entirely.

3.      O you who have believed, seek help through patience and prayer. In the next ayah Allah instructed the way to seek Allah’s assistance, and that is through prayer and patience. This is the first time in this set of ayahs where Allah mentioned patience and made it a key to seek Allah’s assistance. This shows that we must be patient while seeking Allah’s assistance and must not be impatient by saying things like ‘Allah does not listen to me, He does not like me, He is far from me, etc. This instruction of being patient and not being hasty is backed by a narration of the prophet Muhammad ﷺ while instructing His ﷺ companions about the acceptance of dua, He ﷺ said that Allah accepts the dua of every Muslim if he does not cut ties with his kinship and is not hasty. It is narrated in Sahih Muslim 2735c by Abu Huraira (may Allah be pleased with Him) https://sunnah.com/muslim:2735c in the same hadith when asked by companions about what does:" If he does not grow impatient" implies. He said: That he should say like this: I supplicated and I supplicated but I did not find it being responded to. And then he becomes frustrated and abandons supplication.

4.      Indeed, Allāh is with the patient. And in the second part of the same ayah, Allah mentioned who is He with, He said He is with the patient. This tells us that the key to seeking Allah’s assistance and success in life is ‘patience’ and not only being religious and practicing.

5.      And do not say about those who are killed in the way of Allāh, "They are dead." Rather, they are alive, but you perceive [it] not. In the third verse, Allah mentioned that the people who strive in the way of Allah, don’t call them dead, but they are alive. To understand why Allah mentioned this statement here, we need to understand what striving in the path of Allah means. Striving in the path of Allah includes every smallest struggle in doing good or even striving in the path of Allah to get closer to Allah, and we know that being patient, practicing Islam, and seeking Allah’s assistance is also a way to get closer to Allah. So, if someone dies in between this time, while he/she believes in Allah, is patient, and keeps on practicing Islam, he/she will be considered as Shaheed or alive according to this verse. So, the key to success again is to be patient, whether you get what you want or not, you are successful in this world and the hereafter if you strive in the way of Allah and stay patient.

6.      And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, In the fourth ayah Allah confirmed this statement that He will surely test everyone, as He mentioned in many other places in the Quran such as Surah Al-'Ankabut - 2-3 - Quran.com Along with confirming this definite and decreed thing of testing everyone, Allah mentioned that what He will test us within our life. Allah mentioned that He will test us with Fear (of losing something, or any other fear such as the fear of death, war, drought, etc.) and Hunger (by reducing the Rizq or losing a job, etc.) or the loss of wealth (a robbery, or any other form of loss in wealth such as a loss in business, etc.) and lives (death of someone close, afflicting with diseases, etc.) and fruit (by mentioning fruit, Allah mean by taking something/anything away from you that pleases you, that is close to you and that you like the most)

7.       but give good tidings to the patient, In the second part of the fourth ayah Allah mentioned the glad tidings for the patient again, similar to the tidings He mentioned in the second ayah when He said that ‘He is with the patient’. So, the key to success again is to be patient at all times.

8.      Who, when disaster strikes them, say, "Indeed we belong to Allāh, and indeed to Him we will return." In the fifth ayah Allah mentioned the sign of the people who truly are patient, He said that they are those who when afflicted with a disaster or calamity say that we (and everything that we have) belong to Allah, and to Him is our return. By saying this, it is not limited to these words, it has an in-depth meaning of thinking and accepting everything as a perishable and material thing, and it will be lost someday and we will be returned to Allah with our hands blank, we will have nothing but our deeds and the blessings of Allah that will save us from that biggest day. A person with such belief in mind is a truly patient person in the sight of Allah.

9.      Those are the ones upon whom are blessings from their Lord and mercy. And it is those who are the [rightly] guided.” In the last/sixth ayah of this set of ayahs, Allah mentioned the resulting things and the gifts that will be handed over to the patient when the test is over, the true believer, the practicing Muslim, the one who remembers and believes in Allah. Allah mentioned that these are the people with/upon whom are the blessings of Allah (within this world and in the hereafter – the ultimate success), and it is those who are truly guided (which is the biggest gift from Allah, and Allah is the only one who blesses it to a person according to the Quran Surah Ali 'Imran - 1-200 - Quran.com). So again, the ultimate success is with Allah, and in these ayahs, Allah has shared a guideline to attain this success in both lives.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, patience is indeed a key to success. The only reason why we don’t think of it as a blessing and a key to success is that it is the most difficult thing to do and the other reason is that we humans are short-sighted and evaluate everything by comparing it with our material life and material things that we have in this world, however, the Quran states the total opposite of what we think. Allah mentioned this many times in the Quran that this life is nothing but a delusion and a temporary thing it is mentioned in the Quran 03:185 “And what is the life of this world except the enjoyment of delusion.” Surah Ali 'Imran - 185 - Quran.com, whereas the afterlife is much better than this and it is a true gift from Allah, and it is mentioned in the Quran 87:16-17 “But you prefer the worldly life, While the Hereafter is better and more enduring” Surah Al-A'la - 16-17 - Quran.com. This is the reason why when we don’t get what we ask Allah for, we become hasty and think of the thing that we are asking Allah for as the last resort which leads us to be ungrateful and disbelieve in Allah. May Allah protect us from such a state of mind, and again, whether a person faces a calamity with patience or impatience, it will not lessen the intensity of the trial or remove the hardship. However, enduring life's challenges with patience brings us closer to Allah, earning His love and rewards in both this world and the hereafter. Patience is not merely about waiting for relief but about trusting in Allah’s wisdom and timing. Therefore, we must strive to be patient in all aspects of life, following the guidance of Allah, before the Day of Judgment arrives—and on that day, whether we are patient or impatient, it will not benefit us which is mentioned in the Quran 52:16 “burn therein (the hell-fire); then be patient or impatient - it is all the same for you.” Surah At-Tur - 16 - Quran.com. The rewards of patience are best earned now, in this life, through steadfast faith and perseverance.

May Allah protect us from all his tests, his punishments, and the hellfire, and help us learn patience at all times. Ameen!