Patience (Part 2)

Assalamu alaykum!

As promised, here is the second part of my notes about patience. (This is from the course “Living the Quran” offered through Zaytuna Distance Ed) Still more to come…
Here are my notes insha’Allah.

Prophet Ayub his house collapsed, servants were massacred, and his cattle died, and still he was patient. Which is why there is an Arab proverb…”more patient than Ayub”

He was afflicted, and finally complained and then was relieved. When the Prophet Ayub called to his Lord and said I’ve been afflicted with all these things, complaining did not negate his patience.

Prophet Yaqub also said I complain of my grief and sorrow to Allah alone, no one else. This is something praiseworthy but we should spare people from our complaining. This is a manifestation of dignity.

There are three categories of patience.

a) Patience in obeying Allah and implementing His commandments. i.e: dealing with hardship with implementing orders. This involves maintaining our composure and dignity through hardship and difficulty and not hastening to abandon principles in light of the difficulty that comes in obeying Allah. So praying 5x a day for example, may involve difficulty because there may be jobs we cannot take b/c they will conflict with salaat. That is hardship and involves real losses. But that is patience.

2) Patience in avoiding forbidden things.

Patience is about exposing ourselves to difficulty and loss through our obedience to Allah and being patient with the hardship that comes in avoiding prohibitions.

3) Patience in calamities (ie-illness, death, storms. So one doesn’t become angry when things happen.

These are all manifestations of faith.

Patience has many virtues. Here are four.

a) Surah Nahl: V96

“We will reward those who patiently persevere We will give them their reward based on the best things they do.

So patient people, their bad actions are overlooked, average deeds are overlooked, and they are rewarded on their best deeds.

This is a manifestation of Allah’s Mercy. So if you’re in any difficulty, know that Allah knows this, and if you patiently persevere, Allah will recompense you based on the best of your actions.

Greater the patience, greater the reward.

So persevere with your dignity, persevere with your courage, patiently persevere. Keep doing with Allah tells you to do, implement the orders to the best of your ability, avoid the prohibitions and understand that Allah knows your hardship and will compensate.

b) “The patient people will be given their recompense with no reckoning”.

So the patient people~their reward is off the charts.

Imam Ghazali says in the Ihya that this has a direct bearing on the month of Ramadhan because fasting is patience.  The reward for fasting person has no numerical limits.

Hadith Qudsi: All of the actions the son of Adam does are for him, and all of these actions will be rewarded 10 to 700 times over. except fasting, That is for Me, and the reward I give to that will not be limited numerically.

More coming later..And all mistakes in notetaking are my own.

Pull up your socks..(Patience part 1)

Alhamidullah, this semester I’ve been enrolled in the Zaytuna distance education class titled “Living the Quran” with Imam Zaid Shakir. Even though it’s not a live class, each session has so many beautiful gems of wisdom, that it is always a delight to listen and reflect upon Imam Zaid’s words. Often though, because I’m still thinking of a point from ages back it takes me a while to progress to the next lesson. I thought it would be helpful to share some things that I’ve found particularly useful from the course in the hopes that consolidating my notes will improve my own learning. Recently I’ve been reviewing the lesson about patience (a characteristic that I am always in need of improving) so insha’Allah that is the class I will write about first. It’s a long class so I didn’t take notes on everything, but here are some of the things Imam Zaid mentioned. (Part 2 coming soon insha’Allah)

Here I go insha’Allah..

The second lesson of the course was about patience, one of the most important Quranic themes. Imam Zaid noted that patience is a tremendous virtue, and then pointed our attention to the famous verse from Surah Asr,

“By the testimony of time, surely humanity is lost except those who believe and do righteous deeds and counsel each other with truth and counsel each other with patience.”

Imam Zaid said that if we want to live the Quran then this is the basis of living it: to have faith, and to have faith that is strengthened by the Quran. Reading the Quran increases our faith and our ability to implement its teachings. When faith grows, one is inspired to do something. This can be seen very clearly in the Prophet’s (sallahu alayhi wasalaam behaviour in Ramadhan, a time where he was more generous than he was normally at other times. And normally he was already extremely generous. And the Prophet was the most generous when he would review the Quran with the angel Jibril. At that time, the Prophet was more generous then the free blowing wind. Imam Zaid explained that this was because when the Prophet reviewed the Quran with the angel Jibril, he would come to verses about spending and his faith would be strengthened, and this strengthened faith would lead to greater and deeper implementation of faith by the Prophet (sallahu alayhi wasalaam)

Another thing that Imam Zaid reminded us of was that one of the names of Allah is as-Sabur (the exceedingly Patient). This is because God does not hasten to punish, but rather holds back and is Patient, and this is a manifestation of His Mercy. This respite gives us time to repent, reform our actions, and straighten our ways and fly straight. It also means that Allah is not moved by haste to do anything other than at its proper time (which is when it is decreed). So Allah is not moved by haste, and one of the manifestations of wisdom therefore, is to approximate this trait as much as humanly possible and be a person who is deliberate.

In addition, wisdom (hikma) can be defined as doing that which is appropriate in the way that is most appropriate and at the time that is most appropriate. This is the essence of wisdom.

The challenge for us then is to insha’Allah manifest this characteristic in our own lives. Deliberateness is from the Merciful, so we should think before we act, and hold back. We don’t have to always be so quick to say and do things. We should think about our actions, and seek to be deliberate and reflective.

Again: Allah does not hasten the term He has set for anything He has created nor does He create anything outside of the time other than the time He has decreed.

How is Patience defined?

According to Ragib Asfahani: patience is restraining the soul from the things reason and the divine law demand restraint from.

note: Our rational assessment and the divine law do not necessarily conflict.

According to Jafar (a Mutazilite scholar), sabr exists in the face of difficulty and is comprised of maintaining dignity and courage in the face of difficulty.

So dignity is about maintaining composure and self restraint, and a patient person is one that responds to life’s events with the words masha’Allah, alhamidullah and subhana’Allah, and realises that Allah doesn’t take anything except He gives something else back.

Furthermore, patient people are courageous in the face of difficulty, and don’t run away, but keep going, persevere, don’t jump ship and do the right thing.

Imam Munawi, an Egyptian scholar said that sabr is the strength to confront terrible situations even though they involve physical and/or emotional pain.

Imam Zaid then mentioned a dua that would be helpful to memorise insha’Allah:

Allahumma inni asaluka kalban shakiran wa lisanan dhakiran wa badanan ala balagi sabira

(translation: All I ask is a heart that is thankful, and a tongue that is constantly remembering You and a body that is patient in the face of trials and tribulations).

note: transliteration is from me (truthfulseeker) so may be off..

Also, patience is composure in the face of fear and anger, as well as restraining the tongue from complaining and the limbs from fidgeting (which is a manifestation of impatience.) It is also leaving off complaining in the face of tribulation (though not blameworthy to complain to God)

My favourite part of the lecture: Don’t complain to people and let people know your problems- why burden them? Once you tell them others what is going on with you, then they are now grieved and worried. If a dog bit you for example, pull up your socks and don’t complain..

Spare people and take your complaints to Allah.

best example of patience is Sayyid Ayub who complained to Allah only after ten years, and that was only because others told him too.

End of Part 1. All mistakes in notetaking are my own.

wise counsel

These two paragraphs are at the end of the book, Agenda to Change our Condition, as part of one of the appendices. The truth of these words really struck me when I read this section, and insha’Allah this is a section of the text that I shall read often and commit to memory. (A side note: the cd set titled The Poor Man’s Book of Assistance is an incredible listen as well).

“Never demand a right from anyone, whether a relative or a stranger, for the simple reason that a stranger owes you nothing, and a relative is far too important to direct your blame at. Never assume that anyone in the world can really understand your circumstance other than from their own perspective. People perceive things based only upon their own personal frames of reference and their personal experiences. However, when aims, purposes and aspirations are similar, people tend to work together toward a common goal

Never belittle any discussion about people in their absence, even what appears to be harmless, due to the harm that can result from it. Guard your secrets, even if you feel safe with someone, because the one to whom you divulge your secret is not a safer vessel than your own heart before you revealed it.”

Source: Agenda to Change Our Condition, The Counsel of Sidi Ahmad Zarruq, Excerpts from The Poor Man’s Book of Assistance.

always hope

I read this paragraph today and thought it was too beautiful and inspiring to keep to myself.

A man once came to a sage and said, “I think your path is a wonderful path, but it is too arduous for me to follow.” The sage responded, “Most people attempt something before they give it up, but you have already defined your limits before testing them.”

The path of Allah is indeed arduous, and it would appear to one looking at it that treading it is too difficult for most of us. Let us first set out and then see how long we can last. God willing, a divine wind will blow on our backs, our feet will become light, and wondrous fellow wayfarers will show up with sustenance just when we thought we had none. Our success is by Allah, upon Him we place our trust, and to Him do we return.

Source: Agenda to Change our Condition, Introduction. (Zaytuna Institute)