The Importance of Patience in the Qur'an: When the Faithful Show Patience

So far, we have described the Qur'anic understanding of patience and have highlighted how it differs from the understanding held by those who are far from religion. In this section, we will explain what believers are patient with by comparing their behavior with the impatience of the unbelievers.

However, before going into detail on this matter, we should be aware of the fact that Allah tests His servants by sending troubles to them at a time of His choosing. This may be a momentary or a longterm test, but one thing is certain: In the afterlife, regardless of what they faced while in this world, the finest life is the one lived by those who are faithful to Allah. Allah announces this in the following verse:

The faithful are patient when Allah tests them and, as a result, receive His help in their effort to overcome these problems. He eases the believers' tasks and helps them, as follows:

In the coming pages, we will analyze the principal circumstances during which the faithful, with Allah's support, exhibit patience.

Following their consciences

Allah created each person with a conscience to let him or her know what is right and wrong in all situations. This conscience calls upon people to think in the manner that pleases Allah and behave in the manner that will earn His approval. Every person also has a lower self that urges them to follow their whims and desires. However, believers always display a sure determination to ignore their lower selves by listening only to their consciences, even if their lower self calls them to something that appears more attractive and more appealing.

Throughout their lives, the faithful make this judgment call and then select the most correct attitude. In daily life, this can mean ignoring the lower self's urging to behave selfishly by following the conscience's advice to be self-sacrificing. In the case of finishing an important task or when faced with many things at the same time, it may require a person to assist somebody who needs even more help at that specific time. Or it may require the faithful to share something that they need with someone who needs it even more, or even to give it to that person. Those who obey their conscience exhibits good behavior without hesitation. In other words, they do whatever they can to help others who need assistance. The Qur'an gives an example of this morality, as follows:

This behavior of the faithful, as depicted in the Qur'an, is the result of the extreme patience they display while following their consciences.

Ignoring Satan's wiles

When Allah created Prophet Adam, He required all angels to prostrate to him. However, Iblis rebelled against Allah's order and refused to do so.

Faced with Satan's rebellion, Allah cast him out of Paradise and declared him cursed until the end of time. But Satan demanded that Allah allow him to tempt people to loose themselves in the allures of this world until the Day of Judgment, when they would be resurrected. Allah granted this, but also declared that Satan would have no power over His faithful servants: He [Satan] said: "My Lord, because You misled me, I will make things on Earth seem good to them, and I will mislead them all, every one of them, except those of Your servants among them who are sincere." He [Allah] said:

As can be seen, after Adam was created, Satan began working to tempt people to stray from Allah's path. Thus, the faithful are responsible for showing patience by their continual awareness of the traps that Satan sets for them and their refusal to yield to his whispering.

Satan approaches all people with a variety of illusions and deceits. People may encounter his plots quite often in their daily lives, for Satan meets them in unexpected places. He provides them with false hopes and fears, all of which are designed to lead people into heedlessness, idleness, and postponing good works. For example, those who are trying to help the poor for Allah's approval may face such suggestions as:

Satan cannot influence those who display patience in maintaining their faith in our Lord, because Allah has declared that Satan can deceive and divert only those who rebel against Allah, as he himself did. In "If an evil impulse from Satan provokes you, seek refuge in Allah. He is All-Hearing, All-Seeing" (Surat al-A'raf, 200), Allah calls on the faithful to take refuge in Him from Satan's wiles and deceptions.

The faithful who follow this advice spend their lives fighting Satan's games and tricks, for they understand that just as Satan's whispering is a full-time job designed to lead people to Hell, it is their full-time job to resist his whispering. If they feel any hesitation or slackness about doing something that will bring good, they take refuge in Allah and concentrate on the task with great enthusiasm. Such an understanding is mentioned in the following verse:

Heeding Allah's advice, "O you who believe, seek help in steadfastness and prayer. Allah is with the steadfast" (Surat alBaqara, 153), in order to guard themselves against Satan, they ask for our Lord's help and set their faces against Satan's deceptions, saying:

Unceasing adherence to a steadfast morality

Allah has placed upon everybody the responsibility for heeding the Qur'an and living out its superior morality. Thus, on the Day of Judgment people will be asked if they have followed the Qur'an's morality or not. Everyone who has ever lived, and who will ever live, has been advised of this truth and invited to conform to the morality that pleases Allah. But the only people who heed this call are those who have faith.

In those communities that are far from religion, some people may live out certain aspects of the Qur'an's morality, such as being selfsacrificing, kindhearted, merciful, just, and benevolent. But no matter how moral they claim to be, there will be moments when they display impatience. For example, a person may be late for an important business meeting for a variety of reasons, and then get caught in a traffic jam while trying to reach the meeting place. He might not be able to call his office in time to let them know that he will be late, and he might have missed the meeting by the time he finally arrives. Thus he might respond angrily or just glare and remain silent if someone else asks him a question at that very time. Even though the person in question might consider himself helpful and understanding, in such circumstances he shows that this is not the case all the time by saying that "his patience has run out."

People who do not live the Qur'an's morality are often plunged into unnecessary anger when confronted with certain events. For example, a secretary may forget to send a very important message, a child may break the most valuable object in the house, a wife may have an accident with the car that her husband has been making payments on for years, or a relative may visit at an inconvenient time, and so on. These are common occurrences, and those who do not display the Qur'an's morality might slip into rather unpleasant behavior. The reason for such behavior is their inability to show patience in living by the values that Allah prescribed. Only those who possess the superior morality portrayed in the Qur'an can always display true patience. Their most important characteristic is the unchanging nature of their behavior. For example, one might have a very strong temper, but upon learning that Allah refers to believers as "those who control their rage and pardon other people" (Surah Al 'Imran, 134), he or she exhibits forgiving behavior even when faced with an event that normally might cause them to become angry. Whatever may happen, believers continue to speak pleasantly, remain tolerant, control their anger, and show other fine moral characteristics taught by the Qur'an.

In short, what makes the believers' character superior is their consistency and patience at all times, both of which enable them to live by their high morality. The faithful try to display consistency as long as they are alive not only in pardoning other people but also in displaying self-sacrifice, humility, compassion, kindheartedness, tolerance, justice, love, and respect, and by exercising their free will, because Allah tells the faithful to be consistent in their worship:

Another command of Allah is to answer evil with good. The Qur'an tells the faithful to distance themselves from evil as best they can by remaining patient, as follows:

As a result of this patience and determination shown by the faithful, Allah gives them the finest reward for what they have done, and allows them to enter Paradise. He gives this news in the following verse:

Fearing nothing but Allah

People who have not grasped Allah's power and greatness are vulnerable to innumerable fears, among them the fear of other people, the dark, or certain numbers or colors, believing that they have an independent power of their own.

Meanwhile, the faithful know that only Allah has power and that nobody can harm or help anybody else without His permission. They are aware of the fact that no people or creatures can have power that is independent of Allah, and that everything owes its existence to Him. If they encounter some harm, they believe wholeheartedly that only our Lord can remove it. Allah tells the faithful to fear nothing but Him, as follows:

Due to their firm belief and trust in Him, the faithful experience no sadness or depression when confronted with frightening or intimidating events. Oppression or limitations do not cause them to swerve in their devotion to Him and their striving to earn His approval. The Qur'an explains this attribute, as follows: Those to whom people said: "The people have gathered against you, so fear them." But that merely increased their faith, and they said:

As this verse indicates, even if the faithful are faced with pressure, they fear only Allah and show their patience by not abandoning their faith. Allah has declared that He will test His servants with fear to separate the true believers from those who have weak—or no—faith. In exchange for this, He gives the following good news to those who remain patient in their faith:

When faced with property damage

Allah has decorated the life of this world with many beautiful things and has created an environment from which people can derive pleasure. They are required to use the blessings showered on them in the best possible way, without becoming passionately attached to them. They realize that whatever people acquire here will remain here, and that they will have to account for their use of these blessings in our Lord's presence on the Day of Judgment. Those who understand that everything is a gift from Allah and show gratitude to Him will be rewarded, while those who forget the Day of Judgment, and so try to seize these blessings for themselves with greed, will suffer disappointment.

In the Qur'an, Allah lists some of the many blessings that He has granted to people, as follows:

To mankind, the love of worldly appetites is painted in glowing colors:

The faithful use these blessings in the best possible way, but at no time become addicted to them. They know that, as with everything else in the world, possessions and goods are part of the environment created to test them. Knowing that the blessings of this world are transient and that the home of the real blessings, none of which will ever be lost, is the afterlife, they have no worldly ambitions. Since they feel neither ambition nor passion for worldly goods, they show patience whether times are good or bad. When they lose their property or it is damaged, they do not sink into sorrow or worry. If they obtain a large amount of property by working for years and then lose it all in a day, they know that Allah is testing their faith and patience. Therefore, they do not become distraught if their houses, orchards, or gardens are destroyed, or if their businesses end up going bankrupt. Despite all of these trials, they live in the comfort provided by the knowledge that Allah will ease their burdens, clear their way, conclude matters to their benefit, and reward their patience with better things in the afterlife.

People who are passionately attached to this life cannot stand it when their hard-earned property suffers any loss or damage, and so display rebellious behavior. Forgetting that Allah is the true owner of all property and that He can give more than He has taken away, if He so wills, they cannot see any good in such an event and so cannot show any patience.

As Allah tells us in "We will test you loss of wealth and life" (Surah Al 'Imran: 186), such tests reveal the difference between the faithful who show patience for the sake of Allah and those who pursue property and forget about the afterlife. The faithful do not grieve when they lose their property, for their only intention is to use everything they possess physically and spiritually to earn Allah's approval. In other words, they have already devoted these possessions to Allah. In return for their devotion, they receive the following reward: Allah has bought from the believers their selves and their wealth in return for the Garden. . .