Lesson 2 : Patience and Subjugating Oneself to God

Allah, ta^ala, said in the Qur’an

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ اسْتَعِينُواْ بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلاَةِ إِنَّ اللّهَ مَعَ الصَّابِرِينَ

Ista^inu bis–sabri was–Salati innallaha ma^as–sabirin.

Ayah 153 of Suratul-Baqarah means: {Strengthen yourselves by patience and prayer, and know that God supports the patient people.}

Patience is among the obligations of the heart. It is of three kinds:

1- Patience in performing what Allah made obligatory.

2- Patience in avoiding what Allah made unlawful.

3- Patience with hardships and calamities.

Patience in performing the obligations: is forcing oneself to perform the obligations like praying on time, fasting the month of Ramadan, attending the circles of knowledge to learn the Islamic obligatory knowledge, and other obligations, even if one feels lazy to do them.

Patience in avoiding what Allah made unlawful: is restraining oneself from committing the sins. It takes a lot of effort to stop oneself from committing the unlawful, like leaving out the prayer, drinking alcohol, stealing, and other unlawful matters. It is one’s nature to lean towards laziness and easy coming pleasures, even if they are unlawful.

Patience with hardships and calamities: is being patient—seeking the reward from God—with what bothers one, such as pain, hardship, poverty, sadness, or other afflictions that befall the person in this life, because this world is a place of calamities, tests, and a workplace, while the Hereafter is the place for judgment. For this type of patience to take place, one needs not to act or talk in a way that reflects one’s impatience.

The Prophet, sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam, said:

إِنَّ اللهَ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ يَقُولُ: إِذا ابْتَلَيْتُ عَبْدِي بِحَبِيبَتَيْهِ فَصَبَرَ عَوَّضْتُهُ مِنْهُمَا الْجَنَّةَ.

Innallaha ^azza wa jalla yaqul: idha-btalaytu ^abdiya bihabibatayhi fasabara ^awwadtuhu minhumal-Jannah.

Which means: “If Allah inflicts on someone the calamity of losing one’s sight and one is patient with it, then the reward of one’s patience will be Paradise.” (Narrated by al-Bukhariyy.)

Subjugating oneself to Allah: It is obligatory upon the pubescent person to refrain from objecting to Allah and to be content with Allah’s Decree and Will. Subjugating oneself to Allah is among the obligations of the heart. Objecting to Allah is a blasphemous act. Many people fall into blasphemy because they do not subjugate themselves to Allah, rather, they object to Him.

The Muslim should be patient and should make an effort to train oneself in patience to get used to it. One should also rely on Allah in all one’s matters.

Questions:

1. State an ayah from the Qur’an that points to the merit of patience.

2. Which type of obligation is patience?

3. List the types of patience.

4. What does it mean to be patient with performing the obligations?

5. What does it mean to be patient with avoiding what Allah made unlawful?

6. What does it mean to be patient with hardships and calamities?

7. Give a hadith that shows the reward of the one who lost his sight.

8. Among the obligations of the heart is subjugating oneself to Allah. What does this mean?