Patience (S̲abr)

'Ulu Al-^Azm:

We have previously mentioned that Prophets are the best among all accountable beings, i.e., angels, humans, and jinn. Among the Prophets, there are five prophets higher in rank than the other Prophets. These five are called 'Ulu Al-^Azm, which means the ones attributed with patience. This does not mean that the other Prophets lacked patience, but rather that these five displayed the highest levels of patience among them all. These five are: Muhammad, Abraham (Ibrahim), Moses (Musa), Jesus (^Isa), and Noah (Nuh), peace and blessings be upon them all. In this blog, we will be mentioning some stories about the patience of some of these honorable Prophets.

Prophet Noah:

Prophet Noah, the fourth Prophet, was the first to be sent to non-believers. Several years after the death of Prophet Enoch (Idris), disbelief started spreading on Earth. Before that, humans were all Muslims. Prophet Noah, the builder of the Great Ark, faced a lot of hardships from the people he was sent to.

Prophet Noah called them to embrace Islam for 950 years, but few did embrace Islam. Noah, peace and blessings be upon him, was severely tortured by those non-believers. They would strangle him so severely that he would lose consciousness. After that, Noah was ordered to build the Ark. Allah informed Noah that no one else from the people will accept your call. During the building process, the non-believers used to mock him, as he was the first to build an Ark.

After the Ark was built, Allah flooded the Earth so that all the people on it died, but the people and animals on the Ark with Noah were safe.

Prophet Muhammad:

Prophet Muhammad, the most patient man ever, faced several hardships in his life. Although Prophet Muhammad faced a plethora of hardships, he never objected to the destining of Allah.

Among the hardships Prophet Muhammad faced are:

• Prophet Muhammad was severely attacked by physical and verbal means by the idolaters (idol worshippers) of Quraysh. His uncle, Abu Lahab, cursed him when he warned his relatives of the punishment of Hellfire. Abu Lahab was one of the worst enemies of the Prophet. He used to follow him when he went to invite people to Islam; he stood behind him and started telling the clans not to believe Muhammad.

• Prophet Muhammad, the early converts, and some of the non-believers were isolated in a particularly rocky area outside Makkah, where people wouldn't normally live. No one was allowed by the non-believers to buy from or sell to them. All the Muslims therein remained patient, seeking reward from Allah. Abu Talib, another uncle of the Prophet who vowed to protect the Prophet, although he didn't embrace Islam, was isolated with the Prophet therein.

  Six months after the confinement ended, Abu Talib, who used to protect the Prophet greatly from the non-Muslims of Quraysh, got sick. On his deathbed, the Prophet urged him to embrace Islam, but he didn't and died a non-believer.

  Two months after his death, Lady Khadijah, the first woman to believe in Prophet Muhammad and his wife, died at the age of sixty-five. Although the Prophet felt the sorrow of missing her, he knew without doubt that all her suffering was over; she would be one of the highest-ranking women of Paradise.

• Prophet Muhammad's children all died during his life, except for Lady Fatimah. When his baby son Ibrahim died, the companions saw the Prophet shedding tears, then he said what means: "The eyes shed tears, and certainly the heart feels sorrow, and to losing you O Ibrahim we (i.e., Prophet Muhammad) feel sorrow, and we (i.e., Prophet Muhammad) do not say except what Allah accepts (i.e., the Prophet does not say that which is sinful nor does he object to the destining of Allah, which renders a person a non-muslims)"

The Prophets taught the Islamic manners, i.e., the best manners. They taught patience, sincerity, honesty, trustworthiness, and mercy. Now that we’ve seen how the Prophets exemplified patience, let us look at the types of patience every Muslim must strive to uphold.

The types of obligatory patience are:

1. Patience in performing the obligations: One must persevere in fulfilling the obligations, such as prayer, even when one's inclinations are against the fulfillment of this obligation. An example of this patience is when the person needs to perform wudu' (ablution) with cold water in the early cold morning.

2. Patience in abstaining from sins: One must be patient while preventing oneself from committing sins, even when one has a strong inclination towards the sin. An example is if a person is financially in a hard situation, and one knows that there is an unlawful way to get a big sum of money, one has to be patient and prevent oneself from taking the unlawful (haram) money despite all one's bad inclinations.

   This type of patience needs more discipline than the other types.

3. Patience with the hardships one is afflicted with: One must be patient and not let calamities that befall one draw one to sinning. For example, if one is afflicted with a severe sickness, one needs to be patient with that and not let one's situation lead one to object to Allah. Some people object to Allah due to their lack of patience, which takes them out of Islam.

There are other types of patience, such as having patience in fulfilling the recommended matters, such as the witr prayer; this is a recommended patience in the mentioned case.

Patience is one of the honorable traits that Prophets had. They guided and ordered us to be patient when facing calamities, to be patient in fulfilling the obligations, and to refrain from sins. Patience is one of the attributes that elevate the Muslim's rank greatly.

In our future blogs, we will start discussing the five greatest matters of Islam, and then we will delve into explaining what prayer is, how it is performed, and when it is performed.

Stay tuned...