What is the philosophy behind “Patience”?
The life of human is mixed with different calamities and difficulties, that if the human has patience, he/she will be successful.
The meaning of patience is to be firm against the difficulty and to not give up before them or blame Allah because of that.
The meaning of patience in material issues is clear, but there is another kind of patience which is applied to the spiritual aspects, for example if the situations for committing a sin are ready and prepared for someone, but he/she despite of selfish eagerness toward that sin, does not commit it, it can be defined as a kind of the spiritual patience.
According to the Narrations, there are three kinds of patience:
1) Patience before the obedience of Allah, which means being firm against the problems in the ways of obeying Allah’s commands.
2) Patience before the disobedience of Allah, which means to be firm against the selfish desires which command us to commit sins.
3) Patience at the time of disasters and calamities.
In the holy Quran more than seventy times, the concept of patience has been used.
For example Allah said in chapter Zomar verse 10:
إِنَّمَا يُوَفَّى الصَّابِرُونَ أَجْرَهُم بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ
“Surely, those who are patient will be recompensed in full without count.”
A lot of calamities that happen to us are as a kind of test that Allah examines us through them. Look at the verse 155 from chapter bagharah:
وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُمْ بِشَيْءٍ مِّنَ الْخَوفْ وَالْجُوعِ وَنَقْصٍ مِّنَ الأَمَوَالِ وَالأنفُسِ وَالثَّمَرَاتِ وَبَشِّرِ الصَّابِرِينَ
“We shall test you with something of fear and hunger, and decrease of goods, life and fruits. Give glad tidings to the patient.”
In the continuation of the mentioned verse, as description of the patients and their rewards, Allah said:
الَّذِينَ إِذَا أَصَابَتْهُم مُّصِيبَةٌ قَالُواْ إِنَّا لِلّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعونَ
أُولَئِكَ عَلَيْهِمْ صَلَوَاتٌ مِّن رَّبِّهِمْ وَرَحْمَةٌ وَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْمُهْتَدُونَ
“Who, in adversity say: ‘we belong to Allah and to Him we shall return.
On those will be prayers and mercy from their lord, those are guided.”
The great symbols of being patient are the prophets of Allah and the infallible Imams.
You know that they tolerated many difficulties in the way of promoting the religion of Allah and inviting others to it.
The story of Prophet Jacob is so famous in this regard. He had many properties, in a very great divine test, Allah took them even his children, and Prophet Jacob became ill to the extent that he was agonizing, but after tolerating all of these difficulties and being patient, his properties and children and his health returned and he was given more than before and the praise of Allah included him.
If the prophets of Allah were not patient and as soon as they confronted with difficulties were leaving their mission, there was no religion of Allah on the earth and all of its blessings did not reach to humanity.
We can take help form patience, Allah said in chapter Bagahrah verse 153:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ اسْتَعِينُواْ بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلاَةِ إِنَّ اللّهَ مَعَ الصَّابِرِينَ
“Believers, seek assistance in patience and prayer, Allah is with those who are patient.”
It is very important for a believer to have the companionship of the All-Mighty Allah in his/her life, and one of the ways of obtaining this companionship as it is mentioned in the above verse, is through patience.
And the interesting point here is that in this verse both prayer and patience have been recommended, some exegesis said as the description of this relation: sometimes the patience of human gets hard for him/her, so the human can refuge to prayer.
Patience can be a key for entering paradise. Imam Baqir peace be upon him said in a very informative saying:
“Paradise is wrapped with calamities and patience (If we want to reach to it, we must pay its price i.e. patience), so the one who is patient in this world, he/she will enter Paradise, and Hell is wrapped with pleasures and different kinds of selfish eagerness, so the one who gives the (Haram and prohibited) pleasure of his/her ego to it, he/she will enter the Hell.”
The commander of the faithful Imam Ali peace be upon him mentioned one of the benefits of patience in this saying, he said:
“Take away the sorrow form yourself by the means of power of patience and good certainty.”
We must know that even if we tolerate calamities in this world and be patient, it is nothing compared to the convenience in the hereafter. Imam Ali peace be upon him in one of his sermons in which he talked about the characteristics of the pious individuals (which are compiled in the book of Nahj Al-balaghah) said:
“They were patient a few days, (because of that) they reached to long convenience.”
The wise Luqman sometimes was advising his son, one of his advices is mentioned in the verse 17 in chapter Luqman in the holy Quran, Allah said in that verse narrating the advice of Luqman:
يَا بُنَيَّ أَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ وَأْمُرْ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَانْهَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ وَاصْبِرْ عَلَى مَا أَصَابَكَ إِنَّ ذَلِكَ مِنْ عَزْمِ الْأُمُورِ
“O’ my son, establish the prayer, order with honor but forbid dishonor, and bear patiently with whatever may fall upon you. Indeed that is true constancy.”
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Sources:
Eteghadat.com
Tahoor.com
