Saturday, April 17, 2010

Greatest of All Virtues: Patience


Patience, the ability to remain hopeful, while releasing all your trust and imaan in Allah SWT. Patience, our biggest challenge; one of the attributes we lack the most. Our patience is tested at every moment of our day, causing our minds to begin racing and every minor slip of the tongue. If only we could take a moment while our patience is being tested to remember Allah. Alhamdulilah, SubhanAllah, a little duaa, anything would be better than the despicable speech we use when we're distraught. Have you ever though about the fact that the same mouth we "occasionally" use to glorify our lord in times of strong imaan is used with foul language in times of low imaan and during times where we simply have no patience.
If I could have one wish it would be to have the patience of the prophets. The patience that these messengers of Allah had to endure makes our troubles appear trivial and extremely insignificant. We complain about small minor set backs, whether it's our mother nagging on us to wash the dishes or our boss threatening to fire us because we're late to work. These "troubles" we encounter daily are nothing in comparison to the battles people constantly deal with around the world. Honestly, Would it kill us to have a little patience! I wonder sometimes why we're never stressed out when we miss a salah or when we commit a sin. Shouldn't the fear of Allah's punishment be far more of a stress in our lives than these troubles of this dunia. We forget that this life is only temporary and that the hereafter is forever. At any moment our lives could be over and whatever was making us worry isn't going to matter anymore.
Part of being a good Muslim is to ALWAYS have hope and faith in Allah, despite the difficulties we face. Being hopeful means that no matter what happens to us, in the back of our mind, we should always know that Allah has already predestined what the outcome of our situation is. Having sabr should come naturally to us than, if we really have as much trust in Allah as we "claim" to have.

Duaa for Patience

Oh OUR lord, pour patience down on us, and make our foothold firm, and help us against the disbelieving people.

RABANAAA AFRIGH A’LAYNAA S’ABRAW WA THABBIT AQDAMANAA WAN S’URNAA A’LAL QAWMIL KAAFIREEN

(Al BAQARAH: 250)

"This verse teaches us to pray for grant of patience and perseverance in the face of trials and tribulations of this world so that we remain faithful to the true religion of Allah, even if deprived of the comforts of life, as these two aspects of our character makes us fight our enemies and the enemies of Allah."