Guidebook to God
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Ep. 11: Patience: An act rewarded without measure | Guidebook to God
Why is patience an act that is rewarded beyond measure? Learn about the virtue of patience and how we can practice this beautiful quality in our daily lives.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Sabr I like to translate sabr as resilience. The ability to push on when other people can't. It's important to kind of give a more comprehensive understanding of what it means to endure with patience and perseverance and resilience. Sabr is one of the most comprehensive and most important characteristics that you and I can develop. The Prophet ﷺ says in the authentic hadith narrated by Imam Muslim from the statement of Umar al-Khattab radiAllahu anhu, maa u'taa abdun a'taaan khayran wala awsa'a wala anfaa'a minas sabr. No human being, no slave of God has ever been given anything that is more prolific, more comprehensive, more essential, more necessary for their life and the next life than to be given enduring patience and resilience. The ability to push on when other people can't. Sabr is an act of worship that begins in the heart, demonstrated by the restriction of the tongue and the fulfillment of the deeds. What do I mean by heart? It's that in your heart you find between yourself and Allah a level of patience and endurance. It's that your heart is not discontent. It has a level of rida, contentment and hope in Allah's mercy subhanahu wa ta'ala that you feel even when let down, even when something is not right, even when in a moment of difficulty that Allah is always with you, that you are not absent from Allah. Allah sees you and hears you and knows you and is aware of your condition. So it begins in the heart. But it's also a restriction of the tongue from speaking about, about Allah or speaking against the condition Allah has set us in, but being able to speak to Allah about our circumstances. And therefore there's a difference between complaining about Allah and where we find
ourself in life and being able to complain to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The third element of sabr is to be a person who has a resilience in their habits, in their behaviors and in their physical decisions, in the things that you and I do right and wrong, that we hold ourselves to higher account. Al-Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim, he speaks about sabr, resilience in three levels. There is a sabr ala al-ma'mur, to be patient and resilient in the things that we are ordered to perform, the good deeds that we're ordered to do. And in fact, Al-Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim says that that is the most difficult aspect of patience. That is more difficult than to demonstrate patience anil mahzoor, which is number two, to stay away from the wrong things. It is going to be a more difficult journey for you in your life to be a maintainer and vigilant for your fajr prayer each and every morning, then it will be difficult for you to stay away from, say, taking drugs or to cheating on your spouse. It's going to be more difficult for you to maintain your five daily prayers each and every day and fulfilling your jumu'ah and being consistent with your zakah and doing the obligations that are necessary for you will be a harder, more difficult challenge than it is to stay away from haram, from eating the flesh of swine or being a person who has cheated others and defrauded them of wealth, making the major sins. Number three is to have patience when there is a downturn in our life or what we perceive to be a downturn. In fact, Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says, wa'asa an takrahu shay'an wa huwa khayrun lakum. Perhaps you may look and detest at something as being difficult and unwanted in your life, but that actually is what is best for you. In one of the authentic hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, he said, rubba faqrin dawaa. Perhaps the poverty you are experiencing is the medicine you needed
in life. And in another statement, wa'rubba ghinan dawaa. Perhaps Allah enriching you was the medicine you needed at a particular point in time. So sabr is the totality of our existence. The most important aspect of your patience is to be patient with the orders of Allah, to fulfill your ibadah as best as possible, to maintain your dealings with Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala in the most acceptable, kind and comprehensive way. That your heart is full of love in the act of worship, that your heart is open with the fear of Allah, that your heart is hopeful of Allah's reward, that you demonstrate taqwa, that you woke up out of your bed, not just because if I don't do it, Allah will punish me, but because I woke up out of love for Allah, care for Allah, hope in Allah, thankfulness to Allah, that demonstration is a massive act of sabr. One of the great acts of reward that is rewarded by Allah without measure is a sabr. Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says innama yuwaffa as-sabiroona ajraun bi ghayri hisab. That those who demonstrate an unending level of resilience, of patience, in the good deeds that I've ordered them to perform, in restricting themselves from the haram, in being patient when I've tested them with some of the tumultuous affairs of their life where I will bring upon them a loss of wealth, a loss of income, a loss of health, a loss of life, a loss of prosperity, that they say inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'oon, that it makes them remember that from me I have given them the order that they be brought into this world and to me everyone, all of them shall return. That we are from Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala's command to enjoy this life for the time that we enjoy it, but it's also from his command that we have austerity and difficulty in it and all of our circumstances are from Allah. Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'oon, ula'ika alayhim salawatun min rabbihim. They are the ones who will have the mercy of Allah descend upon them and they will be
the ones who are successful. Allahumma ja'alna minhum. As it relates to patience, I want you and I to know that it is something that we can learn and it's something that we should encourage in our children. And you and I were not born, wakhuliqal insanu halu'aa. Mankind was created with the capacity to become aggrieved and to lose hope and to not demonstrate patience. But we are taught in the five pillars of Islam, essentially in the four actions of worship of Allah in our Islam, to develop patience. You develop patience each and every act of your salah. You've got to wake up in the depth of the night before the sunset and you've got to wait until the darkness of the night before you retire and you pray your isha. You have to demonstrate patience in your fasting for hunger and thirst and resistance of the inclinations of lustful intentions to our spouse. You demonstrate patience by sharing from your wealth the zakah that is due. SubhanAllah, the journey of hajj, may Allah join us on the plains of Arafah, is a journey of patience each and along of the way. Falaa rafatha wala fusuqa wala jidala fil hajj. There isn't any sexual activity or lustful leanings. There's no vulgarity of words or debate or argumentation. That all of us are in a consecrated state, hot and thirsty and disheveled and in clothing that isn't normally the ones that we choose for ourselves. We're humbled by Allah to demonstrate resilience and fulfillment of the obligations of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. As-sabru dhiyaa. The Prophet ﷺ says in the authentic hadith of Imam Muslim, patience is illumination. It's not light, it's not nur, it's dhiyaa. Meaning it's a light for yourself but it's an illumination for everyone around you. Because if you've ever seen anyone who's been trialed and tested and found themselves in difficulty in life but they've held themselves with their worship of Allah, they've maintained a dignified stance in their condition, that they haven't been of those who have lost control of themselves
and their emotions, that they've remained firm for themselves and their family. They become a light for us and inspiration of us. That when we see them we say subhanAllah, Allah has tested them and Allah has given us what we have been sufficed. But subhanAllah in their dignity and in their response to their challenge and test, they have shown to us the way of righteousness. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us from those as-sabireen, those who are resilient in the face of adversity. Wa bashir as-sabireen, may we receive the good news and the bushra of Jannah amongst those who are patient. Wa sallillahumma wasallim wa zidwabarak ala sayyidina wa nabiyyina Muhammad salallahu alayhi wasallam, your brother Yahya Ibrahim. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.
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