Patience: Submission to Allah's Decree Amidst Life's Challenges

Opening

In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent, the most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah. We praise Him and ask His help and ask His forgiveness.

We believe in Him and trust in Him. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our actions. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him. And whosoever He leads astray, none can guide him. We bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and we bear witness that our Master and Prophet Muhammad is His servant and Messenger. Peace be upon him and his family and companions.

My dear respected brothers and sisters in Islam, peace be upon you.

The Importance of Sabr (Patience)

Indeed the ummah at large is going through so many tests and trials collectively, and we are all individually in our lives also facing different challenges. In these difficult times there is a command of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that is focused towards all of us — to observe sabr and patience.

This is such an order of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that Allah has referenced in one form or the other over 90 times in the Quran al-Karim. 90 times — the verb form, different forms of the word sabr has come in the Quran. Imagine how important this command is in the eyes of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that He mentioned it so many times.

And at the end of the day, the true reality of sabr is that it is a manifestation of an individual's submission and acceptance of the taqdeer of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This is what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has decreed for me, this is what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has decided for me, for the ummah. And it does not mean — by any stretch — we are not saying that the ummah should become complacent or not take any steps or efforts in improving the situation. But we are talking about the fact that we should never fall into yaas, into despondency, into losing hope in the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Rather, we understand that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is al-Hakim, the Wise, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the wisest of the wise. Whoever is wise, whoever has hikmah in this dunya — that hikmah is granted by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He is the one who grants wisdom to whomever He wants. Whoever is granted wisdom is granted abundant goodness.

If Luqman alayhi salam was hakim, was wise, then it is Allah who granted him that wisdom. Indeed, We are the One who granted Luqman alayhi salam hikmah and wisdom. And this is a well-known principle:

"The action of the wise one is never devoid of wisdom."

So we have to continue to reassure ourselves that no matter how difficult the circumstances may seem, there is a wisdom of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala behind His actions.

Quranic Verses on Sabr

First Ayah: Competing in Patience

As I was mentioning, there are over 90 ayat on sabr. I just went through a good selection of the ayat I brought with me. But we see time and again, every single time when Allah is talking about sabr, there is a slightly different connotation based on the context of the ayat — what is preceding it, what is coming after it, what is the story involved.

For example, we have one ayah here:

Over here, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala — if you hear the words, even if you are not into the Arabic language, you can see that the command is coming twice: اصْبِرُوا وَصَابِرُوا. Why did He mention it twice, and what are the different connotations in the switching up of the bab — the scale of the verb?

Over here we see Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying: O those who believe, اصْبِرُوا — be patient yourself. In a situation where you are individually facing a calamity, then you must remain patient. And صَابِرُوا has an additional component from صَابَرَ يُصَابِرُ مُصَابَرَةً — mufa'ala, of musharaka. This is a characteristic of the mufa'ala verb form, meaning there is a double action involved.

Like, if you are helping someone, that's nusrah. And if you are helping someone and they are helping you back — as you say, I scratch your back, you scratch my back — this is not just nusrah, this is munasarah, helping one another. Musharaka is a partnership between two people. So all of these forms — mudaraba, musharaka, muqatala — are on this scale, meaning there is a mutual action.

So over here we have musabara, meaning: if there is a calamity, if there is a challenge, if there is a war — whatever the case may be — you are being steadfast and patient, and your enemy is being patient as well. So يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اصْبِرُوا — O those who believe, you remain individually patient. وَصَابِرُوا means that if you are being patient and your opposition is also being patient, then you need to beat them in being more patient. Be more patient than those who are being patient against you. SubhanAllah. This is the command of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in this ayah.

Second Ayah: Seeking Help Through Patience and Prayer

Moving forward, we have another beautiful ayah that is often a good reminder:

O those who believe, seek help from Allah ta'ala. Whenever we have the أَلِف سِين تَاء, it means talab, to seek. اسْتَعِينُوا — seek عَوْن, seek help from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. How are you going to seek help? How can we draw the help of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? We are all in need of the help of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We are all needy, no doubt about that.

O mankind, you are in need of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah is independent of His creation. He is worthy of all praise. So we need His help. اسْتَعِينُوا — seek the help of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala through two things: بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلَاةِ. Through sabr — this will give you the help of Allah. You will become deserving of the help of Allah. You will attract the help of Allah, through sabr and through continually being constant in salah.

If this seems to be a difficult command — "how am I going to do this, that's a tall order" — then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives you the bushra, the glad tidings, the fadila, the virtue to encourage us, to give us targheeb. What will you get? You will get the greatest blessing possible, which is known as the ma'iyyah of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala — that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will be with you. And if Allah is with you, you have dedicated yourself for Allah, then Allah has dedicated Himself for you, for your help.

(A well-known principle from Islamic scholarship)

Whoever dedicates himself for Allah, then Allah is there for him. إِنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَ الصَّابِرِينَ.

We have examples of our salaf. Whenever calamities would fall, they would immediately hasten towards salah, and this is what we learn from Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. When they would hear the death of a loved one, or a financial loss, or any other tragedy that would strike them — immediately they would resort to performing two rakat nafl salah. There are several incidents written in the books of tafsir under this ayah, like Abdullah ibn Abbas radiyallahu anhuma — that when they heard bad news, sad news, tragic news, immediately they would perform two rakat salah and recite this ayah:

The Advice of Luqman Alayhi Salam

Then we have an ayah from Surah Luqman, where Luqman, as we mentioned earlier, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala granted him hikmah and wisdom. One of his beautiful advices to his beloved son. SubhanAllah.

When it comes to advice, there are many people out there giving advice — sometimes solicited, sometimes even unsolicited advice, sometimes beneficial, sometimes harmful advice. But there are two qualities that we should always look for when we are seeking advice. One is that the individual should be habib and labib — habibun labibun.

That person should be a habib — he loves you. You don't want to take advice from your enemy. Nobody would hopefully do that, but the problem is when you don't realize they're your actual enemy. So you're taking advice from a hypocrite who may present himself or herself as your friend, but in reality is your enemy. That is a dangerous situation. So you have to ensure that the person is sincere for you, who has nasiha — إِرَادَةُ الْخَيْرِ لِلْغَيْرِ — who is wishing well for you. That is habib.

And number two is labib. There are many words for being intelligent: zaki, aqil, hakim. But over here, of course, Arabs love everything to rhyme, so they chose the word labib to match with habib. Lubb is your intelligence; labib is the one who has intelligence.

Because if a person loves you but is ignorant, this is — in Urdu — known as nadan dost, who may be more khatarnak than a hushar dushman. A foolish friend may be more dangerous than an intelligent enemy, because the intelligent enemy is plotting against you and your defense mechanism is up — you're on your guard, watching out for when he's going to hurt you. But the nadan dost, the foolish friend — you're relaxed. And in his jahala, in his ignorance, he may end up hurting you in ways you never expected. So that's why it should be habibun labib.

Here we have Luqman alayhi salam, who Allah has granted the certification — "We have granted him wisdom." He is truly a wise man because Allah said so. And who is he advising? His beloved son. يَا بُنَيَّ — "O my dear son." So he is both habib and labib.

He loves his son — no doubt about it. Every person loves their children, whoever is on the fitrah salima, because of some wacko people out there you may have to add that condition. If you are on the actual fitrah salima, the actual natural disposition:

If that has not been tainted, corrupted, destroyed, or disfigured, then we could say that every parent loves their children. And if that natural fitrah were dominant, then there wouldn't be a need for child protection services. But we are living in crazy times where even this most sacred relationship is being violated. May Allah ta'ala keep us on the original fitrah.

So this is a father who loves his son, and he advises him:

O my dear son, do establish salah — continue to establish salah. وَأْمُرْ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ — do your own ibadah, but don't be just concerned about "me, myself, and I," your own ibadah, and not care about anyone else or anything else happening around you. Because you live in a society, you live in a community, and you have to have concern about those around you. So that's why he says: وَأْمُرْ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَانْهَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ — invite towards good and forbid evil.

If a person says, "The current is flowing in one direction of sin — mashAllah, I'm flowing against the current" — that is not sufficient. We have to make an effort to change the direction of the entire current. If the whole current is going in the wrong direction, and you are flowing against it for a while, then you're going to get tired. You're not going to be able to continue. The only way is if you're actively involved in the effort of changing the direction of the current — from batil towards haq, from Jahannam towards Jannah, from following the nafs to following Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, from focusing on dunya to focusing on akhira, from focusing on mal to a'mal.

So that's why he says: يَا بُنَيَّ أَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ وَأْمُرْ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَانْهَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ وَاصْبِرْ عَلَىٰ مَا أَصَابَكَ — O my dear son, establish your own salah, invite towards good, forbid evil, and continue to be patient on the opposition you will face.

The Example of the Prophet's Life Before and After Prophethood

Because as long as you do your own ibadah, your own worship, people will not hate you — in fact, people may love you. Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam — his worship prior to his bi'tha and prophethood in the Arabic language is known as ta'abbud. The ibadah started afterwards; the ta'abbud was before. كَانَ يَتَعَبَّدُ بِغَارِ حِرَاء — Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was doing ta'abbud, the pre-prophetic type of meditation and prayer.

So when he was doing the salah of that time — the first part of أَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ — what was his position in society? As-Sadiq al-Amin — the most trustworthy, the most truthful person. When they had to put the Hajar al-Aswad back after they rebuilt the Ka'bah — because of the flood, the walls were falling down, about 10 years prior to the prophethood of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam — the final time came to put the Hajar al-Aswad back. We all studied this in the seerah class when we were kids.

The different butoon — the clans — of the tribe of Quraysh were fighting with one another. The Banu Makhzum, the Banu Hashim, the Banu Umayyah, Banu Adi — all of them were fighting about who was going to place the Hajar al-Aswad back in its place. And they took out the skulls of their forefathers, filled them with blood, dipped their hands in the blood, and said: نَحْلِفُ عَلَى دِمَاءِ آبَائِنَا — "We take an oath on the blood of our forefathers." And if you think that's gross — that's why it's called asr al-jahiliyya, the era of ignorance. It's important to understand how depraved the society was to be able to appreciate how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala changed the situation with the advent of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

They were in ghafla — their forefathers had not been warned, they had not seen a nabi since the time of Ismail alayhi salam.

Indeed Allah has done a great favor when He sent a prophet amongst them.

In any case, when they were in this dispute, they said, "Let's meet in Dar al-Qusay" — Dar al-Qusay was a great-great grandfather of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam — Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam ibn Abdillah ibn Abdul Muttalib ibn Hashim ibn Abdul Manaf ibn Qusay ibn Kilab. This Qusay's house, known as Dar al-Nadwa — the parliament, the meeting place — was where they would decide matters.

One person gave an idea which was, if you think about it, completely nonsensical — had no objective proof, was absolutely random. And the Arab jahili mind loved drawing lots and gambling, and it was a big gamble. So that is why it appealed to the jahili mind. The idea was: "Whoever is the first person who walks in — we all agree that whatever he decides, we're going to go with that." It could be anyone in the world. What guarantee is there that that person has any sense or education or is in a position to decide the matter? It could be anyone. They said, "That's the ultimate genius idea." And everyone said, "Awesome."

And who came in? Unanimously, everybody exclaimed in one voice — not pre-planned, but it came organically from their hearts onto their lips:

"Radeena bis-Sadiq al-Amin!" — "We are pleased with the Truthful and Trustworthy one!"

As Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam walked in. And then he gave his very wise judgment — everyone holding the sheet and carrying the Hajar al-Aswad together. It became a collaborative mission. And then Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam placed it with his noble hands in its place.

So this was his condition before his mission began. Then came:

إِنِّي رَسُولُ اللَّهِ إِلَيْكُمْ جَمِيعًا — "I have been sent by Allah for your guidance." When he started the النَّهْيُ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ — preventing evil — even more so than الْأَمْرُ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ — the nahi 'an al-munkar is something which people do not like. Nobody appreciates that. If they're engaged in munkar, in sin, and you tell them to stop, they don't like it.

As long as you're doing your own ibadah, you're okay — you're Sadiq al-Amin. But once he started inviting towards tawhid, people who were happy with the status quo, they didn't want things to change. They liked all their idols:

"Has he made all the gods into one god? Indeed this is a very strange thing!" Because their economy was tied up with those idols. So now what happened? They called him a sha'ir:

"I swear by the pen and what is written in the taqdeer — you are not majnoon." They called him majnoon, kahin, sha'ir, kadhaab — all of these things. Because he started inviting. So that's why, when you take up the effort of النَّهْيُ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ, you have to be patient. As Luqman alayhi salam says: وَانْهَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ وَاصْبِرْ عَلَىٰ مَا أَصَابَكَ — and when you adopt this path you will face opposition, so therefore you must remain patient.

Verily, this is a matter that requires determination. It is an important task. May Allah ta'ala make it easy for us.

Closing: Inspiration from the People of Gaza

There are, of course, so many more ayat about sabr in ahadith. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give us tawfiq to cover them and review them in perhaps next sessions. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give us all the reality of sabr, make us among the sabiroon, and realize that:

That there is no measure for the reward Allah has kept in store for those who are patient. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make it easy for us.

And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us — and of course this is the actual reason that we started this topic — to get inspired by our brothers and sisters: the young and the old, the widows and the orphans in Gaza, who are demonstrating an extreme amount of sabr and resilience. The world is completely shocked — just as they are shocked by the level of the barbaric dhulm happening on one side, at the same time they are also shocked by the unbelievable, unparalleled manifestation and examples of sabr.

These statements from those who are losing everything — not just dying simple deaths, but burning to death and suffering the most painful types of death possible — such that those who remain alive are perhaps in greater pain than those who have gone.

The pages from the history of examples of sabr — the safahat min sabr al-ulama' 'inda al-shada'id — are now coming out of the history books and into real life in front of us. So may Allah give us the opportunity to be inspired by them over the little trials that we are facing.

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