Examples of Patience - Shaykh Ahsan Hanif

Examples of Patience

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. I seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whosoever He sends astray, none can guide him.

And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger. Peace be upon him and upon his family and his companions.

As for what follows: the most truthful speech is the Book of Allah, and the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. And the worst of things are its innovations, and every innovation is a newly invented matter, and every newly invented matter is a misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire.

Introduction: Surah Sad and the Theme of Patience

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in Surah Sad dedicates this surah to a principle, a theme, and an objective that is important in the life of the Muslim. And that is that it speaks about the concept, the importance, and the worthiness of patience in the life of the Muslim. But it speaks about it from a particular angle and point that I want to share before you in this brief khutbah.

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala begins this surah by mentioning an incident that took place in the early Meccan days of the life of our Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam. The Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, and the Muslims in the early Meccan days were suffering from persecution, from torture, from oppression. Their life was extremely difficult.

The Meccans were pressurizing them and using various means in order to subject upon them different types of transgression and oppression. The situation was becoming desperate — desperate for the Muslims but also desperate for the Quraish, because they could see that their society was fragmenting. That people were taking up this religion, that they were following our Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, and heeding his call to the Tawheed of Allah azza wa jal.

And so one day, a group of their chieftains and their leaders gathered in the house of Abu Talib, the uncle of the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam. And they said to him: your nephew has caused our community to be split. He has caused our weak and our slaves to rise up against us. He split our families and our community. And so you have to stop him, or we will take matters into our own hands.

The Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, as we know, was extremely close to his uncle Abu Talib. And Abu Talib, despite not being a Muslim, was a defender and a protector — by Allah's permission — of the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam. But these were the leaders of Quraish, their chieftains, their nobles.

So the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, was called by his uncle to his house, with those leaders still gathered there. And his uncle said to him: "O my nephew, these men, these people here are the leaders of our tribes. They are the leaders of Quraish and they have come with a complaint. All of them agree. All of them are united in this complaint — and that is that your call, your message, your religion, it is causing us divisions, problems, and disunity. So they want you to stop. If you want to believe in it, you may believe in it. But do not call to it, do not preach it, do not spread it amongst others."

The Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, in some of those narrations found in the books of tafsir, said in reply: "O my uncle, all I want from them is that they say a single statement, and by it they will become the leaders of the Arabs and the non-Arabs. Just by saying one thing, Allah will give them leadership and honor — not only over the Quraish and the Arabs around them, but it will extend beyond their borders, beyond their peninsula, to the non-Arabs."

Abu Jahl, when he heard this, said: "If it is just that easy — that I say one thing and I become a leader of the Arabs and non-Arabs — I will say ten things! I will say it ten times! What is that statement?" The Prophet said to him: "Just say لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ."

But the Arabs understood what that meant. The Arabs understood the significance of that statement. It would mean that they would have to abandon their idols, abandon their shirk, abandon the gods that they worshipped besides Allah. They had, as we know, just in and around the Ka'bah, 360 idols that they worshipped besides Allah — let alone the idols that they had in their homes and on their roads and in their marketplaces, and the small idols that they would keep on their persons and in their pockets when they would travel. It would mean abandoning all of that.

Their practices of Jahiliyyah, their call to other than the worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala — they understood the call of لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ better than some Muslims understand it today. Who will say لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ but will still go and worship someone at their grave, still make du'a to other than Allah, still take an oath in other than Allah's name, still slaughter and sacrifice to other than Allah azza wa jal. They understood what it meant.

And so when they understood that, they refused and they rejected. He did not ask them for money, did not ask them for influence, did not ask them for fame, did not ask them for anything — except that they believe in the Tawheed of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

But they responded and they said:

"Has He made all of our gods into a single god? That is a strange thing." It was a strange concept to them. And that is why when they left the house of Abu Talib, as Allah relates, they said to one another:

As they were leaving, they were encouraging each other: "Be patient upon that which you are upon." Be patient upon what? Upon their shirk, upon their kufr, upon their paganism and their idolatry. They were telling each other to be patient upon misguidance and falsehood.

So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, after mentioning this opening passage of this surah, says to our Prophet ﷺ:

"You be patient upon what you are upon, and against that which they say against you." If they are willing to be patient upon their kufr and their shirk and their disbelief, are you and I and the people of Tawheed not more worthy of being patient upon the truth and guidance?

People are patient upon all sorts of things. People are patient upon their evil and their misguidance. People are patient because they want money and wealth. People are patient because they want power and influence. People are patient and they sacrifice because of the fame that they so desire in the dunya. And Allah gave to you and I Islam. Allah gave to us Iman. Allah gave to us guidance. Allah gave to us the Qur'an. Allah gave to us the sunnah of our Prophet ﷺ. Are we not more worthy of showing patience than people that are upon falsehood?

So Allah azza wa jal instructs this ummah: if others can be patient upon what they are seeking from the dunya, what is it that you are seeking? What is it that you want? What is your goal and objective? And if it is something which is more worthy, more precious, more valuable than what others seek from the dunya, then surely you should have more patience in seeking that also.

And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, for the rest of this surah, gives to us examples of patience from the lives of the prophets and from other than that — examples of patience in different scenarios and how it works in different situations. There are many of them because it is a long surah. We do not have the time to go through all of them, but I wanted to share with you two very quickly — two things that you can do that will help you to keep that patience, to put things into perspective. Two things that, if you can adopt them, they are from the prophetic methodologies of how to show patience in adversity.

The First Example: Prophet Dawud and the Strength of Worship

The first of them is the first example that Allah azza wa jal then gives to our Prophet ﷺ in this surah. He says: "Be patient upon that which they say concerning you, O Muhammad ﷺ, and remember the example of Our servant Dawud ﷺ."

He was one of strength — Dhul-Ayd — power and strength. But what strength and power did he have? What is the strength and power that Allah azza wa jal is telling our Prophet ﷺ to emulate him in? Was it the strength and power of physical prowess, of muscles, of being strong physically? No. He was a man who continuously, consistently, and regularly turned to Allah azza wa jal. It is a power, it is a strength, it is an endurance of worship. There was no one — or very few — like the Prophet Dawud ﷺ when it came to his ability to worship Allah.

And that is why, as is collected in the Sahihayn of al-Bukhari and Muslim, in the hadith of Abdullah ibn Amr رضي الله عنهما — when he wanted to fast continuously every single day and spend every single night awake in salah because he felt he had the power and the strength to do so — the Prophet ﷺ told him:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1131; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1159)

"There is no optional prayer more beloved to Allah than the optional prayer of Dawud, and no optional fasting more beloved to Allah than the optional fasting of Dawud. He would spend the first half of the night asleep, then spend the next third awake, then the last sixth asleep again. And he would fast one day and break his fast the next day." That is what the Prophet told us ﷺ.

And that is why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in these verses praises Dawud ﷺ. Because one of the ways to gain patience — one of the best methodologies in order to help you to gain that patience — is the frequent remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in His worship. These are acts of worship that sometimes we think are easy, or insignificant, or light, or that they don't have a big impact. We sometimes do not understand their value and their importance.

The Qur'an that you read, the adhkar that you make, the du'as that you recite in the morning and the evening — all of these acts of worship when you come to the masjid and you pray your nafl prayers or your tahiyyatul masjid and all of these other acts of worship — these are things that are extremely powerful. And if you can develop regular habits and make them a consistent part of your routine, then it is something which will give you strength.

And that is why our shari'ah, our sunnah, the example of our Prophet ﷺ shows to us the importance of these small acts of worship. From the moment that you wake up, you begin with the remembrance of Allah and His name. Until the moment that you sleep, you end with the name of Allah and His remembrance once again. And in every single part of the day, every action that you perform — even when you go out into the bathroom and come out — it is Allah's name that you remember, Allah's pardon and forgiveness that you seek. And when you eat and when you drink, and as you enter and leave the masjid or you enter your home and you leave it, and as you travel or you return — every single moment there is something that you can say that is from the remembrance of Allah. And that will give you strength and it will give you power.

And because of his recitation of his psalms — the Zaboor that Allah gave to him — and the ibadah that he would make, Allah azza wa jal praises him many times in the Qur'an:

Allah says that he and his household were a people of gratitude. And what is the gratitude of their family? It is the continuous worship and remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

So when you find difficulty, adversity, and challenge — one of the ways to remember the favors of Allah is to remember Allah Himself. You remember Allah in the name of Allah and it gives you strength, gives you the ability to endure, gives you patience. So that even when others are opposing you and are enemies to you, you remember the name of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, you remember the blessings of Allah, and you remember the great favor of Allah upon you — that He gave you Islam and guidance, and how you are more worthy to be patient upon that when others are being patient upon that which is less.

The Second Example: Prophet Sulayman and Sacrificing the Permissible

Very quickly, the second example that I want to put before you is another example that Allah azza wa jal gives in this surah — and this time it is the Prophet Sulayman ﷺ, the son of Dawud ﷺ.

The example of the Prophet Sulayman ﷺ is one of sacrifice — but sacrificing that which is halal and permissible, sacrificing from the luxuries and the comforts of the dunya. Because sometimes those luxuries and comforts that are permissible in and of themselves distract you from that which is more worthy. They distract you from patience. They distract you from remembering Allah's favors, or from being engaged in that first aspect that we mentioned: the worship and the remembrance of Allah.

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us that the Prophet Sulayman ﷺ — according to many of the scholars of tafsir — was one day watching a parade of the horses that he would use for war and for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And that parade of horses, because of how busy he was with it, caused him to miss the time of his prayer in which he would usually worship his Lord. And as the time elapsed and he realised the error that he had made, he asked — according to some of the scholars of tafsir — that the horses be slaughtered in the name of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Because even though those things were permissible and he saw that they were good in and of themselves, when they distracted him from Allah's remembrance, from Allah's worship, he found that this was something which would detract from his ability to remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Sometimes your remembrance of Allah, your worship of Allah, seeking knowledge, reading Qur'an, nawafil — it is because of the distractions that you have around you. To lessen them, to limit them, to control them — this is one of the ways that you increase in patience and remember what is more important and put things into perspective.

And that is why our Prophet ﷺ said, as is collected in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad:

(Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 23074)

"You will not leave something for the pleasure of Allah except that Allah azza wa jal will give you something better in its place." You leave something which is permissible, something which is halal, something which you can enjoy — but you leave it because it detracts from something which is more worthy. And because of that sacrifice, Allah azza wa jal gives to you strength, Allah azza wa jal gives to you patience.

And that was the example of our Prophet ﷺ — all of his time, from the moment that he woke up until the moment that he slept, every day, every week, every month, all of it was engaged in goodness, in righteousness, in spreading the religion of Islam, in benefiting and helping others.

Conclusion

These are two of the ways in which you can increase in patience and hold on to that, from the examples that Allah gives to us of the prophets in the Qur'an. We ask Allah azza wa jal that He endows us with that patience, and that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives us the strength and fortification to keep strong upon our iman.