ALMISKEENAH

 

SABR…..patience; a beautiful fluid, flowing quality, a honeyed marvelment, floating in a sea of syrupy sweetness awaiting to be contained in the heart. May we seek its capture, anchoring it in the heart by its empyreal solitary dot, in the hope of being the recipients of all the favours Allah the Almighty promises….

And convey glad tidings to those who are patient (2:155)

O you who believe, endure with patience, outdo all others in patient endurance, be ready, and observe your duty to Allah, in order that you might succeed. (3:200)

Our Lord! pour out on us patience, and cause us to die as Muslims.  (7:126)

Verily! I have rewarded them this Day for their patience, they are indeed the ones that are successful.  (23:111)

Those will be rewarded with the highest place (in Paradise) because of their patience. Therein they shall be met with greetings and the word of peace and respect.  (25:75)

So be patient (O Muhammad), with a good patience.  (70:5)

Truly! Allah is with As-Sabirin (the patient ones)   (2:153)

And Allah loves As-Sabirin  (3:146)

Sabr, one of the highest and noblest of qualities endowed on our Beloved Rasulullah SallAllahu alaihi wasallam by Allah Ta’ala. May Allah Ta’ala bless him infinitely.  Ameen.

Narrated Anas RadhiAllahu anhu and Ayesha RadhiAllahu anha: The Prophet SallAllahu alaihi wasallam said, "The real patience is at the first stroke of a calamity."  And another narration: “And whoever remains patient, Allah will make him patient. Nobody can be given a blessing better and greater than patience.”

Al-Bara’ bin ‘Azib RadhiAllahu anhu narrated that Allah Ta’ala’s Messenger SallAllahu alaihi wasallam said: “Allah Almighty has selected and elite among His servants. He reserved for them the highest heavens, for they are the wisest people.” Al-Bara’ added: “We asked: O Messenger of Allah, in what way are they the wisest?” He replied: “They mainly endeavour to please their Lord, and they renounce curiosity, aspiration for leadership, and comfort in this world, hence, the trials of the world are light ans easy on their eyes, knowing that their exercise of patience in this world for a short while will help them attain permanent peace in their permanent life thereafter.”

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“Allah is the Most Patient One.

In everything He is in perfect measure and in perfect time.

He is patient, and He loves….

…is with the patient ones (8:46)

In His creation as in His actions, in His dealings with His creation, nothing is either bigger or smaller, better or worse, earlier or later than it is determined for it to be. He does not delay things beyond their appointed times or fail to finish them as a lazy one might do, nor does He hasten and imperfectly finish things as an impatient one might do. Rather He does everything in its proper time and in just the manner that it ought to be done.

Patience is in Allah’s divine disposition; therefore, patient men reflect this honoured disposition.

Patience is a very high state for the believer, because the affairs both of this world and the Hereafter are resolved by it. No success, no perfection, can be achieved easily and without pain. The Prophet SallAllahu alaihi wasallam says that: ‘Paradise is surrounded by things that the flesh does not want.’ Allah promises infinite rewards for those who can be patient with the turbulence of the desires of the flesh and of their egos. There are even greater rewards for patience in supporting misfortunes, poverty, accidents, and sickness, which are unavoidable and come from Allah. If people shoe patience, they receive rewards that far surpass the pain.

The meaning of Islam is submission: to forego one’s appetites, desires and will in favour of the will of Allah. To be able to submit, one has to be patient.

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Patience is a mirror of certainty, and needed to at­tain every high aim. Our sheikh distinguishes three types, saying: “The masters have conveyed to us that three hundred spiritual de­grees may be reached by patience in performing acts of obedience, six hundred degrees by patience in refraining from disobedience, and nine hundred degrees by patience with others.” It transmutes the imper­fection of the circumstances one is patient with into the perfection of being with Allah, who says in Surat al-Baqara, “Verily Allah is with the patient” (Koran 2:152).

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“Conventionally sabr, patience stands for a striving of the heart because to restrain the self from jaza, expressing unrest and disorder is called patience. Some Ulema have said that jaza is that intention of man whereby he tries to get out of some trouble into which he has fallen, whereas sabr, patience means giving up of jaza.

A man should imagine the critical times of distress and calamities and think that his impatience and restlessness in such a situation will bring neither relief or aggravation in his suffering nor cause any shifting of the time backward or forward. It is therefore useless to give way to restlessness and bewailing. This behavior may prove to be harmful rather than beneficial. The best way of attaining patience is to remember the promises made by Exalted Allah to reward His servants who practice patience and perseverance.”

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It is reported that a man once said: “O Messenger of Allah, my property has gone and my body has become sick.” So the Prophet SallAllahu alaihi wasallam told him: “There is no good in a servant of the Lord whose property does not depart, and whose body does not get sick. Whenever Allah, Exalted is He, loves a servant of His, He is sure to put him to the test, and when He puts him to the test, He admonishes him to be patient.”

A man once came to see what he could learn from Ash-Shibli, may Allah the exalted bestow His mercy upon him, so he said to him: “What kind of patience is hardest on those who are patient?”

“Patience in relation to Allah.”

“No.”

“Patience for the sake of Allah.”

“No.”

“Patience in bearing with Allah.”

“No.”

“Well then, what is it?”

“Patience in enduring separation from Allah.” At this point ash-Shibli gave vent to such a plaintive cry that his spirit was almost destroyed.

The basic noun sabr, patience means that no distinction is made between the state of grace, ni’ma and the ordeal of tribulation, mihna, and that both are experienced with equanimity. The derived form tasabbur, trying to be patient means calmness in coping with misfortune, although the feelings are affected by the burdens of the ordeal.” (1,2)

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The Station of Patience

Their souls patiently enduring all that is disdainful;

Desirous of what it entails of divine benevolence.

Patient perseverance (sabr) is restraining the soul from what it finds disdainful, when doing so entails the pleasure of the Most Merciful. (note: Ibn al-Qayyim: Al-Junayd said: ‘The journey from this world to the Hereafter is smooth and easy for the believer, but leaving ordinary life for the sake of Allah is difficult. The journey from the ego (nafs) to Allah is extremely difficult, and patience (sabr) in Allah is even more difficult.’ He was asked about patience, so he replied: ‘It is to swallow bitterness without frowning.’ Dhu’l-Nun al-Misri said: ‘Patience is to distance yourself from opposing [the truth], to remain calm when engulfed with calamities and to display sufficiency when poverty occupies your daily life.’ It has been said: ‘Patience is to face affliction with the best conduct.’ It has been said: ‘It is to absorb affliction without displaying complaint.’ It is said: ‘it is accustoming the soul to the onslaught of adversity.’ It is said: ‘It is to settle down with adversities in good companionship, in the same manner as one settles down with well-being.’ And ‘Amr ibn ‘Uthman said; ‘It is standing firm with Allah and meeting tribulation with magnanimity and welcome.’)

Patient perseverance is of three types: patiently persevering in the obedience of Allah. So that it may be fulfilled; patiently persevering against disobedience, so that it may be abandoned; and patiently persevering with regards to the hardships that Allah decrees, not showing any impertinence towards it. When the soul feels lazy about obeying Allah, one exhorts and enjoins it to do so, as well as encouraging it by reminders of the rewards [entailed]. When the soul is strong in inviting towards disobedience to Allah, one restrains and warns it from doing so, and reminds it about the punishment for disobedience. Patient perseverance is needed in all these affairs. (note: as for complaining in times of adversity, Imam ibn al-Qayyim, may Allah have mercy on him, said in al-Fawaid pp.130-131,

“The ignorant one complains about Allah to the people! This is the height of ignorance in complaining and in whom the complaint is about. For if a person were to truly know his Lord, he would never complain of Him? If he truly knew people, he would never complain to them?….The gnostic complains only to Allah, and the most knowledgeable of the gnostics are those who complain to Allah about themselves, not about others….So there are three levels: The mosy contemptible of them is to complain to people about Allah; the loftiest of them is to complain to Allah about oneself; the middle level is to complain to Allah about others.”

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In Bukhari Shareef this is also mentioned in a Hadith and Maulana discussed the wisdom in that:
"So that through grazing sheep and goats,
The Prophet’s patience and dignity may be exposed.
The reason they are made to rear goats is,
To teach them patience and gentleness amidst adversity. "

Read complete story here, and listen to an audio series here. 

 

Three Maulana Rumi Rahamtullah alaihi gems:

Lovers are Made Aware.

You make a hundred resolutions

to journey somewhere,

He draws you somewhere else,

He turns the horse’s bridle in every direction

So that the untrained horse may know there is a rider

The clever horse is well paced

because it knows a rider is mounted upon it.

He fixed your heart on a hundred passionate desires,

disappointed you, and then broke your heart.

Since He broke the wings of your first intention,

how do you doubt the existence of the Wing-Breaker?

Since His ordainment snapped the cord

of your contrivance,

how can you remain blind to His Command?

Your resolutions and aims now and then are fulfilled

so that through hope your heart

might form another intention

which He might once again destroy.

For if He were to keep you completely from success,

you would despair:

how would the seed of expectation be sown?

If your heart did not sow that seed,

and then encounter barrenness,

how would it recognize its submission to Divine will?

by their failures lovers are made aware of their Lord.

Lack of success is the guide to Paradise:

Pay attention to the tradition,

"Paradise is encompassed with pain"

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Lovers share a sacred decree –

to seek the Beloved.

They roll head over heels,

rushing toward the Beautiful One

like a torrent of water.

 

In truth, everyone is a shadow of the Beloved –

Our seeking is His seeking,

Our words are His words.

 

At times we flow toward the Beloved

like a dancing stream.

At times we are still water

held in His pitcher.

At times we boil in a pot

turning to vapor –

that is the job of the Beloved.

 

He breathes into my ear

until my soul

takes on His fragrance.

He is the soul of my soul –

How can I escape?

But why would any soul in this world

want to escape from the Beloved?

 

He will melt your pride

making you thin as a strand of hair,

Yet do not trade, even for both worlds,

One strand of His hair.

 

We search for Him here and there

while looking right at Him.

Sitting by His side we ask,

"O Beloved, where is the Beloved?"

 

Enough with such questions! –

Let silence take you to the core of life.

 

All your talk is worthless

When compared to one whisper

of the Beloved.

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Petals

Even when you tear its petals off one after another,

the rose keeps laughing and doesn’t bend in pain.

"Why should I be afflicted because of a thorn?

It is the thorn which taught me how to laugh."

Whatever you lost through fate,

be certain that it saved you from pain.

A Sheikh was asked: "What is Sufism?"

He said: "To feel joy in the heart when sorrow appears."

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May we seek its capture, anchoring it in the heart by its empyreal solitary dot, in the hope of being the recipients of all the favours Allah the Almighty promises….Ameen.

 
All good is from Allah Ta’ala whereas mistakes are from this humble speck. May Allah Ta’ala Bless all readers, bringing you all closer to Him and His Rasul SallAllahu alaihi wasallam. May He accept our humble efforts and grant us the capacity to be good and do good. Ameen. 

After posting this entry I saw this moving chapter (page 19) on Patience from The Attributes of the Believer  http://www.yursil.com/Sifat-Part1.pdf posted by brother Yursil,  http://www.yursil.com/blog/ JazakumuLlah khairan.