CHAPTER SEVEN
Types of Patience According to the fields It Applies to
Patience is of three types:
1- Worshipping Allah and following His commands,
2- Refraining from bad deeds, and
3- Surrendering to Allah’s decrees and destiny.
All these fields refer to what Allah wants His servant to do concerning His rulings. There are two kinds of Divine rulings: religious and predetermined, i.e. What He ordains of religious rulings has to types according to the field it applies to. If the field it applies to is desirable to the human nature, the status of what is required to be done is either obligatory or recommended. Only by remaining patient can we conform to such rulings. But if the field is undesirable, then the status of what is required,, is either unlawful or offensive. We also cannot do so but by patience.
Concerning predetermined rulings, it includes the
Thus the commandment given by Luqman when he advised his son,
{Oh my son! Establish regular prayer, enjoin what is just and forbid what is wrong; and bear with patient constancy whatever betide thee; for this is the Firmness (of purpose) in (the conduct) of affairs.}
(Luqman: 17)
Enjoining what is just includes doing good and advising others to do so, as is forbidding what is wrong.
Again these three fields are mentioned in Allah’s statement:
{It is those who are endued with understanding that receive admonition; those who fulfil the covenant of Allah and fail not in their plighted word; those who join together those things which allah hath commanded to be joined, hold their Lord in awe, and fear the terrible reckoning; those who patiently persevere, seeking the countenance of their Lord; establish regular prayers, spend out of (the gifts) We have bestowed for their sustenance, secretly and openly; and turn off Evil with good: for such there is the final attainment of the Eternal Home,}
( Ar-Ra’d: 22)
1. This is the opinion of Imam Ahmad.
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