Patience- Piety
Al-Risala (English), January 1990, p. 26
By Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan is named as the default author of the periodical; a piece that carries another writer’s byline is credited to that writer.
Patience- Piety
1990 1 January 26-28 Patience- Piety (1000) Believers, you are accountable for yourselves; he that goes astray cannot harm you, if you are on the right path (5:105). If you are patient and guard yourselves against evil, their machinations will never harm you. Allah has knowledge of all their actions (3:120).
The Believers have the assurance of the Quran that as long as they accept the true guidance to the tenets of their faith, then they will not be harmed in any way by the measures which their opponents take against them. Here are two of the verses on this subject:
Believers, you are accountable for yourselves; he that goes astray cannot harm you, if you are on the right path (5:105). If you are patient and guard yourselves against evil, their machinations will never harm you. Allah has knowledge of all their actions (3: 120).
This statement means that believers should pay attention to their internal state, as opposed to the external state of affairs in which they find themselves. What is all–important for them is that they should adhere to the guidance which they have received from God. If they are true to this guidance, they will find that it leads them on a path of piety and patience. These qualities will act as a protective barrier against the machinations of others. Patience and piety will provide them with a defence that is impenetrable. No scheming and plotting on the part of those alien to their cause will be able to break through their line of defence.
No individual or nation is alone in this world. Far from it: there are innumerable people inhabiting this world besides ourselves, and all of them have been given freedom by God. Everyone is trying to improve his situation in life. If someone else comes in their way, they will push him aside, just to ensure that nothing interferes with their own progress. This being the case, it is inevitable that individuals should be hurt by others from time to time, or suffer a loss at someone else’s hands. That is the way God has made the world, and there is no changing His order of things. It is not just where Muslims are living together in one country with non-Muslims that this happens. Even in places with an entirely Muslim population, the same situation prevails.
Under such conditions, problems cannot be solved by coming into conflict with everyone who clashes with one’s interests. There is only one way to solve the problem, and that is by adopting the method with the Quran calls iradh, avoidance. Only by avoiding those who try to obstruct one’s progress is a person able to successfully continue his journey in life. But there is a virtue that must be cultivated in order to adopt such a course – patience. To remove oneself from the path of someone who is trying to block one’s progress requires a high degree of patience and forebearance. But if one does not do so, there is no way that one will reach one’s destination.
Why is it that patience is such a difficult quality to acquire? It is because it involves suppressing one’s feelings when one has been provoked, and putting up with temporary losses in life. Only one who has risen above a mindlessly vengeful mentality is able to achieve patience. How is it possible to do so? The answer, also alluded to in the Quran, is that this can come about through piety. Piety is the virtue of having the fear of God eternally in one’s heart. Generally, people live on a human level. Their characters are gauged by what they say and do. A pious person, however, takes to living on a divine level. This means cherishing God’s promises above all else. A pious person’s every action in life will be aimed at consolidating the blessings promised to him by God. Externally, he appears to be living in this world, but-in fact, he is living on a higher plain than that of this world, for his inner senses are attached to the everlasting world of God. It is for this reason that piety endows a person with such unconquerable strength that no calamity can upset his mental balance. No loss in life will be too great for him to bear. Piety imbues a person with the loftiest of human qualities. Once a person possesses such qualities, he acquires an indomitable spirit, which no power in the world is able to stamp out.
There is a deep-rooted connection between patience and piety. Piety involves keeping within the limits which God has laid down. However, when one loses patience with a person who has taken action against one, then inevitably one strays beyond the bounds of piety, committing all kinds of deeds which have been prohibited by God. For instance, in one’s dislike for a person, one may act in a provocative manner towards him. Antagonism and anger may incite one to speak unjustly about a rival. One may be led to play down one’s own excesses, while portraying the excesses committed by another in an exaggerated light. It may be one person who has wronged one, yet one wreaks revenge on some other person. A person’s first loyalty should be to the truth, yet when one falls prey to antagonistic feelings, one loses sight of the truth, always putting oneself in the right and others in the wrong, though the reality of the situation may be very different to what one makes out. These are just some of the ways in which a person who loses patience forfeits piety also. And there are many other ways in which this can happen.
To maintain a pious course through life is to ensure that one will be successful, for one will always enjoy the help of God. If one strays from the path of piety, one will be denied God’s help: and nothing but failure and ruin await a person who is without the aid of divine succour.
