Chapter: Patience regarding the prohibitions of Allah. And His saying, Mighty and Majestic: "Only the patient will be given their reward without account." And 'Umar said: "We found the best of our life through patience."

The reader: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Al-Bukhari (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Chapter: Patience regarding the prohibitions of Allah. And His saying, Mighty and Majestic: . And 'Umar said: "We found the best of our life through patience".

The Shaykh : We have previously spoken about patience and its categories. And His saying, Exalted is He: means that the patient are given their reward without account; that is, it is not like other righteous deeds, where a good deed is rewarded ten times its value, up to seven hundred times. Rather, this reward is too much to be counted, so it is without account. And 'Umar's saying: "We found the best of our life through patience" is a profound wisdom. When a person is patient, he lives a satisfied life, because he does not look at those above him, in which case he would belittle what Allah has given him. Rather, he looks at those below him, so that he knows that Allah has given him more than them. And it has come in the hadith: , meaning do not belittle it, because if a person looks at one who is higher than him, he says, "I have nothing." But when he looks at one who is lower than him, he knows the magnitude of Allah's blessing. For example, if a person is weak in body, he should not look at one who is strong in body; if he looks at the strong one, he will belittle what Allah has given him. But he should look at one who is weaker than him. If a person has little wealth and has no money, he should not look at one who is richer than him, because if he looks at one who is richer, he will belittle what Allah has given him. But look at one who is poorer than him, and so on. Even in matters of religion, do not look at one who is higher than you, because if you look at one who is higher than you, you will belittle Allah's blessing upon you. But compete with others in the religion of Allah; compete with them so that you may attain what they attain. Looking at one who is above you in religion, if your intention in looking is to compete with him so that you reach what he has reached, then that is good. But if your looking at one who is higher than you in religion leads to belittling Allah's blessing upon you for what He has bestowed, then you should not look. A person might, for example, look at a man who is fasting, standing in prayer, striving, giving, a scholar and a teacher, and find that he is not in that station. Then he belittles Allah's blessing upon him for what He has bestowed upon him of religion. If he looked at those below him, the open sinners and the disbelievers, he would know the magnitude of Allah's blessing. So here, does he look at one who is above him or one who is below him?
The reader: One who is below him.

The Shaykh : One who is below him. But if he looks at one who is above him in order to rise to his station and compete with him, then that is good. That is good.