A discussion on patience, its types, and examples of the patience of the prophets and the righteous.

The word *sabr* (patience) is the active participle of *sabr*, and its original meaning is restraint. In the Shari'ah, it means restraining the self from the prohibitions of Allah. Its types are three: patience with the painful decrees of Allah, patience from the sins of Allah, and patience in the obedience of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. These are three types: patience in the obedience of Allah, patience from the disobedience of Allah, and patience with the painful decrees of Allah. As for patience in obedience, a person finds great hardship in it, great hardship, because when he intends to obey, his soul, which commands evil, and Shaytan try to deter him from the obedience of Allah. He finds himself in a struggle with the soul that commands evil until, if Allah, Mighty and Majestic, helps him, he overcomes these two enemies: Shaytan and the soul that commands evil, and he does what Allah has commanded. In the case of sin, especially when the causes that lead to it are present, a person finds himself in a severe struggle with his self, especially when the call to it is strong and there is no opposing force. If the call to sin is strong and there is no opposition, no one is saved from it except whom Allah protects. For this reason, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, in a group of those whom Allah will shade in His shade on the Day when there is no shade except His shade: This man exercised this great patience from the prohibitions of Allah despite the strength of the call and the lack of opposition. He did not say, "By Allah, I have no desire." No, the man has desire. The woman was not ugly or unattractive; rather, she was beautiful. She was not from the lowly class in whom there is no good; rather, she was of high status and honor, and she invited him. There was no one in the place to oppose reaching the objective, because he did not say, "There is no one around us whom we fear." But there was one thing in him: the fear of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. And this is patience from what? From the disobedience of Allah. Patience from the disobedience of Allah. Undoubtedly, there is great hardship in this: a young man, in an empty place, with desire, invited by a woman of high status and beauty who invited him to himself. Many people cannot control themselves when a beautiful young woman speaks to them, how much more so when she invites them? And yet he says, "I fear Allah." This is great patience. Among this is the patience of Yusuf (peace be upon him) when the wife of al-Aziz, who was his master, invited him. Undoubtedly, she adorned herself for him and did all the things that incite desire to reach her objective. But he (peace be upon him) saw the proof of his Lord; otherwise, the matter would have been completed. At the last moment, Allah, Mighty and Majestic, protected him. This is the most severe form of chastity and the strongest form of chastity. Have you not seen the Israelite man who was pursuing his cousin for herself, and she refused him? When a year of famine came upon her, she came to him and made herself available to him. When he sat with her in the position of a man with his wife, at the height of his preparation, she said to him, "Fear Allah and do not open the seal except with right." And what happened? He rose from her, and she was the most beloved of people to him. He did not dislike her; her soul continued to seek him. But when she reminded him of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, he feared Allah. So I say: this is from patience from the disobedience of Allah. The third is: patience with the painful decrees of Allah. This is common, and among it is Ayyub (peace be upon him), for he exercised great patience. Allah the Exalted said: So he was patient with the harm that befell him with great patience. This also, and patience with the painful decrees of Allah that result from obedience to Allah, is greater in reward. So the patience of the messengers with the harm of people for the sake of calling to Allah, because these people were patient with harmful decrees resulting from what? From a voluntary act of theirs, which is the obedience of Allah by conveying His message. Let us give an example of the patience of the master of creation (peace and blessings be upon him), Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), who exercised great patience that no one can exercise, with forbearance, restraint, forgiveness, and tolerance. When he went to the people of Ta'if to call them to Allah, to call them to the oneness of Allah, to call them to Paradise, to save them from the Fire, what happened? They lined up in two rows, lining up their foolish ones in two rows, and they said, "Strike Muhammad with stones." So they struck him with stones until they bled his heel. He did not regain consciousness except that the angel of the mountains came to him in this state where he could have taken revenge on his enemies and said to him, "Allah has sent me to you and commanded me to crush al-Akhsabin upon them if you wish." He could have said, "Crush them upon them," because the One who sent him is the One who says to a thing, "Be," and it is, Blessed and Exalted is He. But he said, "No, I will be patient with them, perhaps Allah will bring forth from their loins one who worships Allah and associates nothing with Him." Allah the Great. And Allah brought forth from their loins one who worships Allah and associates nothing with Him, who helped Allah with them in establishing Islam and opening the east and west of the earth for them. So look at how the outcome of patience and forbearance and restraint was. And one day, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was praying in a safe place on the face of the earth, prostrating to Allah, Mighty and Majestic, when the foolish ones of his people came and sent one of them to the roots of Banu Fulan. He came with their saddle and smeared its blood on the back of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) while he was prostrating, prostrating to Allah in the safest place, the place where the polytheist disbeliever felt safe from the evil of Quraysh and Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). He did not feel safe from their harm until his daughter Fatimah, a young girl, came and removed the harm from his back. And yet he was patient and persevered, and he did not leave Makkah except after permission was given to him. His people emigrated, but he refused. He did not emigrate until permission was given to him (peace and blessings be upon him). So he was a slave to Allah in residence and a slave to Allah in emigration (peace and blessings be upon him). The important thing is that patience is a great rank. Allah praises the patient and makes it clear that He will give the patient their reward in full without calculation. It is a high rank that is not attained except by something one is patient with. Do not think that patience is a simple rank; there must be something to be patient with. For this reason, the scholars have a responsibility that they must be patient with the harm of people in it, which is not upon others. Everyone whom Allah has given knowledge, the burdening of him with that knowledge is a covenant and a pledge between him and his Lord to convey it to the people and to call people to it. Allah the Exalted said: With what was it taken? Does any one of you, who Allah has given the Book, feel that Allah has taken a covenant and pledge from him? No, but the teaching of Allah to you is a covenant and a pledge. Allah has distinguished you for knowledge from among the other ignorant people. This is the covenant and the pledge. It is not a physical pledge witnessed by people in the mosques or in the open spaces, but it is a blessing that Allah bestows on a person. So when Allah bestows the blessing of knowledge on a person, this is the covenant and the pledge that Allah has taken. If the students of knowledge who are now present had disseminated some of their knowledge, not all of it, you would have found knowledge widely spread among the people. But most people, most students of knowledge, or many students of knowledge, copying books is more beneficial to the people than they are, because their knowledge does not go beyond their chests. In fact, they sometimes indicate by their actions and words that they are ignorant, as if they have no knowledge, due to their shortcoming in worship, shortcoming in dealings, bad character, and failure to fulfill the rights of people. You find that the student of knowledge finds the dealings of the ignorant common person better than his. Do we say that this man was patient? No, he was not patient, because if he had been patient, because when is patience? When one disseminates knowledge until he is harmed in it. If you reflected now, you would see that the most knowledgeable people and the most authoritative in religion are those whom people have harmed the most. What did they do to Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him)? They dragged him on a donkey in the markets and struck him with whips until he fainted. The Imam of the people of the Sunnah, until he fainted. And yet this harm did not deter his determination to speak the truth. They did not ask him for much; they asked him to say, "The Qur'an is created." But he refused and said, "The Qur'an is revealed, not created," just as the magicians said: Imam Ahmad said, "I do not care, and I will die in the struggle to spread the sound creed." If Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) had said, even by interpretation, that the Qur'an is created, nations would have gone astray, nations would have gone astray. But as some scholars said, Allah established Islam through him on the day of the trial, just as He established Islam through Abu Bakr on the day of apostasy. What happened to the Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah? He was harmed, imprisoned several times, and died in prison. He was writing while in prison, disseminating knowledge in the prison, so they prevented him from having ink and paper, and he began to write knowledge on the walls of the prison.