Trails, Patience
Test by Allah (swt)
Surah Ali-’Imran, 3:186
لَتُبْلَوُنَّ فِي أَمْوَالِكُمْ وَأَنفُسِكُمْ وَلَتَسْمَعُنَّ مِنَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُواْ الْكِتَابَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ وَمِنَ الَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُواْ أَذًى كَثِيراً وَإِن تَصْبِرُواْ وَتَتَّقُواْ فَإِنَّ ذَلِكَ مِنْ عَزْمِ الأُمُورِ
Surah Al – Baqarah, 2:155
وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُمْ بِشَيْءٍ مِّنَ الْخَوفْ وَالْجُوعِ وَنَقْصٍ مِّنَ الأَمَوَالِ وَالأنفُسِ وَالثَّمَرَاتِ وَبَشِّرِ الصَّابِرِينَ
The emphasis laid upon is basically on any kind of fear of loss of sustenance, children and suffering. The more an individual rises in his faith in God, his personal virtues and the quality of patience, more he is beset with trials through calamities to prove his personal excellence, and as he passes through his trials successfully, he is raised into higher and higher elevations of the excellence of divinity and promoted to be nearer to God. Those who do not suffer these calamities at all in this life are not much to be congratulated for it might be that these souls are not considered fit to be tried.
It was only once in the history of the creation of the earth that all the kinds of trials mentioned in the verse were enacted all together to the maximum degree conceivable, with the Holy Imam Hussein (S) and the small band of his faithful comrades in the plain of Kerbala. This verse had its fullest realization only in the suffering and the martyrdom of Hussein (S) and his faithful comrades and the suffering of the other Imams at different times under the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphs.
Patience in adversity is ordained
Surah Al i- ‘Imran, 3:200
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ اصْبِرُواْ وَصَابِرُواْ وَرَابِطُواْ وَاتَّقُواْ اللّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ
In Hadith al Qudsi, Allah (swt) says:
“A person who is not happy with My orders, not patient with my afflictions, not thankful for My bounties, not content with My gifts, then he should look for another Lord other than Me and he should get out of my Universe.
A person who does not get what he wants in this world and becomes sad by it, is as if he is angry with Me.
A person who complains of calamities to another, which has befallen upon him, is as if he has complained about Me.”
Advised to adopt patience in adversity & praise the Creator by day and by night
Surah Ta Ha, 20:130
فَاصْبِرْ عَلَى مَا يَقُولُونَ وَسَبِّحْ بِحَمْدِ رَبِّكَ قَبْلَ طُلُوعِ الشَّمْسِ وَقَبْلَ غُرُوبِهَا وَمِنْ آنَاء اللَّيْلِ فَسَبِّحْ وَأَطْرَافَ النَّهَارِ لَعَلَّكَ تَرْضَى
This verse gives out in the best comprehensive way the five obligatory and optional prayers.
1. Before the rising of the sun - ‘Salatul-Fajr’ or the Morning Prayers.
2. Before the setting of the sun - ‘Zuhr’ & ‘Asr’ or the Afternoon and Evening Prayers.
3. The hours of the night - ‘Maghrib’ & ‘Isha’ or the Evening and the Night Prayers.
‘The hours of the Night’ comprehends also the time for the ‘Sunnat’ or the optional prayers which are offered past midnight i.e. ‘Tahajjud’.