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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

Latubla-wun-na fiii ’amwaalikum wa ’anfusikum; wa latasma - ’un-na minal-laziina ’uutul-Kitaaba min-qablikum wa minal-laziina ’ashrakuuu ’azan-kasiiraa. Wa ’in-tasbiruu wa tat-taquu fa-’in-na zaalika min ’azmil-’umuur.
186. You shall most certainly be tried in your possessions and in your persons; and indeed you shall hear many hurtful things from those to whom revelation was granted before your time, as well as from those who have come to ascribe divinity to other beings beside God. But if you remain patient in adversity and conscious of Him - this, behold, is something to set one’s heart upon.

Surah Al – Baqarah, 2:155

وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُمْ بِشَيْءٍ مِّنَ الْخَوفْ وَالْجُوعِ وَنَقْصٍ مِّنَ الأَمَوَالِ وَالأنفُسِ وَالثَّمَرَاتِ وَبَشِّرِ الصَّابِرِينَ

Wa lanablu-wan-nakum-bi-shay-’im-minal-’amwaali wal-’anfusi was-samaraat: wa bashshiris-Saabiriin.
155. And most certainly shall We try you by means of danger, hunger, and loss of worldly goods, of lives and of (labour’s) fruits. But give glad tidings unto those who are patient in adversity.

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

Yaaa-’ayyu-hal-laziina ’aama-nusbiruu wa saabiruu wa raabituu: wat-taqul-laaha la-’al-lakum tufli-huun.
200. O you who have attained to faith! Be patient in adversity, and vie in patience with one another, and be ever ready (to do what is right), and remain conscious of God, so that you might attain to a happy state!

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

Fasbir ‘alaaa maa yaquu-luuna wa sab-bih bi-Hamdi Rab-bika qabla tuluu-‘ish-shamsi wa qabla ghuruu-bihaa; wa min ’aanaaa-’il-layli fasab-bih wa ’atraafan-nahaari la-‘al-laka tar-zaa.
130. Hence, bear with patience whatever they (who deny the truth) may say, and extol thy Sustainer’s limitless glory and praise Him before the rising of the sun and before its setting; and extol His glory, too, during some of the hours of the night as well as during the hours of the day, so that thou might attain to happiness.

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’.