94 - Patience in adversity and expressing gratitude

1. The Prophet (peace be upon him) wonders at the situation of a believer and his relationship with God. It is a feeling of wonder that gives pleasure, because a believer stands to gain God’s reward in all situations. 

2. If God grants him a favour in respect of himself, his family or property and he is delighted with it, he will thank God for His favours. His thanks will bring him further good, as God will grant him more of His blessings and reward him for his gratitude. 

3. If God tests him with some affliction or adversity, he will remain patient and resign himself to it. He hopes to gain God’s reward for so doing, and God will inspire him to remain patient and give him good reward in return for his patience and acceptance. 

This hadith covers all that God wills for His servants. He tests them with either good or bad means. He says:

If a believer remains patient when he is afflicted with adversity and thankful when he experiences a blessing, then he is a complete believer. Scholars of the early generations said that faith is divided in halves: one half is patience in adversity and one half is thankfulness. God says:

1. A true believer who accepts God’s decree, remains patient in adversity, shows gratitude for God’s favours and blessings will have his affairs going along the best way. It behoves every Muslim to aspire to the status of a patient and thankful believer, so that his grade is raised and his reward is multiplied.

2. Every believer should be thankful for God’s countless favours and blessings. When he tries to take stock of God’s favours in his faith, life, self, health, education, business, work, property, family, etc. he realizes that he swims in a great pool of blessings, and that he falls very short of being thankful. 

3. Paying thanks to God for His favours ensures receiving more of them.

4. When facing an adversity a believer knows that God’s will is bound to be done and that what has happened to him could not have been averted. 

5. A Muslim should never feel in a panic when some adversity happens. A trial will happen to him, no doubt. However, patience in adversity ensures help and reward, while despair brings humiliation and frustration.

6. SaꜤīd ibn Jubayr said: ‘Patience means that a person demonstrates to God his acceptance that what has happened to him is from Him, and that he hopes for God’s reward for it. A person may feel anxiety, but he trains himself to show nothing of it. He is seen to be patient’. [1]

7. Ibn Rajab said: ‘Those who are content sometimes look at the wisdom of God as He tests His servants, and know that He is not to be blamed for His decree. At other times, they look at the reward for the acceptance of God’s will, and this enables them to forget the pain of their affliction. On the other hand, they may observe the majesty and greatness of God who is testing them, and they become absorbed in this so that they forget their pain. This is only achieved by the top elite who have the right knowledge and love of God. They may even enjoy their trial because it comes from the One they love. Some of them said: ‘He let them experience some sweetness in the suffering He caused them’. [2]

8. During his illness, one of the tābiꜤīn was asked how he felt. He said: ‘The part of it I love best is that which He loves best’.  [3]

9. ꜤUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said: ‘Had patience and thankfulness been two camels, I would not mind which of them I ride’. [4]