Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Imam ‘Ali’s First Treatise On The Islamic Ethics And Education Habituate yourself to patient endurance in afflictions ========================================================== 19. Habituate yourself to patient endurance in afflictions; the best of moral traits is to constrain yourself to patience in the (path of) truth.
وعود نفسك التصبّر على المكروه ونعم الخُلق التصبر في الحَقِّ The factor which protects man in confronting hardships or against desires contrary to the religion is called perseverance. It has different shapes which are dealt with in the following tradition: "الصَبرُ ثَلاثَة: صَبْرٌ عِندَ المُصِيبَةِ، وَصَبرُ عَلى الطَّاعَةِ وَصَبرٌ عَن المَعصِيَةِ" "Patience is of three kinds; patience during calamities, patience in obeying Allah and patience in refraining from sins”.
[^1] The important point in patience is that practice in it will broaden our capacity to stand firm in the face of hardships. On the contrary, those people who lack this asset will lose their resistance in time of difficulties. For this reason, in Islam, worship and prayer are adopted as somewhat hard, such as prayers, fasting, pilgrimage, holy wars and the like with the practice of which man becomes strong.
The Holy Qur’an, which mentions the word patience more than seventy times, relates a lot of good to it.
The Holy Qur’an, talking about appointing an Imam for the Israelites and fulfilling God's promises of their victory over their enemies, puts patience as the criterion for their prosperity: "وَجَعَلْنَا مِنْهُمْ أَئِمَّةً يَهْدُونَ بِأَمْرِنَا لَمَّا صَبَرُوا" "And We made of them imams to guide by our command when they were patient" [^2] Elsewhere, the Qur’an says: "وَتَمَّتْ كَلِمَةُ رَبِّكَ الْحُسْنَى عَلَى بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ بِمَا صَبَرُوا" "And the good word of your Lord was fulfilled in the children of Israel because they bore up sufferings patiently" [^3] In another connection, where the Qur’an mentions divine help for the holy war fighters, the issue of patience once more is raised: ** ** "بَلَى إِنْ تَصْبِرُوا وَتَتَّقُوا وَيَأْتُوكُمْ مِنْ فَوْرِهِمْ هَذَا يُمْدِدْكُمْ رَبُّكُمْ بِخَمْسَةِ آلَافٍ مِنْ الْمَلَائِكَةِ مُسَوِّمِينَ" "Yea!
If you remain patient and are on your guard, and they come upon you in a headlong manner, your Lord will assist you with five thousand of the havoc-making angels".