PATIENCE AND PIETY
Believers’ Attitude
OF all the innumerable people who inhabit this world besides ourselves, most of them are trying to achieve some kind of success, and striving to outdo their fellowmen. To attain to these ends, they will proceed as they please, for they have been given complete freedom of action by their Creator. There is, therefore a neverending scramble for the good things of life, a constant jockeying for postion, and an all-too-frequent lack of scruple in elbowing contenders out of the way. We have to face this fact of life, that in this ongoing rough and tumble, the weakest are those who will fall by the wayside. There is no way of averting the hurts and losses of our competitive existence, for that is simply the way that God has made the world.
This, it should be noted, is not a feature peculiar to parts of the world where Muslims and people of other faiths live cheek by jowl. It is characteristic of human existence all over the world, and is certainly to be found in all Muslim communities.
The believers should be more concerned with their own inner state than they are with the external conditions in which they find themselves, and that, above all, they should adhere to the guidance they have received from God, for this will lead them along the paths of patience and piety.
The world being as it is, problems cannot be solved by coming into conflict with everyone whose interests clash with our own. There is only one effective approach, and that is to adopt the policy of avoidance favoured by the Quran. Only by sidestepping those who try to obstruct our progress in life can we continue on our journey with any success. But in order to pursue such a course, the virtue of patience must be sedulously cultivated. To adopt a policy of restraint and simply remove oneself from the path of someone who is bent on being obstructive does require a high degree of forbearance.
But then, the alternative—attaining one’s objectives in an aggressive, confrontational way—means being anti-social and creating disharmony on a variety of fronts, all of which is inconsistent with the ideals of social order.
Believers are fortunate in having the assurances of the Quran that so long as they are guided by the tenets of their faith, they will not be harmed in any way by the malice or misdeeds of their opponents. If you persevere and fear God, their designs will never harm you in the least: God encompasses all that they do. (3:120).
This means the believers should be more concerned with their own inner state than they are with the external conditions in which they find themselves, and that, above all, they should adhere to the guidance they have received from God, for this will lead them along the paths of patience and piety. The nurturing of these qualities will build up a protective barrier against plotting and conspiracies. It will, indeed, provide them with an impenetrable defence.
But, why is it that patience is such a rare quality in human beings? It is because it entails the suppression of one’s feelings when provoked and the suffering of losses and setbacks without protest—neither of which is an easy thing to do. It is only those who can rise above the petty vengefulness engendered by such situations who will be successful in developing this virtue. The first step towards its attainment is the piety so strongly advocated by the Quran; it means, in effect, having an eternal fear of God in one’s heart.
The truly pious person ceases to live on purely human level; he ascends to a divine level where, above all else, he cherishes the will of God, and where all of his actions are aimed at consolidating the blessings promised to him by his Maker. Externally, he may appear to be living in this world, but, in fact, he is living on an exalted plane where his inner senses are in tune with the everlasting world of God.