5 type of patience

As-salamu `alaykum wa rahmatullah...... Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim...


Patience can be divided into five categories following the five categories of deeds:

Waajib (Obligatory)

- Patience in abstaining from haram things and actions
- Patience in carrying out obligatory deeds
- Patience in facing adversity which is beyond one’s control, such as illness, poverty etc.

Mandub (Encouraged)

- Patience in abstaining from makruh things
- Patience in performing acts of worship which are liked and encouraged (mustahabb)
- Patience in refraining from taking revenge.

Mahdhur (Forbidden)

- Patience in abstaining from food and drink until death

- Patience in abstaining from eating haraam meat, carrion and blood, when the alternative is death from starvation. Tawus and Ahmad ibn Hanbal said: “Whosoever has no choice but to eat carrion, haram meat and blood, but refuses to eat it and dies as a consequence, will enter Hell.”

- Patience in refraining from begging. There is a dispute as to whether begging from people is forbidden or permissible. Imam Ahmad said that this kind of patience and abstention is allowed. He was asked, “What if a person fears that he does not do that, he will die?”
 Imam Ahmad answered, “No, he will not die. Allah will send him his due provision (rizq).” Imam Ahmad did not allow begging: when Allah knows the need of a person and his sincerity in abstaining from begging, Allah will send him rizq. Other scholars including some of Imam Ahmad’s companions and Imam Shaafi’ said: “It is obligatory on such a person to beg, and if he did not beg, then he would be a wrongdoer, because by begging he protects himself from death.”

- Patience in enduring things that may lead to death, such as predators, snakes, water and fire.

- Patience at times of Fitnah when Muslims are fighting Muslims. Patience in abstaining from fighting at such a time, when Muslims are killing Muslims, is mubah (permissible), indeed it is mustahabb (liked and preferred). When the Prophet salallahu alayhi wassalam was asked about this, he said: “Be like the better one of the two sons of Adam.” In other, similar, reports he said: “Be like the slave of Allah who was killed, and not like the one who has killed,” and “let him (the killer) carry his own wrong action and your wrong action.” In another report, he said: “If the sword is too bright, put your hand on your face.” Allah has told us the story of the better of the two sons of Adam, and how he surrendered himself and did not fight back, and how Allah commended him for that. This is different to the case when the Muslims are fighting kafirun: in that situation the Muslim has to defend himself, because the meaning of Jihad is to defend himself and Islam.

Makruh (Disliked)

- Patience in abstaining from physical appetites (food, drink) to the extent of causing damage to one’s health.
- Patience in doing a makruh deed.

Mubah(Permissible)

- Patience in abstaining from mubah deeds
['uddat as-saabireen wa dhakhiraat ash-shaaireen' by Ibn Al-Qayyim rahimahullah]

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