ROLEPLAY - BENEFITS OF SABR (PATIENCE)

 

One of the biggest benefits for being a patient person is that we can feel more connected to Allah SWT because patience brings us closer to Allah SWT.

It’s a norm in our life to have tribulations, tests which sometimes make us feel hopeless in this world. One will never be able to escape from feeling the hurt, the discomfort, and the pain that comes together when one is being tested because those feelings are necessary in order for us to grow. And also dunya is a prison for the believers but heaven for the disbelievers, so be grateful if we face tests from Allah in life because that means Allah is with us and cherishes us as in surah Al-Baqarah verse 153 "o you have believed, seek help through patience and prayer. Indeed, Allah is with the patient".

 

I will provide an analogy here, being patient is like doing our laundry. You have all these dirty, stained clothes in the washing machine, and in order to get everything cleaned, your clothes will have to go through multiple rounds of being tossed around in the machine for cleaning. And while it's being cleaned, you cannot be impatient and just pull off the switch! It takes time and we have to let it run its course. It's the same with our hearts.

 

Our hearts are dirty. And Allah SWT cleans them through these hardships that He has arranged and planned just for us. So we cannot give up half-way as He's purifying us and after this process we will feel we have grown closer to Allah SWT. When we have tests, we'll speak to Him more often and for much longer periods compared to when we're happy right. Other than that our ego will also be slowly weakening because we learn how powerless we are and how powerful Allah is.

 

When we are patient, that means we believe in Allah’s rewards. We believe that Allah will reciprocate our actions for not giving up when life is too hard and the reward is to be given either in this world or the jannah. Another example I would give, in study which I believe everyone can relate to, we have done our best in our semester but it ended up not giving a satisfying result. In this situation people are divided into two categories. The first one they give up and tell themselves that they are failures and no use of doing efforts anymore. Everything is their fault. They don’t want to believe anymore in Allah’s rewards because that person thinks everything is not working for him even though he has done his best.

 

Meanwhile the second type of person, he is of course sad because he thinks he has done his best but instead of giving up and thinks negatively about Allah, he tries to stay positive, being patient and believe that someday Allah will return all of his efforts into something that will make him happy. If not in this dunya, surely his efforts will be reciprocated in the akhirah.

 

So we can compare between these two categories, which one if we practice will make us closer to Allah and otherwise. so of course the answer is the second person who is patient and think positively about life because Allah will always be there for us, as we can read in Surah Qaf verse 16 "And indeed We have created man, and We know whatever thoughts his inner self develops, and We are closer to him than (his) jugular vein." Meaning  there is no reason for us to think that Allah will not help us when he is closer to us than the jugular veins.

 

Other than that, Allah also really loves those who are patient and the ones that he loves are usually given the greatest tests and guarantees of Jannah. For example, the prophets like Prophet Muhammad SAW who is very renowned not only among Muslims but also the non-Muslims about his limitless patience. We should always remember the story when Prophet SAW went to a district called thaif for dakwah but he was reciprocated very badly. People throw stones at him and mock him until he bled and was injured. But he held himself from being angry and he prayed to Allah so that Allah will grant him an abundance of patience.

 

Then after he prayed, he patiently dealt with the treatment and continued his dakwah without a slight feeling of giving up. This is because Prophet SAW believes the jannah is much more worth it than the life in this dunya. These prophets though given such massive difficulties and tests by Allah, they were patient with His commandments and tests hence that’s what makes their relationship with Allah closer .

 

To conclude my point, whatever problem that we have right now it's not permanent whether it's money, family, academic, emotional problems. Why is this? Because we ourselves are not permanent that's why we have to seek help from Allah who is the only one who is permanent. So whenever something difficult happening in our life, say alhamdulillah to be grateful and observe the little blessings that we might overlook or say inna lillahi wainna ilaihi rajiun and be patient because at times, we have no control over the things in our life because we are weak, powerless and fragile so we leave everything to Allah to help us settle our problem. This is the formula for to be closer to Allah.

 

I think that is all for this entry, thank you for reading!