بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Imām Ibn al-Qayyim said:
“Patience” (al-Sabr) linguistically means: restraint and holding back. From this comes (the expression) “so-and-so was killed sabran” when he was held and restrained. From this is His saying, The Most High:
﴿ وَاصْبِرْ نَفْسَكَ مَعَ الَّذِينَ يَدْعُونَ رَبَّهُم بِالْغَدَاةِ وَالْعَشِيِّ يُرِيدُونَ وَجْهَهُ ﴾
“And keep yourself patient with those who call upon their Lord in the morning and the evening, seeking His Face” [Al-Kahf: 28] – meaning: restrain yourself with them.
So patience is: restraining the soul from panic/distress and discontent, restraining the tongue from complaint, and restraining the limbs from disorderly conduct/inappropriate behaviour.
And it (consists of) three types: patience in obedience to Allāh, patience (in refraining) from disobedience to Allāh, and (having) patience upon Allāh’s (tests and) trials. The first two are patience regarding what relates to acquisition (i.e. what is within one’s control), and the third is patience regarding what the servant has no acquisition in.
I heard Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allāh purify his soul, say: “(Prophet) Yūsuf’s patience from complying with the wife of al-‘Azīz in her affair was more complete than his patience regarding his brothers throwing him in the well, selling him, and separating him from his father. For these are events that happened to him involuntary – having no acquisition in them. The servant has no recourse/means in such matters other than patience.
But as for his patience/abstinence from sin/disobedience was patience of choice, contentment, and fighting the soul, especially given the causes that strengthen the motives for compliance;
for he was a young man, and the call of youth to it is strong.
And (he was) unmarried, having nothing to compensate him and repel his desire.
And (he was a) stranger, and the stranger does not feel shame in his land of exile from what he would feel shame about among his companions, acquaintances, and family.
And (he was) owned/enslaved, and the owned person’s restraint is not like the restraint of the free person.
And the woman (was) beautiful, possessing (high) status, and she was his mistress.
And indeed the observer was absent.
And she was (the one) calling him to herself, and the one eager for that – (with) severe eagerness.
Despite all these motives, he was patient by choice, preferring what is with Allāh.
And (on top of) that, she threatened him with prison and humiliation if he did not (comply).
Where is this compared to his patience in the well regarding what was not of his acquisition?”
He (i.e. Shaykh al-Islām ibn Taymiyyah) used to say: “Patience in performing acts of obedience is more complete and superior than patience in avoiding prohibitions. For indeed the benefit of obedience is more beloved to the Lawgiver than the benefit of leaving sin, and the corruption of not performing obedience is more hated and disliked by Him than the corruption of the existence of sin.”
(al-Daw al-Munīr alā Tafsīr of Ibn al-Qayyim 1/378-379)
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