Can Understanding the Types of Patience and Acting Upon Them Result in a Sound Heart?
Most of us believe that patience means enduring hardships in life. For example, if we lose a loved one and do not despair, we consider ourselves patient. While this belief is correct, it is incomplete. There are many types of patience. Patience is not just about enduring calamities; its meaning is much broader. In general, enduring and accepting whatever comes our way is called patience. Patience is a skill that helps us stay calm and committed while waiting for a desired outcome. Anything that seems difficult to do or avoid requires patience. Perhaps we have often complained during hardships, saying, “Why me? Why does this disaster happen to me? Why must I face these difficulties?” Most of us either become frustrated with the circumstances or, in the most optimistic case, imagine the reward for our patience as a palace in the hereafter. However, the wisdom behind the various types of patience goes far beyond what we imagine. Patience is the very elixir and formula that leads us to a sound heart and brings health and purity to our hearts. Therefore, every time we patiently obey God’s commands, every time we reject the demands of our ego or Satan, or endure hardships, difficulties, pressures, or trials without complaining, we step closer to acquire a sound heart. The sound heart is what brings us into compatibility with eternal Heaven.
Join us to learn about the different types of patience in life and how this formula works to achieve a sound and pure heart.
Introducing the Types of Patience
We are from God; we were with Him; we have come to this world for a time, and we will return to Him. However, to achieve eternal peace and happiness, one crucial condition is necessary: possessing a sound heart. The most fundamental element in developing a sound heart is patience. Major obstacles and barriers stand in the way of our heart’s soundness, most of which stem from the desires and demands of our lower self. But acquiring a sound heart is only possible if our fitrah triumphs over our material nature and a balance is struck between them. The element that can lead a person to overcome these obstacles is patience. Every perfection and achievement that a person is destined to reach is made possible only through the channel of different types of patience. This guiding patience shows its fate-shaping effect through three main branches. The types of patience are categorized as follows.
Patience in Obedience to God
When we fall in love with someone, we try our best to say and do whatever they want, even if it does not align with our own desires and even if doing so is painful for us. This endurance and perseverance in doing something difficult or unpleasant is precisely what patience is. When God’s Spirit was breathed into the human being at creation, it was like a seed that is planted. It must gradually emerge from the darkness of the soil and blossom. If it cannot endure these hardships, there can be no growth and blossoming, and it will not reach its full potential. As mentioned, Heaven is the state of having a heart that is compatible and in harmony with the conditions of the hereafter. Heaven is wrapped in layers of hardship. A person must peel away these layers through obedience to God in order to enter Heaven. Whoever desires Heaven must also have the courage, strength, and patience to face difficulties like hunger, poverty, thirst, illnesses, limitations, and so forth.
When God breathed His spirit into us, all His attributes and names were also potentially placed within us. The only way to actualize and manifest these attributes and names is through patience. Manifesting each of God’s names and attaining each spiritual station require their own specific type of patience. Acquiring each of God’s names demands great and beautiful patience. A person must compel their heart and body to obey God’s commands in order to gain strength from them. We must make the fitri (innate), divine part of our existence the commander over the animal, vegetative, inanimate, and intellective dimensions of our being. Our fitrah can only become the ruler and master over our material nature when we properly nourish it by obeying God, performing religious obligations (wajibat), and adhering to recommended acts (mustahabbat). This allows it to overcome our material nature. The factor that can compel us to perform our obligations and recommended acts is patience over laziness, negligence, doubts, impatience, and lack of faith. Patience in obedience to God is one of the most important types of patience.
Patience Against Temptation and Sin
As we have discussed, our human growth and maturity depend on the outcome of the constant and eternal struggle between our fitrah and material nature. If the material nature is not restrained and responds positively to all its desires, it becomes wild and unruly. It then transforms into a tyrannical and despotic ruler that shreds and devours our fitrah, our divine part. Our fitrah must regulate the various parts of our material nature such as inanimate, vegetative, animal, and intellective dimensions. This means it must not simply say “yes” to every command and desire of these lower parts. It must not yield to every whim and non-essential need, nor listen to the whispers of Satan. This act of pausing and saying no to every suggestion and temptation from Satan and the ego is a restriction we impose on our material nature, and its name is patience. It is the very factor that prevents us from creating excess burdens for our journey through the Barzakh, the Day of Judgment, and our eternal life. In truth, without the ability to avoid sin, acquiring a sound heart is impossible. This is because a sound heart is free from impurities, sins, and diseases. A person must have a quality of patience in order to be able to resist spiritual pollution and illnesses and not be infected by them. This is a type of patience that requires understanding and consistent practice to become a deeply ingrained trait (malakah). Patience in the face of temptation and sin is one of the essential types of patience.
Patience in the Face of Trials and Hardships
Patience during calamities and hardships is one of the most evident forms of patience. All life’s tests, troubles, calamities, difficulties, and pressures are a crucial part of the path to attaining a sound heart. God is the Healer and Physician who knows the state of our heart’s soundness perfectly. For this very reason, He designs and places many tests and trials in our path. Trials are like sealed chambers; by cultivating patience within them, we can purify ourselves of impatience, haste, complaints, and ingratitude, ultimately achieving a sound heart. Calamities and hardships are the voices of the lower parts of our being. For example, the inanimate dimension is concerned about poverty and bankruptcy. The vegetative dimension complains of sickness and pain, and the animal aspect complains of neglect and failures. The intellective dimension is anxious about books and credentials. These attachments and false beloveds can cripple a person, dragging them into the abyss of ingratitude and conflict with God. In these conditions, patience acts as the definitive cure, saving the heart from ruin. Patience leads a person to correctly prioritize their beloveds. It places our true Beloved, God, at the pinnacle of all our other loves. When this happens, blows and damage to other dimensions of our being no longer leave us sad and desperate because our heart is content and at peace with its greatest Beloved. A sound heart is one that has achieved the correct arrangement and prioritization of its beloveds. Through insight and the various types of patience, such a heart gives each attachment its due worth, grieving for it or rejoicing in it only to the necessary and appropriate degree.