Enjoining Patience

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamua alaykum

Dear Friends

I pray that you are well.

Reflect on these verses (Qur'an Al-Asr 103:1-3)

I swear by the time,
Surely Man is in the way of loss
Save those who believe, and do righteous deeds, and counsel each other unto the truth, and counsel each other to patience.

Imam Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) said, "If nothing of the Qur'an was revealed to people except this surah it would have sufficed them." It has been narrated that the companions of the Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, would not part company until one of them recited this surah to the other.

Time is our capital and our life is a transaction. Time will outstrip us because our life in this world is temporary and each moment that pass by is a moment closer to the end of our life in this world.

Each of us has a capital which we must use to make a profit. If we fail to do so we lose our capital--this is a clear loss. If we don't understand what time represents, then we cannot profit from it. If we understand the significance of time, our attitude to life would be very different. We would struggle to make sure every moment of our time is spent in a way that will give us maximum profit in the next life. Wherever we are with Allah, there is a closer rank and higher station, so we don't stop striving. We should not be satisfied with a minimum. However pure our prayer is, for example, there is always a purer prayer that we can aimed for. "I just need to scrape in into Paradise" should not be part of our vocabulary. So lay out a plan of action to reach a higher rank. We will still be rewarded for our plans even if we didn't get to execute our plans.

Patience is a key to all these. Patience enable us to put up with the difficult and unexpected in life. Putting up with these difficulties without complaining and without losing hope is of the highest ranks of patience and has a tremendous reward.

We need each other to remind us to be patient. Each of us has that responsibility as part and parcel of doing righteous deeds and perfecting ourselves to reach that high "profitable" rank with Allah. This surah emphasizes that social responsibility a lot as well as the urgency of time and the need to do good as many good deeds as you can. The good deeds in Islam are the truths of Islam. Enjoining to truth includes putting up with things you don't like. So the single most important good deed is to enjoin people to patience because patience is what people need the most when enjoining people to the truth and when striving oneself to nearness to Allah.

And Allah knows best.

May Allah give us blessings in our time, and what little we do is much with Him out of His Grace. Ameen.

Please don't forget us in your night prayers. JazakAllahu khairan.
Wassalaam