THE STAGE OF PATIENCE – II

 THE STAGE OF PATIENCE – II

Just as disobedience is the reason behind all forms of misery and wretchedness, patience with disobedience is the reason behind all forms of success and superiority. It is the patience of those who love Allah The Almighty and know His might and majesty. It is the patience of those young people beset by desires and evil objects that are beautified for them and the call, “Come! Everything is ready for you,” gets louder in their
ears but they raise the slogan {I seek the refuge of Allah. Indeed, He is my Master, who has made good my residence. Indeed, wrongdoers will not succeed.} Such people have rightly venerated Allah The Almighty and recognized His favors upon them and therefore they are too bashful to let Allah The Almighty watch them disobeying Him.
If they fall into the trap of disobediences that sullies them, they soon purify themselves with tears of repentance and regret. They are the pious people. In the Quran, Allah The Almighty mentioned that it is one of the characteristics of the pious people that they might commit immorality. Nevertheless, the difference between the pious and the wretched is that when the former commits an act of disobedience, he immediately asks for forgiveness, repents and returns to his Lord with hope and fear. Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {And hasten to forgiveness from your Lord and a garden as wide as the heavens and earth, prepared for the righteous. Who spend [in the cause of Allah ] during ease and hardship and who restrain anger and who pardon the people – and Allah loves the doers of good; And those who, when they commit an immorality or wrong themselves [by transgression], remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins – and who can forgive sins except Allah ? – and [who] do not persist in what they have done while they know.} [Quran 3: 133-135]
We need to take into consideration the reality of life and not speak from lofty towers. This is because reality forces us to say that there are many evil things and desires and the youth easily find seduction everywhere. Do you not agree with me?
Hence, the Messenger of Allah sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) told us that there will be days of patience and knew about the desires and seductive means that would follow, and therefore he promised the patient a double reward. Once, the Messenger of Allah sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) said to his Companions may Allaah be pleased with them: “‘After you there will come the days of patience (i.e., days which require patience). During those (days) the reward for the one who adheres to the Commands of Allah will be equivalent to the reward of fifty of you.’ They said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, the reward of fifty of them?’ He said: ‘Nay, it is the reward of fifty of you.’”
Does not this great reward eagerly urge us to be patient with this perishable life in order to attain the pleasure of the immortal life?
You should know that if you prefer desires, comfort, play and entertainment, they quickly end. Nevertheless, the consequences will be great, unrelenting pain whose suffering and torture are harder, more difficult and continuous than the suffering of keeping patience with the prohibitions of Allah The Almighty as well as obedience to Him and contradicting one’s personal desires for His sake. [Al-Fawaa’id by Ibn Al-Qayyim]
The rewards of those who are patient:
To those young people who are patient with obeying their Lords; to those young people who were called to disobedience and they responded, “We fear Allah” truly, your reward is great. Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {Indeed, the patient will be given their reward without account.”} [Quran 39: 10]
The following are some aspects of their reward:
Being loved by Allah The Almighty: What would you do if you knew that Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, loves you? What would you do if you knew that the Prophet, sallAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, loves you? What would you do if you knew that Allah, the King of the Universe, loves you? Have you not heard before the verse in which Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {And Allah loves the patient} [Quran 3: 146]?
O you who are patient with obedience, Allah The Almighty loves you. He loves a person who wakes up from his deep sleep, removes the bedcovers, stands up with his limbs shivering from the cold, performs ablution correctly and responds to the call of Allah The Almighty for prayer. Allah The Almighty loves someone who severs his (unlawful) relationship with a girl and seeks a way of satisfying Him.
The prize of the heavens: Words cannot describe the great scene that will be granted to the person who was patient out of love for Allah The Almighty. You put your foot in a garden the vastness of which is like the heavens and earth and forget all forms of misery, trial, fatigue and tiredness that you experienced in this worldly life. The angels are receiving you from everywhere because you are the guest of The Most Merciful. Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {Gardens of perpetual residence; they will enter them with whoever were righteous among their fathers, their spouses and their descendants. And the angels will enter upon them from every gate, [saying], “Peace be upon you for what you patiently endured. And excellent is the final home.”} [Quran 13: 23-24]
Patience is better for the patient: In a Hadeeth (narration), the Messenger of Allah sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) said: “Strange is the matter of the believer as all his matters are good, and this is only for the believer. If a good thing befell him, he would be grateful (to Allah) and this would be good for him; and if an evil thing befell him, he would be patient and this would be good for him.”
Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {But if you are patient – it is better for those who are patient.} [Quran 16: 126]
How to achieve patience?
There are several means through which a Muslim can achieve this noble value and great act of worship. The following are the most important means:
• Reflect on the great reward of patience. One has to reflect on the good reward for those who are patient in the two worlds.
• Seek help from Allah The Almighty who Says (what means): {Is He [not best] who responds to the desperate one when he calls upon Him and removes evil and makes you inheritors of the earth?} [Quran 27: 62]
Allah The Almighty is able to grant you this noble quality and make it one of your characteristics. So you should constantly ask Him to grant you this.
• It is something beautiful that the young man reviews the biographies of those who are guiding beacons in patience. There are also youths who live among us now steadfast on obedience and far away from disobedience. When you constantly reflect on them, your soul yearns to join them and become among those who are patient. So, you should not say that their way is difficult, because the Helper is Able. Rather, you should ask The One Who gave them, seek from Him because He is your Lord and theirs. It could happen that a poor man finds a treasure and an unimportant person obtains a great virtue. [Al-Mud-hish by Ibn Al-Jawzi]
Allah The Almighty Says (what means) through the words of Ya‘qoob, may Allah exalt his mention: {So patience is most fitting. And Allah is The One sought for help against that which you describe.} [Quran 12:

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THE BELIEVER DOES NOT CURSE

 THE BELIEVER DOES NOT CURSE

When the Prophet, sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ), guided the one who was seeking salvation to control his tongue, this was an indication of the grave dangers of the tongue, particularly when one gives it free rein. Getting used to abusing and cursing is one of the greatest dangers of the tongue.
Many people think too lightly of this and therefore curse their children, transportation, those who contradict their views, and even those with whom they are joking. Hence, we will state some of what was reported in warning against the dangers of cursing and making a habit of this.
The Meaning and Dangers of Cursing
Cursing means the deprivation and exclusion of goodness or of the Mercy of Allaah The Almighty, and this can never be the habit of the believers. The Prophet, sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ), said, “The believer does not slander, curse, or speak in an obscene or foul manner.”In a Hadeeth on the authority of Abu Hurayrah may Allaah be pleased with him the Prophet, sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ), said: “It does not befit a man of truth to be a curser.”
Cursing a Believer is a Great Crime
Cursing a believer is a great crime that a Muslim should never dare to commit. To illustrate the enormity of this crime, it is enough to mention the Hadeeth where the Prophet, sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ), said: “Cursing a believer is like killing him.” Commenting on this Hadeeth, An-Nawawi may Allaah have mercy upon him said, “According to the apparent meaning of the Hadeeth, both killing and cursing are equal in prohibition, however, killing is graver.” Other scholars said, “Cursing a believer is like killing him with respect to prohibition, guilt and deprivation. This is because cursing is deprivation of the mercy of Allaah The Almighty, and killing is deprivation of life.”
Beware of the Rebounding of the Curse!
When a person curses something that does not deserve to be cursed, the curse rebounds and comes back onto him, even if that which is cursed is the subjugated wind. In a Hadeeth on the authority of ‘Abdullaah Ibn ‘Abbaas may Allaah be pleased with him it was mentioned that the wind blew away a man’s outer garment and, thereupon, he cursed the wind. The Prophet, sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ), said to him:“Do not curse the wind because it is commanded [by Allaah to blow]. Whoever curses something and it does not deserve the curse, the curse will turn back upon him.”
Do Not Curse an Animal or a Mount
People often think of this as something trivial and they curse animals as well as their means of transport. Such people are heedless of the fact that doing so, they themselves mix with cursed things. It was narrated that the Prophet, sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ), was on a journey on which there was also a woman from the Ansaar riding a she-camel. The she-camel annoyed her and so she cursed it. Having heard her, the Messenger of Allaah, sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ), said:“Take off the load on its back and set it free because it is cursed.”’
Cursing a Specific Person
According to the consensus of the scholars, cursing is prohibited. Imaam An-Nawawi may Allaah have mercy upon him said,
There is a consensus among the scholars that cursing is prohibited. Linguistically, cursing means to deprive or expel. In the Sharee’ah, it means deprivation of the Mercy of Allaah The Exalted. For a person whose status and end are not decisively known, it is not permissible to deprive him of the Mercy of Allaah The Almighty. Therefore, they [the scholars] have said, ‘It is not permissible to curse a specific person, whether he is a Muslim or a disbeliever, unless there is a Sharee’ah text that tells us that a specific person died or will die as a disbeliever, like Abu Jahl and Satan; and it is impermissible to curse a mount. However, cursing by general description is permitted such as cursing women who artificially lengthen their hair or those who have their hair artificially lengthened for them, women who tattoo or have themselves tattooed, the two parties of a Riba [interest] transaction, those who produce images, evildoers, oppressors, disbelievers and those who misappropriate the limits of their land. This is general cursing that does not specify someone in particular.
Cursing is from the Gravest of the Grave Major Sins
The Muslim Ummah (nation) has been afflicted by some of its youth who joke with each other only by sending curses and abuse, as they recklessly curse fathers and mothers. They do this despite the fact that this is one of the grave major sins as the Prophet, sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ), said: “One of the gravest of grave major sins is when a person abuses his parents.” It was then asked, “O Messenger of Allaah, is it possible that one could abuse his own parents?”The Prophet, sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ), replied:“Yes, when he abuses the father or mother of another person and the latter returns the insult.”
Parents are the cause behind one’s existence in this life and so they should not be harmed, even by as little as being shown the signs of tedium and annoyance in front of them by using the word “uff”. Therefore, what about those who curse their parents? These people are in fact committing a grave major sin and deserve the supplication of the Prophet, sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ), against them as in the Hadeeth where he said, “May Allaah curse the one who slaughters for the sake of anything other than Allaah, the one who shelters a man who causes mischief upon the earth, and the one who curses his parents.”
Purify Your Tongue from Cursing
If cursing is dangerous, obscene and offensive to that extent, then the believer, who seeks salvation on the Day when neither wealth nor children will be of benefit to him, must refine and purify his tongue from this disaster. He should recall the prohibition of the Prophet, sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ), in the Hadeeth where he said: “Do not curse one another invoking the curse of Allaah, the wrath of Allaah, or the fire of Hell.”
We ask Allaah The Almighty to purify our tongues, hearts and bodies from everything that stirs His wrath.

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