Patience Against Unpleasant Events (Tragedies)
The human life is always accompanied by events and unpleasant calamities, and there is no escape from such happenings. The human structure has been created in such a way, that it has to deal with these imposed situations, i.e. always encountering unpleasant events and calamities during the entire span of our lives. The following famous sentence of the Commander of the Faithful Imam Ali (A.S.) describes the above theme as follows:
"The world is like a house which has been encircled with temptations and calamaties."
Sickness, physical handicaps, financial losses, death of loved ones and deprivations are some of the few examples of the inevitable happenings from which there is no escape. Even the most prosperous class of people are not immune against these types of occurences. When such calamities befall, naturally, without any choice or intention of our own, in our lives, usually there arc two types of reactions shown by the people, as follows:
1. Some people, on account of the calamity give up their resistance completely and therefore become spiritually handicapped.
2. The other group of people, bear with patience considering it a natural thing of this worldly life,
and come out of it intact and with dignity.
According to the famous Persian poet Roudaki1 the merit, greatness, and leadership of a man is tested during his encounter with calamity. Grief, crying, and lamentation which are the ways of weak, timid-hearted and impatient individuals, in itself is a strong natural passion. Which imposes a violent emotional force upon the human structure, whereby all the body parts are employed to perform a particular function. The eyes shed tears, the tongue complains, the throat groans, and the hands, feet, and head, are all involved in performing special actions and movements.
Patience, against calamities means not to surrender to these violent emotional outbursts. A patient human being, while facing such tragedies does not give up his morale and maintains his composure and control. These tragedies do not make him depressed and discouraged, and do not stop him from making efforts and endeavours for accomplishing the main goals in the real life. Therefore this type of patience (against calamities) is also important, and has been termed as fair and charming in the narration quoted earlier.
Now, let us consider the case of a wayfarer who starts his journey in a certain direction so that he could reach the final desired destination. If upon encountering
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1 Ja'far bin Mohammad 'Roudaki', regarded as the father of Persian poetry, flourished in the Samanid Court at Bukhara in the 9th-10th century A.D. (Ed.)
each unpleasant accident, and after receiving a small injury, he gives up his morale and looses his composure, then it is obvious that such a person will never complete this journey and will never reach the final destination. Resistance, offered against these motives of depression, while facing these tragedies is a key factor, which not only secures the high morale, but moreover, this endurance in itself, is an excercise, which is beneficial for building up the determination and strong iron-will among human beings, which are the pre-requisites for continuation of the difficult journey.
Therefore patience against natural tragedies which befall human beings, without any option or choice, consists of the following two important advantages:
Firstly, it secures and maintains the high morale, which is responsible for all constructive involvement, and further acts as an obstacle to prevent it from getting lost or being destroyed completely.Secondly, it builds up the human determination or will power, which is an important means for all positive actions, and further it provides the required endurance to face the optional tragedies.
The special encouragement and excitement shown by the religious guardians about this type of patience, clearly demonstrates its constructive and miraculous role. In the following two narrations the deep philosophy of this branch of patience could be clearly demonstrated.
First Narration :
"Whoever has not equipped himself with the weapon of patience, during hardships and calamities of the time, will be subjected to a state of weakness and helplessness". (al-Kafi vol. 2, p. 93)
Second Narration :
"For a believer, if a position and rank, has been taken into consideration by Allah, which could never be accomplished by deeds alone, he is inflicted with physical sickness, or loss of wealth, or tragedies to his loved ones, and in case, he remains patient, he is awarded by Allah (the assigned position and rank)" (Safinatul Bihar vol. 2, p. 5)
In the above narration the constructive and exalted role of patience has been demonstrated explicitly.
Othman bin Maz'oon, who was an experienced Muslim and had migrated to Ethopia and Madina, during the early period of Islam, lost his young son at Madina. This tragedy was so devastative that he decided to spend all his remaining life inside his house in prayers, and
suddenly stopped all his social involvement completely. His depression after the death of his young son was so intense, that he wished never to face the pleasures of life again. The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) after hearing about his state of affairs, paid him a courtesy visit and advised him to change his decision. The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said that Islam does not allow monastic life (renunciation of world), sitting in an isolated corner, engrossed prayers. The renunciation of the world by Islamic Ummah means, participation in Jihad for the sake of Allah. Therefore, patience against unforeseen tragedies, for which we have no choice, means to be able to tolerate the injury caused by the calamity without giving up the morale, and to be able to continue the routine normal involvement of the real life, and eventually forgetting the tragedy with the passage of time.
Patience Against Optional Tragedies
This branch of patience surpasses in excellence other situations because in this case a conscientious, and aware human being arises to accomplish a certain goal, and offers resistance against all the hardships and unpleasant events which are inflicted upon him during this course. But inspite of facing all these severe calamities does not get demoralized, depressed, and continues his movement towards the cherished goal.
If we perform an indepth analysis for research purposes, regarding the state of affairs of humansocieties in history, looking for lofty human ideals, and specially the goals aspired by divine Prophets, which were always in conflict with the classes representing the tyrants and profiteers, and therefore were always opposed by them; it would become crystal clear that there had always been permanent war and confrontation between the proclaimers of these higher goals and the powerful classes of tyrants and oppressors. There are plenty of verses in the Holy Qur'an which throw considerable light regarding the historical confrontation between the Prophets of Allah and the representative of false deities (Taghout). Since this confrontation between truth and falsehood is inevitable, therefore it is necessary for the followers of the path of truth, proclaimers of justice and righteousness, and the truth seekers and researchers following the path of divine Prophets, to know and predict in advance that the path of truth is accompanied by all kinds of hardships and calamities. The Holy Qur'an , in order to make the believers ready for confronting the problems, announces in advance clearly the potential dangers on the path of truth, and brings the historical realities to their attention as follows:
"Assuredly you will be tried in your property and in your
persons and you will hear much wrong from those who were given the scripture before you and from the idolaters. But if you are patient and guard yourselves (against evil), then it is a matter of (great) resolve." (3: 186)
In reality, those who wanted to live like a believer or slave of Allah, and also wanted to be responsible towards the divine obligations and other commitments assigned to them, realized that they will be opposed and subjected to different kind of hardships by their opponents, and they soon witnessed the truth of this Quednic prediction with their own eyes in their own period.
Of course, the one who enjoys an important position and rank and whose faith and actions are more determined in the path of Allah would be more effective. And therefore in the same proportion will be subjected to severe hardships and tragedies by the opponents, whose tolerance is indeed difficult. There is a famous narration quoted from Imam Jaffer Sadiq (A.S.) as follows:
"Among all the people, the prophets were inflicted with the harshest calamities, and after them, those who were closer to the prophets were subjected to similar kinds of hardships and calamities". (Safinatul Bihar)
Of course, these calamities are not like the type of unforeseen natural tragedies, as described
earlier, for which a human being has absolutely no control or choice, rather in this case every one has the optic n too choose. In case he desires and prefers the comfortable and easy life of this world, and to remain immune against these types of calamities, he may elect to do so. What makes these events inevitable is the movement towards the cherished goal.
Every easy going person who prefers the comfortable environment of his home and never takes the trouble to venture outside the four walls of his house, would never face the inconveniencies and problems encountered in a journey. But at the same time, he will never benefit from the experiences which a re possible only by going through an adventurous journey. He would remain safe throughout his life from such (events as, slipping from the mountain peak, facing a beast in the jungle, and being robbed by bandits, which are likely events of an adventurous journey.
Like every naive and irresponsible human being who has not recognized the aims of life, and has not taken any steps towards that goal, and prefers an unevtentful life without headaches, would be better advised to follow the decree of the following verse of Sa'di, the famous Iranian poet as follows:
"Although inside the sea there are plenty of material gains
But if you prefer safety, you better stay on the shore!"
According to this logic,1 one could easily choose the option to remain immune from all the troubles, headaches, and injuries etc, which are a pre-requisite for joining the path of the prophets.
Therefore, the calamities on the path of the prophets are optional tragedies, in the sense that they are inflicted upon those, who are taking commands from the following saying of the Commander of the Faithful Imam Ali (A.S.) as follows:
"By taking giant steps on the divine path, they throw themselves into the whirlpool of tragedies."
Therefore, they succeeded in announcing the positive and definite reply to the divine invitation to support the truth. Hence, patience against optional
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1 Like the French poet Gautier who once during wartime stated:
"I prefer lying down to sitting, I prefer sitting to standing, and I prefer remaining home to going out. I will know nothing of the war they say has engulfed the whole world, unless a bullet shatters the window of my house" (Tr)
tragedies is the important type of patience, relative to other catagories. This branch of patience reflects the highest degree of human exaltedness in facing the optional tragedies.
This type of patience means accepting tragedies in spite of the fact that all instinctual motives, are forcing him to turn his back in the middle of the path and stop offering resistance any more; yet he continues offering resistance, and never feels sorry or ashamed to be inflicted with severe blows on the righteous path.
Khabbab bin al-Arth, is ranked among the top Muslims, who accepted the invitation of the holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.) to Islam, and offered a lot of sacrifices. Because of his conversion to Islam, he lost a significant portion of his property and possessions. One day, he complained to the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) about his severe financial loss. He himself narrates as follows: "The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) had spread his robe on the ground, and was reclining with his back against the Holy Ka'ba. When he listened to my complaint, he changed his relaxed sitting position, and his composure changed, and said:
"Your predecessors, 1 sometimes were slaughtered by the iron saw, cutting their skin, veins, and flesh all the way down till the bones. But they remained committed to their faith, and never complained, even when in some cases, their bodies were cut off into two equal pieces. Allah will carry this movement (Islam) till its perfection. The distance a rider travels between Sana 2 and Hadhramut, 3 roads and highways will be so safe, under the Islamic state and Islamic system that nobody will be afraid of anything but Allah, and the flock of sheeps will not be scared of anyone but wolf." Therefore, the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) by delivering these fiery speeches instilled his followers with the spirit of resistance and iron will, and encouraged them to be patient, while facing the calamities which were inflicted upon them for the sake of their belief in Allah. It is quite possible that some one by practicing patience for discharging Islamic obligations (i.e. patience in obedience), or by offering resistance against instinctual passions (i.e. patience against sin), may be genuinely included in the list of believers and may start walking on the path whose other end leads to Allah.
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1 The Prophet was referring to believers in the mission of earlier Prophets, who in those distant times were subjected to all sorts of inhuman atrocities by the idolaters. The main theme of the messages of all divine Prophets was Monotheism (belief in the One and Only Allah) and Islam, which means submission to Allah's will. (Ed).
2 Capital of Yemen.
3 Region in the southern part of Yemen.
But once : confronted with accidents and tragedies, which are essential and inevitable part of this journey, he may not withstand, and in the middle of the path, face moral break down, weakness of faith, hopelessness, and other such reasons and on account of impatience, may decide to return without completing the journey, disregarding the dischargement of duties, which were assigned to him. Therefore the completion of journey on this path with certainty, and without any doubt for not breaking in the middle, is made possible only by practicing this type of patience (i.e. patience against optional tragedies).
