More Attention and Reliance upon Allah

The third constructive quality of patience is that whatever stage or extent a patient person may be, it helps him to bring relatively closer and more reliant upon Allah. Now, some people may consider that reliance upon Allah does not get along with the reliance upon self, and therefore according to their logic, any one who is dependent upon Allah, could not rely upon his self.

When it is said: 'Rely upon Allah', such people complain: Let people rely upon themselves, and let their eyes and hopes look towards themselves, as if the one who invites the people to rely upon Allah, wants them not to be relied upon themselves. While in reality for a person committed to Allah, reliance upon self is complimentary and inseparable with each other, even to the extent that reliance upon self is regarded as one of the parameter of the patience, which in effect is a means for reliance upon Allah as well as. Because impatience against bitter tragedies of life, and fear against optional calamities, which are reflections of lack of self reliance, also means forgetting Allah.

When a person is inflicted with the severe tragedies of life, and the millstone representing the testing of life is grinding him with intense pressure, if he does not become impatient, aggrieved, and annoyed, the channels of his communication with Allah would become wider and independent, and his heart and soul would be enlightened with the Light of Allah. And on the contrary, his becoming weak and annoyed, makes him ignorant, stranger and disconnected from his own self as well as from Allah. This sentence speaks about a reality fully explicit with clear reasoning and tested with the experience of those, who in their confrontation with the adverse conditions, were able to utilize patience as their winning weapon, and believe and acknowledge this matter with certainty.

"Our Lord! Bestow on us endurance, make our foothold sure and give us help against the disbelieving folk." (2:250)

Adapted from the book: "Discourse on Patience" by: "Seyyed Ali Khamenei'i"