Patience Against Unpleasant Events (tragedies)
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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,
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.)
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.
"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)
"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
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 human"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
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)
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:
