2.19. PATIENCE

God says

And seek aid in steadfast patience and prayer: and this, indeed, is a hard thing for all but the humble, who know with certainty that they shall meet their Sustainer and that unto Him they shall return. -- Q.2:45,46

O you who believe! Seek help in patient perseverance and prayer: for God is with those who are patient in adversity. * -- Q.2:153

* This promise opens the door to every kind of spiritual well-being.

When calamity befalls them they say: “To God we belong and to Him we return.” On them God’s mercy and blessings are bestowed and they are the ones who receive guidance. -- Q.2:156,157
THE ARABIC WORD SABR implies many shades of meanings which it is impossible to comprehend in one English word: (1) patience in the sense of being thorough, rather than hasty; (2) patient perseverance, constancy, steadfastness, firmness of purpose; (3) systematic as opposed to spasmodic or chance action; (4) a cheerful attitude of resignation and understanding of sorrow, defeat, or suffering as opposed to murmuring, or rebellion, but saved from mere passivity or listlessness, by the element of constancy or steadfastness. … An additional meaning implied in Sabr is self-restraint. – Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Prophet said

1. “God the Almighty says: if I take away to me from my faithful servant his best friend in this world and he then bears it patiently for My sake, his reward from Me will be nothing less than paradise” – Hades Qudsi: Bukhari. N: Abu Hurairah.

2.18. NEGLECT OF KNOWLEDGE

God says

You are indeed the best community that has ever been brought forth for (the good of) mankind: you enjoin the doing of what is right and forbid the doing of what is wrong, and you believe in God*.…. Q3:110

History has shown – this promise is bound to lapse whenever Muslims fail to live up to their faith.

We have neglected the condition to act for the good of mankind, hence, lost the status promised in the verse. This can best be understood in the light of 2 : 143 and notes as under:And thus We have willed you to be a community of the middle way,* so that [with your lives] you might bear witness to the truth before all mankind, and that the Apostle might bear witness to it before you.** -- Q.2: 143

* I.e., a community that keeps an equitable balance between extremes and is realistic in its appreciation of man’s nature and possibilities, rejecting both licentiousness and exaggerated asceticism or so called fundamentalism.

** I.e., “that your way of life be an example (and attraction) to all mankind , just as the Apostle is an example to you.

Now If the followers of earlier revelation had attained to [this kind of] faith, it would have been for their own good; …. Q3:110

Do you think that most of them (who deny Our messages) listen and use their reason? No, they are but the cattle – no, they are even less conscious of the right way! -- Q.25:44

Prophet said

1. “Whoever has the knowledge to answer a question (but) he conceals it, shall earn the girdle of fire on Resurrection Day” – H: Ahmed, Ibn Daud and Tirmizi. Ibn Majah from Anas.

2. “The learning from which no benefit is derived is like the hoarded wealth of which nothing is spent in the way of God.” – Ahmed and Darimi. N: Abu Hurairah.

3. “To impart knowledge to one who does not deserve it is like putting on a necklace of emeralds, pearls and gold to the neck of a swine”-- H: Ibn Majah. N: Anas.

4. “By Him in whose hand is my life, you must enjoin (the doing of) what is right and forbid (the doing of) what is wrong, otherwise it is near that God will send chastisement upon you from Himself. You will then call Him but you will not be responded to!” *-- H: Tirmizi. N: Huzaifa.

2.17. KNOWLEDGE AND EDUCATION (continued)

God says

- Read in the name of thy Sustainer, who created – created man out of a germ-cell! Read – for the Sustainer is the Most Bountiful One who has taught [man] the use of the pen – taught man what he did not know!*** -- Q.96:1-5

*** “The pen” is used here as a symbol for the art of writing or, more specifically, for all knowledge recorded by means of writing: and this explains the symbolic summons “Read!” at the beginning of the verses 1 and 3. Man’s unique ability to transmit, by means of written records, his thoughts, experiences and insights from individual to individual, from generation to generation, and from one cultural environment to another endows all human knowledge with a cumulative character; and since, thanks to this God-given ability, every human being partakes, in one way or another, in mankind’s continuos accumulation of knowledge, man is spoken of as being “taught by God” things which the single individual does not – and, indeed, cannot – know by himself. (This double stress on man’s utter dependence on God, who creates him as a biological entity and implants in him the will and the ability to acquire knowledge, receives its final accent, as it were, in the next three verses.) Furthermore, God’s “teaching” man signifies also the act of His revealing, through the prophets, spiritual truths and moral standards which cannot be unequivocally established through human experience and reasoning alone: and, thus, it circumscribes the phenomenon of divine revelation as such.

Prophet said

1. “Whoever treads a path seeking knowledge God will make his path to heaven easy”-- H: Muslim. N: Abu Hurairah.

2. “On the Resurrection Day three persons will intercede: the prophets, the learned and the martyrs!” -- H: Ibn Majah. N: Usman-b-Affan.

3. “If you learn a chapter of religious knowledge whether it is in practice among the faithful or not, it will be better than one thousand units of non-obligatory prayers” – H: Ibn Majah. N: Abu Zarr.

4. “Circulate from me though it be a sentence”-- H: Bukhari. N: Abdullah-b-Amr.

5. “Search knowledge though it may be in China”– H: Baihaqi. N: Anas.

2.17. KNOWLEDGE AND EDUCATION (continued)

God says

Read* in the name of thy Sustainer, who created – created man out of a germ-cell!** Read – for the Sustainer is the Most Bountiful One who has taught [man] the use of the pen – taught man what he did not know!*** -- Q.96:1-5

(Theses first to five verses of the surah form the very first revelation of the Quran)
* “Reading” primarily signifies a conscious taking-in with a view to understanding of words and ideas received from an outside source: in this case, the message of the Qur’an.** It is noteworthy that this very first Qur’anic revelation – beginning with the instruction to read – alludes to man’s embryonic evolution out of a “germ-cell”-- i.e., out of a fertilized female ovum – thus contrasting the primitiveness and simplicity of his biological origins with his intellectual and spiritual potential: a contrast which clearly points to the existence of a conscious design and a purpose underlying the creation of life.

For your convenience, note of third astrix along with the verses :1-5 will be given next Friday, inshaAllah.

Prophet said

1. “The superiority of a learned man (‘aalim) over a (mere) worshipper (‘aabid) is like the superiority of the moon on the night when it is full over all other stars” – H: Ibn Hanbal, Abu Daod, Tirmizi, Nasai, Ibn Majah and Darimi.

2. “Seeking knowledge is compulsory upon every Muslim male and female” --H: Ibn Majah. N: Anas.

3. “When a man dies, all his actions are cut off from him except three: ever- recurring charity, knowledge from which benefit (continues to be) derived, and a virtuous son praying for him (parents)”-- H: Muslim. N: Abu Hurairah.

4. “…..good questioning is half learning’ – H: Bukhari. N: Abu Hurairah.