Page 36 - The Importance of Patience in the Qur’an

34 THE IMPORTANCE OF PATIENCE IN THE QUR'AN

child may break the most valuable object in the house, a wife may
have an accident with the car that her husband has been making
payments on for years, or a relative may visit at an inconvenient time,
and so on. These are common occurrences, and those who do not
display the Qur'an's morality might slip into rather unpleasant
behavior. The reason for such behavior is their inability to show
patience in living by the values that Allah prescribed.
Only those who possess the superior morality portrayed in the
Qur'an can always display true patience. Their most important
characteristic is the unchanging nature of their behavior. For example,
one might have a very strong temper, but upon learning that Allah
refers to believers as "those who control their rage and pardon other
people" (Surah Al 'Imran, 134), he or she exhibits forgiving behavior
even when faced with an event that normally might cause them to
become angry. Whatever may happen, believers continue to speak
pleasantly, remain tolerant, control their anger, and show other fine
moral characteristics taught by the Qur'an.
In short, what makes the believers' character superior is their
consistency and patience at all times, both of which enable them to
live by their high morality. The faithful try to display consistency as
long as they are alive not only in pardoning other people but also in
displaying self-sacrifice, humility, compassion, kindheartedness,
tolerance, justice, love, and respect, and by exercising their free will,
because Allah tells the faithful to be consistent in their worship: "He is
Lord of the heavens and Earth and everything in between them, so
worship Him and persevere in His worship" (Surah Maryam, 65).
Another command of Allah is to answer evil with good. The
Qur'an tells the faithful to distance themselves from evil as best they
can by remaining patient, as follows:

A good action and a bad action are not the same. Repel the bad