Allah Almighty says in the Qur’an:
إِنَّ اللهَ مَعَ الصَّابِرِيْنَ
Allah is with those who have patience (ii: 153).
There are two important things that come out of this verse. The first thing is that Allah is with us if we are patient. Allah says: “I am with those people who are patient.” I do not think that we really understand what Allah’s being with us means. Only Allah knows. We can only assume that Allah Almighty is with that servant in a special way. His blessings are there for that servant. His forgiveness is there for that servant. All good things Allah provides for His servant, for someone who is patient, who is in a state of sabr. This sabr does not mean the kind of patience that you have to have when waiting for things or persons. It’s not that kind of patience. This kind of patience has to do with how an individual accepts the decrees of Allah on him, and the degree to which he accepts the Divine Will on matters related to him and to others. Whatever happens, he says: الحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ (Alhamdu lillah: all praises be to Allah). In other words, when we talk of a person who has patience, it means that he does not object to or show any dissatisfaction with the decree of Allah Almighty. Whatever state Allah Almighty has placed him in, he says: الحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ (Alhamdu lillah). That does not mean he sits back and does nothing – no. He tries very very hard to strive in the cause of Allah Almighty all the time. And in his striving for that cause, he will have infinite patience. Now this is what I want to come to.
Many of us are impatient. We expect things to come from Allah Almighty very quickly. Allah Almighty decides when. He decides how, and He decides what. He dictates to His creation. We cannot have impatience with regards to what Allah Almighty decides. We have to plod along, plod along patiently with our ibadat, patiently with our fast, with our adhkar, and with our recital of the Qur’an, and try very hard to do these for the sake of Allah Almighty. This is very important. Although there is reward promised to us, this must not be foremost in our minds. We must say: “O my Lord, I do this for Thy sake.” Allah Almighty says in the Qur’an:
قُلْ لِّلّٰهِ
Say it is for the sake of Allah (vi: 12).
This means that when we pray, we do not say at the end of the niyyah: “O my Lord, I am doing this for the reward.” No! We must say: “O my Lord, it is for Thy sake.” It is for Allah’s sake! So when we fast, when we pray, when we give sadaqah, when we recite Qur’an, when we make dhikr, we say: “O Allah, I am doing this for Thy sake!” How Allah rewards us, when He will reward us, what the reward will be: that we must be patient about. We must just continue in sincere service to Him.
What Allah Almighty is going to give is infinitely greater than what we do in religious service. What do we do? We do little portions of salah everyday. We give 10% of our time everyday for salah. Allah Almighty gives us 100% and even more than that. There is no comparison between what the servant does and what Allah Almighty grants. When a servant asks Allah Almighty for anything, he must wait. I know that many of us ask: “O Allah, make me a salih person. O Allah, grant me what Thou has granted Thy pious servants. O Allah, make me one of the Awliya’.” It is good to ask all of these and even more.
There is no limit to what Allah Almighty can give. We must not put limitations on what Allah Almighty can do. We must not think that Allah will not give to us. Allah decrees when he will give to that servant. We must sabr. We must sabr in what we do and what we expect; plodding along, plodding along, making our dhikr, doing our salah, giving our zakah, and other ibadat day in and day out. We must just do those things, always saying: “O Allah, this is for Thee! For Thy sake I am doing these.” There might be other things in our minds but, of course, Allah Almighty knows our states.
He knows how good we are, or how bad we are. We sin, we ask forgiveness and He grants. Allah Almighty gives us hasanat because we control our nafs. We please Him and He grants us hasanat because we control our nafs. We are thinking of Him all the time. Sometimes we sin and we say: “O my Lord, I have sinned. Grant me tawbah,” and He grants us forgiveness and repentance. We asked forgiveness and tawbah because we had sinned. How could Allah Almighty have granted tawbah if he had created all of us perfect and free from committing sin. He had created us in such a way that we sin. His Name of being All-Forgiving comes into operation when we sin, or His Name of being the One Who grants tawbah comes into operation. Understand our Lord like that.
It is far more difficult to become a pious person in this environment because of all the distractions. Remember Allah Almighty says:
قُلْ لِّلّٰهِ
Say it is for the sake of Allah (vi: 12).
and He says:
إِنَّ اللهَ مَعَ الصَّابِرِيْنَ
Allah is with those who have patience (ii: 153).
We must be patient. We must just plod along, saying: “O Allah, I am doing this for Thy sake, not for anyone else’s sake, only for Thy sake.” This is very difficult. I am not talking about this to give you the impression that I am like that, no. It is extremely difficult to operate our religion only for Allah’s sake because we like to be heard and we like to be seen. Be careful of this. The ego inside of us wants to be known, wants to be heard and wants to be seen. We ask Allah Almighty with the blessings of Suratul Fatihah, that we must control our egos, that Allah must make us of those people that he mentions in the verse, the sabirin, that Allah must make us of those Muslims who do things for His sake, not for the sake of people’s eyes or for the sake of people’s ears, or people’s knowledge. We ask for all of these with the blessings of Suratul Fatihah …
And Allah knows best, and I ask forgiveness for any mistakes or distortions in what I have said, Amin.