Patience

Reflective Essay

Patience

I speak of a very particular quality, one which is regarded lightly. Many don’t possess such a quality; I would place myself in the same group. A person with the quality like patience is someone with a brave heart. Patience among people of the new generations do not exist, but hopefully it will be changed by a very inspiring story.

I am relating an experience and a bit more of the life of a very brave hero. Yunus Shaik, a member of the government and an apartheid activist. He had lost his mother at a very young age and grew up in the hands of an African lady. He encountered many difficulties but still stood straight. But that was not the only time his patience was tested. Though the apartheid system was a horrible and unfair system, through out the apartheid times he had believed there was hope for South Africa. He encountered gruesome experiences, sad to say, he was tortured severely. He explained the most tearing experience was when he was placed in a chamber and security blotch people tortured him. They placed a bag over his head, cutting his oxygen supply. Accompanied with that they beat him up. What carried him through all this he believes was his religion, Islam. He says enchanting the beautiful words of Allah, in the form of zikr and engaging in prayer. He realizes what is truly meant by being a believer. Allah assisted him through the period of struggle.

I gather patience is tolerance, understanding and acceptance without judging our reward. In simple words a quality of calmness. I would like to quote the exact meaning of patience from www.wikipedia.com “patience is the ability to endure waiting, delay or provocation without becoming annoyed or upset, or to preserve calmly when faced with difficulties.”

Faced with challenges and experiences such as that of Yunus Shaik, I would say our challenges are mild, but we still complain and say life’s difficult and our anger issues easily. We can’t explain totally why we regard life difficult. If we compare our challenges with the anti-apartheid activists or even the many Prophets times. Ours are nothing yet, we continuously complain. Living with dark hearts, not striving the least bit to make a difference in the world. There is so much we could do for our communities or expand it, making a difference in the country.

Patience is very much linked with peace. If we could gain patience in our lives we would create peace in the world. You might ask how this is possible. The people of the apartheid struggle were positive and believed peace would prevail. They stuck with all difficulties through thick and thin and made it out of the struggle. If we could help people in the world and teach them some ethic of life, with our ability of been patient and without becoming annoyed we would make a peaceful difference in the world.

Patience as a quality of a Muslim should be extremely high. This quality is regarded as one of the best and most valuable quality of life. We believe we should be patient and anger should not prevail easily but do we see that happening among marriages, families, professionals or anyone in the community? Allah has taught us to be patient, for we could regain reward out of it, assisted with peace. Allah has mentioned numerous times in the Qur’an about patience, here are some:
“Oh you who believe! Seek help with patient perseverance and prayer, for God is with those who patiently persevere,” (2:153)
“And be steadfast in patience, for verily Allah will not suffer the reward of the righteous to perish.” (11:115)

For those who have patience, you are great in the eyes of Allah, for those who aren’t we should strive to adopt such a quality for surely it would take us far in life. Been able to pray freely, no resistance of greatness in our country. Don’t we all realize the importance of our Deen. Starting patience in the heart, teaching the rest. Won’t we look at our lives, our community differently. Thankful for the easy lives we have, faced with challenges but not many. So stop complaining of the difficult times, have patience, remember Allah and be thankful for the blissful times.