(Did your contradiction detector light up lol? That’s the way we have all been trained by our so-called education system. Should be called miseducation system but that’s a whole other story. Yes, quick and patient .Get used to it! Life is full of contradictions. (Apologies to the most honorable Aristotle- the  Guru in chief  of logic!)

So(another faux pas that I love. Not supposed to start a sentence with “so” according to the politically correct grammarians!) But(another dubious start lol) it is such a great word…”so” and “so” As say the Americans  “sue me if you don’t like it”! So, this is another in a series of articles about Islamic concepts being misused, overused and abused. We will be talking shortly about “Bir Walidayn”-another problematic concept-at least in modern usage. Stay tuned!

A French lady living for a long time in Egypt came to the conclusion that the basic Egyptian mind-set was “bokra inshallah”(Tomorrow, if God wills).That is NOT patience. Patience is neither procrastination ,nor slacknes of will nor cowardice. Although those are often unwittingly being invoked by the term “patience”. That is NOT the sunnat of our Prophet saws.

As I like to say, something which could be misunderstood as heretical since we believe our Prophet saws was inspired in his actions, if Muhammad saws had been patient with the Qurayshi kuffar  for another year in Mecca we may never have had a religion ! That of course is not possible as the spread of Islam was from Divine destiny. The point however is still well-taken. Patience, although a good default position, is not always the right option. Sometimes it is action that is needed. And the difference between the two is a matter of judgment and discernment -two entities that are not subject to fixed formulations!

So what is Right Patience(borrowing here from the lexicon of the Buddhists).As mentioned previously Right Patience is neither laziness nor procrastination nor cowardice nor fatalism nor passivity. Right Patience implies hard work-doing our “due diligence”. It requires intelligence and effort and a reasonable measure of planning(not the obsessional over-thought planning we see in modern Western institutions!).After all of that is done, then we rely on Allah (tawwakul) for the result- knowing full well that only He can cause the result to be.(see the Aphorisms of Ibn Ataillah for further elaboration on this point).Understanding and seeing this can be considered an absolutely essential part of our suluk(path) whatever that may be. And we have a most excellent example of that in the life of our Prophet saws.

In the hadith we have a very instructive teaching on this principle:

Narrated by al-Tirmidhi, the hadith outlines the story of a Bedouin man who was leaving his camel without tying it. The Prophet (PBUH) asked him “Why don’t you tie down your camel?” The Bedouin answered, “I put my trust in Allah.” The Prophet then replied, “Tie your camel first, and then put your trust in Allah.”

Our Prophet saws did not only speak about this, he acted like that! His entire life he “tied his camel”. That is, he did the necessary work, planned when needed(for the Muslim battles for example) prayed and then left the result to Allah. And that is the way we need to be. No more “bokra inshallah” lol. Rather firm commitment to Right Action and Right Words and then trusting deeply and absolutely in God. May Allah help us all to understand and to see! Salaams, Ibrahim