THE NEED FOR CERTAINTY OF BELIEF

It is not possible for one to have patience if he has nothing from which to derive inner peace, something from which he attains joy and which gives him sustenance: certainty of faith. The Prophet said in hadith:

“Ask Allah for forgiveness and good health for , verily, after certainty of faith, no one has been given anything better than good health.”

In the same way, when he orders others to do good, or loves their agreement with what is correct, or forbids others the doing of evil, he needs to be very good towards those others with which he wishes to work in this way with a graciousness which brings about the success of his intention: the removal of that which he dislikes, and the attainment of that which he likes. Human souls cannot tolerate something bitter unless it is mixed with something sweet. Nothing else is possible. For this reason, Allah ordained the institution of the binding of hearts (ta’leef ul-quluub), even assigning to those whose hearts are to be drawn in a portion of the Zakat. Allah said to His Prophet:

[Choose forbearance, and enjoin all that is right, and turn away from the foolish ones.} Qur’an 7/199

And, Allah said in another aya:

[And, advise one another to have patience, and urge one another to acts of compassion.] Qur’an 90/17

It is necessary for the enjoiner and forbidder to be patient and to be compassionate, and that is true courage and true generosity.

For this reason, Allah mentions prayer and zakat together many times in the Qur’an, and zakat is graciousness towards Allah’s creation, and mentions prayer and patience together on other occasions. All three are essential: prayer, zakat, and patience. The affairs of the believer will not go straight except with these three in relation to his reforming of himself, and in the reforming of others, especially when trials and strife are rampant, then the need for these qualities becomes more severe.

The need for forbearance and patience is common to the entire human race; their affairs will never be straightened out except with these qualities. For this reason, all societies and cultures praise courage and generosity to the extent that most of the poems which have been composed to praise someone dwell on these two qualities. In the same vein, all societies and cultures hold as blameworthy the opposing qualities of miserliness and cowardice.

Any issue about which the thinkers of the entire human race agree cannot be anything but the truth, such as their agreement on the praiseworthiness of truthfulness and justice, and the blameworthiness of lying and oppression. The Prophet (sas) was once asked questions by some bedouins until they forced him over near a tree on which his cloak became caught. He turned to them and said:

“By the one in whose hand is my soul, if I possessed camels equal to the number of these thorns, I would divide them all between you, and you would not find me to be miserly, nor cowardly, nor untruthful.”

This value judgement, however, takes various forms according to specific cases and details and, verily, works are judged by intentions, and to every person is that which he intended.