The Qur’an orders patience in many verses, such as: Seek help in patience and prayer (2:45) and: Endure, vie with each other in endurance (3:199), and prohibits haste in verses like: Show not haste concerning them (the unbelievers) (46:35) and: When you meet in battle those who do not believe, turn not your backs to them (8:15). In many Qur’anic verses, God praises the patient, declares that He loves them, or mentions the ranks He has bestowed on them: The patient and steadfast, and the truthful and loyal (3:16); God loves the patient (3:145); and Surely God is with the patient (2:153).

The Qur’an mentions many other aspects of patience. For example: If you endure patiently, this is indeed better for those who are patient (16:126) advises patience as a preferable way in dealing with unbelievers while communicating God’s Message to them. We will certainly bestow on those who are patient their reward according to the best of what they used to do (16:96) consoles the patient with the best of rewards to be given in the Hereafter. If you have patience and guard yourselves against evil and disobedience, God will send to your aid five thousand angels having distinguishing marks, if they [your enemies] suddenly attack you (3:124) promises the believers Divine aid in return for patience.

How meaningful is the following saying of the Prophet Muhammad, master of humanity, peace be upon him, concerning patience and thankfulness:

How remarkable a believer’s affair is, for it is always to his advantage, and such a condition is only for a believer. If something good happens to him he thanks God, which is to his advantage; if something bad happens to him he endures it, which is also to his advantage.

The characteristics of patience can be grouped into five categories: enduring difficulties associated with being a true servant of God or steadfastness in performing regular acts of worship; resisting temptations of the carnal self and Satan to commit sins; enduring heavenly or earthly calamities, which includes resignation to Divine decrees; being steadfast in following the right path and not allowing worldly attractions to cause deviation; and showing no haste in realizing hopes or plans that require a certain length of time to achieve.

With respect to its degrees, patience can be divided into six categories: showing patience for the sake of God; showing patience and attributing it to God (being convinced that God enables one to show patience); enduring patiently whatever comes from God, knowing that He acts from His Wisdom; being resigned to whatever happens in the way of God; showing patience by not disclosing the mysteries of one’s achieved spiritual station and to preserve one’s nearness to God; and resolving to fulfill one’s mission of communicating God’s Message to people despite one’s deepest desire to die and meet with God.

There are other definitions of patience as well. For example, preserving one’s manners in the face of misfortune; being steadfast when confronted with events, and showing no sign of being deterred; never giving in to one’s carnal desires and the impulses of one’s temperament; accepting the commandments of the Qur’an and the Sunna as a sort of invitation to Paradise; and sacrificing all possessions, including one’s soul and beloved ones, for the sake of the True, Beloved One.

Those Qur’anic interpreters who were interested in the text’s secret or esoteric meanings have made the following commentaries on the verse: Endure, vie with each other in endurance, and continue your relation with God (3:199):

Be steadfast in performing your religious duties, endure whatever displeasing thing happens to you, and maintain your love of God and desire to meet with Him. Or, be steadfast in fulfilling all your responsibilities for the sake of God and to please Him, and endure the difficulty of always being aware of His constant supervision of you and feeling His omnipresence. Or, be steadfast in following the Straight Path without any deviation, even when Divine bounties pour out onto you. Resolve to endure all difficulties and hardships, and maintain your connection or adherence to God whatever happens to you.

Another approach to patience is to attribute to God Almighty whatever is in the universe and happens therein and, while giving thanks for what appears pleasing, being resigned to what appears displeasing. When a believer unburdens himself or herself to God while trying to overcome a misfortune or hardship, a responsibility that is very hard to fulfill, or sins that might be committed, this must not be considered a complaint against God. Rather, it is a believer’s way of asking Him for help and seeking refuge in Him. In no way can such an action be considered a complaint or a protest against God or Divine Destiny. In reality, and according to one’s intention, such an act may even be regarded as a supplication and an entreaty, as putting one’s trust in Him or as submitting to Him.

The cry of Prophet Job, upon him be peace, to God: Truly distress (disease, tribulation) has seized me. But You are the Most Compassionate of the Compassionate (21:83) and the groaning of Prophet Jacob, upon him be peace: I only complain of my anguish and my sorrow unto God (12:86) are supplications or entreaties for God’s pity and compassion. God Almighty praised Job, upon him be peace, for being an excellent servant distinguished with patience and supplications: We found him patient; how excellent a servant! Truly he was ever turning (to God) with supplications (38:44).

One of the most distinguishing characteristics of Prophets and saints is their embodiment of patience in all of its manifold forms and degrees, and that without deviating from their utmost devotion to God, they do their best to communicate God’s Message to people and bear all misfortune and difficulty arising there from. The Prophet Muhammad, glory of humanity, upon him be peace and blessings, who is a mercy for the whole of creation, declared: Among mankind, those who are stricken with the most terrible of misfortunes are the Prophets, and then follow others according to their degree of faith.

Patience is an essential characteristic of those believers who are the most advanced in belief, spirituality, nearness to God, and who guide others to the truth. It is, moreover, the source of power for those advancing toward this final point. Since the most advanced people experience the most misfortune, they are perfect embodiments of patience, which is the price they pay for the rank bestowed on them. Others who have been destined to advance to that final point cross the distances traveled by others through different and frequent acts of worship, by enduring whatever happens to them. Of these, God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, says:

If God Almighty has destined a servant of His to a rank or position which he cannot reach through his religious actions, He causes him to suffer from his own self and family, and equips him with patience to endure all his sufferings. He elevates him through patience to the rank to which he has destined him.

Thus the suffering to be endured, the difficulty in fulfilling one’s responsibilities, and the pressure of sin contain potential mercy, mercy that is attracted by one’s patience. One subjected to such affliction should not unburden himself or herself to anybody else. How beautifully Fuduli says:

You say you are a lover, then do not complain of the affliction of love;
By complaining, do not make others informed of your affliction.

Travelers on the path to God should know how to burn and boil with love or be consumed with affliction, but never complain to others of such love and affliction. Even if crushed by difficulty or responsibility as heavy as mountains, they should not complain to others.

Rumi summarizes such a degree of patience as follows:

In order to be sustenance for man, a source of strength for his knees, a “light” for his eyes, and a substance for the maintenance of his life, a grain of wheat must be buried in the bosom of the earth, germinate under it, and grow to emerge into the air. It must come into the air after a fierce struggle with the earth, and then be sown and threshed, and ground in a mill. After that, it must be kneaded, baked in an oven, and, finally, chewed by teeth, sent into the stomach, and digested.

To attain true humanity, each individual must be “sieved” or “distilled” many times to discover his or her true essence. Otherwise, the ability to develop one’s potential to its fullest, to be truly human, is not possible:

It is expected of God’s servant to suffer,
And of an aloe wood to burn.

Patience is an essential and most important dimension of servanthood to God, and is crowned with resignation, the highest spiritual rank in the sight of God, to whatever God has destined.

Nursi says that people are “connected with almost all beings” and because of this “a boundless capacity to love [these things] has been included in [our] nature[s].” However, even though individuals have the freedom to love transient things, these finite objects cannot fulfill them in the same way as the Enduring One (al-Baqi) can. What most people do not realize is that they “constantly suffer the pain of separation” because their infinite capacity for love, which has been given to them by God, is not fulfilled by things of this world. Like Rumi’s reed-flute, people yearn for a return to their reed-bed. By “misusing [their love] and spending it on transitory beings, [people have] done wrong and suffer the punishment for [this] fault through the pain of separation.” Individuals do not need to live in the state of suffering, however, and Nursi’s Third Flash offers them a way to transcend it.

The first part of the Sufi phrase calls people to sever that desire give one’s love to the finite things of this world. True, “the shadows of the shadows of the manifestation of His Most Beautiful Names” are beautiful and able to be loved in this world, but they themselves are not God and are not fit for the love that only God deserves. When people love only things of this world, they suffer; when they focus their love on the Enduring One (al-Baqi) they are brought closer to God and are fulfilled in ways not of this world. When they sever their ties to finite love, they open themselves to a Higher Love, an Infinite Love. The purpose of the first part of the Sufi phrase is to comfort people with knowledge of an Ever Enduring Love, and remind them that the love of this world pales in comparison to God’s everlasting love.

The second part of the Sufi phrase not only heals people’s spiritual wounds, but also acts to satisfy “the intense wish for immortality in [their] natures[s].” Nursi says that people long for immortality, because God is immortal and “the matter most important to [people], [their] most pressing duty is to form a relation with the Enduring One,” who is immortal. By placing their love in the finite, in loving only things of this world, people are limiting their capacities for Eternal Love and as a result they suffer. The only fulfilling love is love for the al-Baqi, the Enduring One, the Immortal and Undying Love of God. Once human beings separate themselves from the love of this world, as the first part of the Sufi phrase directs, people can then be healed by the knowledge that God is the Enduring One, and God’s love will never fade away.

Nursi insists that it is not only possible, but preferable, to live a life of infinite love in the present moment. To explain this point, he uses the illustration of the hands of a clock:

Just as the hands of a clock counting the seconds, and those counting the minutes, hours, and days superficially resemble each other, but differ in respect to speed, so too the spheres of the body, soul, heart, and spirit in man differ from each other.

Nursi says that the spiritual nature of humans is not bound by time. Yes, the physical existence of people’s pasts are extinct, and their futures not yet existent, but the present moment in which they live, in the minutes and hours that they live for the Love of God, they are immortal-“Yes, one second on the way of love, knowledge, and pleasure of the Truly Enduring One is a year.” Although it may often seem that “time flies when we are having fun,” in reality a “moment’s union for God’s sake within the bounds of the Enduring One of Glory’s pleasure is a window of union, not only for a [moment], but [permanently].” Speaking of the human perception of time and place, Nursi seems to anticipate Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity-“The broad Earth with enemies is like a drinking-glass, while the eye of a needle with friends is like a broad arena.” Understanding this imagery, a moment in God’s love can be an eternity of pleasure and fulfillment, and a moment without God’s love can seem like an eternity of suffering. It is because of this that Nursi, and the multitudes of Muslims before him and since, have prayed the five prescribed daily prayers to God. Through prayer Muslims are linked to God and are reminded of God’s Enduring Love; and through remembrance of the Enduring Love of God the transitory becomes eternal (baqi).

Sufi tradition also gives two other images for this enduring love: that of the fabric of life, and that of the “conveyor belt.” For the first image, life is seen as fabric. If during one’s life a person does nothing of merit, nothing of love for God, then the fabric remains plain, unbeautiful, and transient. If one does bad things and denies God’s love, the fabric becomes dirty and tattered and the fabric suffers. However, if one does what is beautiful and one remembers the Enduring One, flowers are embroidered on the fabric and these flowers last through all eternity, sustained by God’s Infinite Love. Likewise, the image of the conveyor belt symbolizes the transience of this world-for every deed done in this life, something goes on to the next. If one does nothing beautiful, nothing for God, then nothing is placed on the conveyor belt and nothing goes into the next life. If one does bad things or good things in this life, then these things go on into the next life, not to be seen again until death. One day, the conveyor belt stops and at that moment there is nothing left that one can do.

Similar to the Catholic Jesuit notion of Ad Meiorem Dei Gloriam (that is, living for the Greater Glory of God), Nursi’s reflections on the work of humans for God alludes to how spiritually profitable a life devoted to God can be:

Serve for the sake of God, meet with others for the sake of God, work for the sake of God; make all of your actions ‘in God, for God, and to God,’ then, all the moments of your life will become like years.

When working for the sake of God, when loving people for the sake of God, when living life for God;, a moment is like a year. Just as in our dreams a day can seem like a year, a life dedicated to and in love with God can feel like an eternity-in fact, a moment with God is an eternity, a glimpse of the Enduring Love of God.

This Sufi phrase of al-Baqi, which is formed under the name of God, ‘al-Baqi,’ calls people to cut ties with the finite love that this world offers. It also comforts human beings by reminding them that only God’s infinite love can bring us healing, fulfillment, and an everlasting union. In his Third Flash, Nursi eloquently affirms that within the Love of God there is the promise of an Enduring Love, a love that cannot be found in the worldly shadows alone.

Michael David Graskemper is a graduate student at John Carroll University, Department of Religious Studies

Reference

Nursi, Bediuzzaman Said, The Flashes Collection, Sozler Nesriyat, Istanbul: 1995, pp 29, 30.