Patience

I got this from another blogger friend of mine.  As I am not a patient person, this is also a reminder to me to stay calm and be positive all the time.

A man came to the Prophet, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon himraise his name, and asked what he needed to do to get to Paradise, so the Prophet told him: “Do not get angry.” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari)

The man was an individual who would get angry quickly, so the Prophet told the man that he needed to do change his angry nature.  So changing oneself and one’s character is something achievable. 

The Prophet also said: “Whoever pretends to be patient (with a desire to be patient) God will give him patience.”  

This is recorded in Saheeh Al-Bukhari.  This means that although some people are born patient the rest of us can learn to be patient.

Interestingly in Western psychiatry and psychology they used to tell us to get it off our chest, don’t hold it in because if we did we would explode, so better to let it all out.

Later on they discovered that when people let it all out small blood vessels would burst in their brain because they were so angry.  They found that it was actually dangerous and potentially damaging to let it all out.  So now they say it is better not to let it all out.

The Prophet told us to try to be patient, so externally we should give that façade of being patient even when internally we are boiling.  And we do not try to be patient externally in order to deceive people; rather, we do so in order to develop patience.  If we are consistent in this then the external image of patience also becomes internal and as a result complete patience is achieved and is achievable as mentioned in the Hadeeth quoted above.

Have patience and may you be blessed today.