The Role of Patience and Salah (Namaz) in life of a Muslim

 

Allah says in the Ayah 45 of Surah Baqarah ‘O believers! Seek help through patience and Salah (Namaz)’. Through this Holy Ayah, Allah instructs to seek the help through two important things; Patience and Salah.

            When we go deeper into the depth of the meaning of patience, we would surely come to know that the highest level of patience gets achieved through having unshakable control over one-self, emotions and feelings in the most tragic situation of the life, without bringing a word of complain on tongue only to gain the pleasure of Allah. The scholars aver three kinds of patience; Patience when performing good deeds, Patience over sins and patience over trails. We would try to understand three of all in a brief.

            Patience when performing good deeds: It is slight difficult to show perseverance in regard of the acts of worship in the best of form with regularity, which Allah has commanded us to perform. If we reflect on the different worships in Islam, we find that few of the worships are performed during a prescribed time in a year, like fasting in Ramadan and Pilgrimage. These worships occur once in a year, thus to perform them is an easy task relatively. But to be noted, these worships also require lot of patience. For instance, to refrain from eating, drinking and all lawful desires in the month of Holy Ramadan is only possible when one have the element of patience. Likely, one must have the highest level of patience during the entire journey of Pilgrimage and while performing its rituals. Then, there are few worships wherein, one has to spend out of his pure earning a specific amount on the poor, needy and destitute for the pleasure of Allah, like Zakah, Fitrah and Sadaqah (Charity). Although, while performing these worships too, one feels burden over his soul, but a true believer performs them happily against his will for the sake of Allah. 

            Then, there is a most important worship in one’s life i.e. Salah, which is enjoined to be performed five times a day from the span of adulthood up to the last day of a person on the surface of earth. This is such a crucial worship which requires lot of patience, perseverance and determination. Allah states in Surah baqarh‘It (Salah) surely seems difficult, but for those who have fear of Allah in their hearts, Salah is not difficult for them’. From the context of this Ayah, it becomes clear that performing Salah is not that much difficult than to keep performing it regularly. Many obstacles throughout the day become lucrative excuses not to offer Salah on prescribed time. And a person finds out a beautiful justification, satisfying himself through the logical evidence of those obstacles for not leaving Salah at all, but to delay it somehow. Therefore, it is a difficult task to perform Salah on time regularly, except for the one who possesses a high grade of patience. And this level of patience could not be achieved comfortably. However, those who perform Salah with the presence of mind and heart, and they have a great interest in it, and they find coolness of their eyes in Salah, they are truly on the lofty grade of patience.

 

Second type of patience according to research of the scholars, is patience over sins. In an authentic Hadith narrated by Abu Hurairah (R) Prophet (S) said “The hellfire is covered with desires and the paradise is covered with hardships”. The sweetness of desires is beautified for the mankind. And the Nafs (physical desires) are accompanying him throughout the entire journey, which do not blink an eye to push the man into the hollow of sins. And apart from this, there is an open enemy, Shaitan who is ever lying in wait for his prey, so he may whisper and engage him in the disobedience of the Lord. We can reflect what type of patience one needs in his life against all these three enemies. In this regard, many pious and God-fearing people too seem helpless and vulnerable, except of those whom Allah protects.           

We would surely find lot of people who are steadfast about establishing Salah and meticulous about performing other acts of worship. However, we would hardly find of those who keep their flap pure from the filth of sins. On top of that, the circle of disobedience is not surrounding around only few deeds, so it could be easy to prevent from them, instead, the circle of disobedience is surrounding around variety of small and big sins in every aspect of life, from which it is difficult to prevent than impossible. It requires a high level of patience and fear of God against getting indulged in sins. And in case of withholding these two qualities, it is almost impossible to save oneself from falling in the abyss of sins. The patience is like that dam against the sins which keeps holding the flood of sensual desires. If the elements of patience and fear of god scratched and eradicated from the mankind, the foundation of the society, in that case, would be un-ballasted, and reached on the edge of deterioration and devastation. 

The third type of patience according to the scholars, is the patience over trails. Life is not but trails and tests. The reverberation of a successful person in this regard, is not but to display patience. It is a part of brief Hadith, in which, The Prophet (S) states “The true patience is displayed at the time of the first stroke of calamity”. Many times, a person encounters such type of situations in life which are beyond his expectation. While facing such type of the situations, a person gets broken within, and the flap of patience gets missed out. A man begins crying with sorrow and takes the reliance of complain. But ultimately, he achieves patience with no effort. However, the patience which is mentioned in the Hadith of Prophet (S) is that patience which is adopted by a man at the first stoke of calamity. If a man takes up the patience at that time for sake of Allah, the trail becomes not only easier to endure; rather the person gets the reward on it. But as it is known that it is not an easy task and it requires a great courage. In fact Allah classified it as the characteristics of the Ulul Azm (High Grade) prophets.

We could estimate from the above mentioned details that all three kinds of patience – if implemented and came into the habit – make a big difference and control human feelings and emotions. That is the reason Allah commanded through this Ayah to have the patience. Now here is little brief about Salah.

If we think about the divinity, the kingdom and the ultimate authority of Allah S.W.T and have little consideration, our intellect will be taken aback as a result. The tiniest glimpses of His ultimate power and divinity are manifested in form of the enormous universe before us and the chain of its astoundingly working system, which is engaged in fulfilling the assigned tasks since origin. And still it is working without slightest delay or error in it. Then for the human intellect, it seems impossible to reach out to that Might Divinity, than to understand His well-arranged universal system. At this point, a question could be arising to intellect, what could be the way to reach out to that Mighty Lord? And if a man left helpless somewhere in the universe, under the working divine law of that Almighty, whom he should call out? If a man gets afflicted with a trail or unbearable situation under the destined divine order, to whom he would extend his hand asking for assistance? To quench all the questions, Allah has endowed the humanity with the gift of Salah.

 

Salah is in fact, a definite tool to establish connection of man with the Almighty Allah. There is no intermediate between a slave and his Lord. To get clearer picture of this, we have the smart phone, a modern technology of the contemporary age in our hand. The moment we enter a specific number, there is a direct connection between us and that number holder. Same is the case with Salah, the moment we enter the Salah saying Allah u Akbar, we get in direct contact with that Mighty Allah. Therefore, Salah is considered most important worship in Islam, through which we come into the contact of the Sustainer of the Universe whose order is followed through the word “Kun”.  Its fact that we don’t ever realize how much precious and priceless gift is the Salah, through which we can put our problems in front of the Almighty Allah.

Indeed, Salah is the absolute and the strongest tool to converse with that Mighty Allah, wherein, there is no chance of rejection or error in it, if it is performed with the true meaning of it. The evidence for that is the action of the Prophet (S) and his illuminated companions. It is the narration of Huzaifah (R) in famous book of Hadith Abu Daood that Prophet (S) used to take the shelter of Salah, whenever he faced any difficult situation. Likewise there are lots of stories mentioned in the authentic books, which stand as a crystal proof of being Salah a very firm tool of having conversation with Allah and to seek the help for many of our worldly affairs. And why it couldn’t be, it is mentioned at the beginning of the article that Allah had stated the patience and Salah as the tools of seeking help.

Now it depends on our faith and action, and that how much we give preference to these absolute tools inour life. For that we should pray also to Allah S.W.T like the prayer of Dawood (A) and his army men is mentioned in Surah baqarah “O our Sustainer! Pour on us patience and make us firm and steadfast and help us against the army of infidels”. We could pray also the Dua of Ibrahim (A) “O my Sustainer! Make me the establisher of the prayer and my offspring too and accept my Dua”. 

At last, it is heartfelt prayers that may Allah grant us the truth of patience and Salah and for us make the Salah coolness of our eyes. Ameen