Embodying Patience

Peace, one and all…

As regular visitors will know, I’m a broad part of the Threshold Society (itself a part of the Mevlevi Order).  Each month, members of the society are given a different theme to concentrate on and to embody. 

This month’s theme, appropriately enough, is patience.  That is, we are told to try and embody patience.  This is no mean feat (doubly true in my case, I fear).  Of course, during Ramadan, patience is the name of the game; we must be patient in waiting for the sun to set so that we might break our fast; we must be patient in the face of life’s ups and downs, as we struggle to respond with God-consciousness; we must be patient with ourselves, as our ideals are not always matched by our realities.  Patience is thus essential during Ramadan, and indeed the Quran itself says: ‘Indeed God is with those who are patient’.

But what does it mean to embody patience?  How can we become living examples of embodied patience?  This is a difficult question to answer, as I am not a particularly patient individual.  But, I think, it may well relate to perception.  That is, patience is a state of mind, an orientation to life’s passing flow.  To be patient is, on some level, to realise that everything will work itself out.  It thus relates to faith, in so far as we develop our understanding that God is in control.

Patience is also linked to gratitude.  We are patient in adversity, but we must also realise that there are many who are much worse off; thus, we should be grateful for each and every mercy that comes our way.  Patience and gratitude are thus relational; they offer us powerful ways to relate to our surroundings and our interactions with others.   We should, therefore, be patient when something afflicts us and we should be grateful when we receive a gift of mercy from God. 

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya wrote a very interesting book on this subject.  It has been published in English for a while now as Patience and Gratitude.  An online version is available.

Insha Allah, I’ll be writing more on this topic soon.

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman