The opposite of the first-mentioned quality—guidance—is misguidance, and the opposite of the second—right conduct—is deviation. Misguidance is acting without knowledge, while deviation is following one’s whims. Concerning this, the Exalted says: “By the star when it descends, your companion has neither strayed nor deviated” (al-Najm 53:1-2). Thus guidance is attained only through knowledge, and right conduct only through patience.
For that reason ʿAlī said: “Verily patience in relation to faith is like the head to the body; if the head is severed, the body falls apart.” He then raised his voice and proclaimed, “Be aware: he who has no patience has no faith.”
As for contentment (riḍā), the scholars and elders among the companions of Imām Aḥmad and others have differed over whether being content with the divine decree is obligatory or merely recommended. According to the first view it is an act of those who take the middle path, whereas according to the second it is a practice of those who are nearest to Allah. ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz said, “Contentment is precious, yet it is the believer’s main reliance.”
It is related that the Prophet ﷺ said to Ibn ʿAbbās, “If you are able to act for Allah with contentment and certainty, then do so; but if you cannot, there is much good in being patient with what you dislike.” For this reason the Quran comes only with praise for those who are content; it never makes it compulsory. This pertains to being content with what the Lord does to His servant in terms of calamities such as illness, poverty, and upheaval. Allah says: “…and those who are patient in hardship and adversity and during battle” (al-Baqarah 2:177); and: “Or did you think you would enter Paradise while there had not yet come to you the likes of those who passed away before you? They were afflicted by hardship and adversity and were shaken…” (al-Baqarah 2:214). Hardship concerns one’s wealth, adversity one’s body, and the shaking one’s heart.
Contentment with what Allah has commanded, however, is in its essence obligatory and part of faith, as the Prophet ﷺ said: “He has tasted the sweetness of faith who is content with Allah as Lord, with Islam as religion, and with Muḥammad as Prophet.” It is one of the offshoots of love, as we shall mention, Allah willing. The Exalted also says: “But no, by your Lord, they do not believe until they make you judge concerning that over which they dispute among themselves, then find in themselves no discomfort about what you decide, and submit in full submission” (al-Nisāʾ 4:65); and: “If only they had been content with what Allah and His Messenger gave them and had said, ‘Allah is sufficient for us…’” (al-Tawbah 9:59). Conversely, He says: “That is because they followed that which displeased Allah and hated His approval, so He rendered their deeds void” (Muḥammad 47:28); and: “Nothing prevented their donations from being accepted except that they disbelieved in Allah and His Messenger, and they do not come to the prayer except lazily, nor do they spend except grudgingly” (al-Tawbah 9:54).
Among the first category is what Aḥmad, al-Tirmidhī, and others narrated from Saʿd, that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Part of the happiness of the child of Adam is his seeking Allah’s guidance (istikhārah) and his contentment with what Allah has apportioned for him; and part of the wretchedness of the child of Adam is his neglect of istikhārah and his displeasure with what Allah apportions for him.”
As for being content with prohibited matters—disbelief, defiance, and disobedience—most scholars state that such contentment is not legislated, just as loving these things is not legislated, for Allah, Glorified be He,