patience. Hence, Muslims agree that patience is obligatory in fulfilling duties and avoiding prohibitions. This includes enduring afflictions without giving way to anguish, and restraining oneself from following personal desires in matters Allah has forbidden.

Allah mentions patience in His Book in more than ninety places, and links it with prayer in His words, Most High:

“Seek help through patience and prayer. Indeed, it is difficult except for the humbly submissive.”

“Seek help through patience and prayer. Indeed, Allah is with the patient.”

And His words:

“Establish prayer at the two ends of the day and in the early hours of the night,”

through to His words:

“And be patient, for Allah does not allow the reward of those who do good to be lost.”

“So be patient with what they say, and glorify your Lord with praise before sunrise and before sunset.”

“So be patient. Indeed, Allah’s promise is true. And seek forgiveness for your sin”—to the end of the verse.

He has made “leadership in religion” the fruit of patience and certainty, saying:

“And We made from among them leaders guiding by Our command when they were patient and were certain of Our signs.”

The whole of religion consists of knowing the truth and acting upon it. Acting upon it necessarily requires patience; indeed, even seeking knowledge of it requires patience. As Mu‘ādh ibn Jabal, may Allah be pleased with him, said:

“Devote yourselves to knowledge, for seeking it for Allah’s sake is worship; knowing it is reverent fear; researching it is striving in Allah’s cause; teaching it to those who do not know it is charity; and discussing it is glorification of Allah. Through it Allah is known and worshipped, and through it Allah is exalted and His oneness affirmed. Through knowledge Allah raises people, making them leaders and guides whom others follow and to whose judgment they defer.”

He thus regarded researching knowledge as a form of striving in Allah’s cause, and such striving necessarily requires patience. For this reason,