and forbidding what is wrong, and seeking knowledge—his patience with such afflictions is better than his patience with trials unrelated to these deeds. Likewise, when his soul urges him toward prohibited things—whether leadership, taking wealth, or committing sexual immorality—his patience in resisting them is better than his patience in lesser matters. For the greater the righteous deeds, the greater the patience exercised in them compared with lesser deeds.

For “knowledge,” “governance,” “jihad,” “enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong,” “prayer,” “pilgrimage,” “fasting,” and “zakah” involve temptations of the soul and other trials not found in other pursuits. In these undertakings, the soul may develop an inclination toward leadership, wealth, and physical beauty. When the soul cannot attain these things, it does not covet them as it does when it can. When it has the ability, it seeks those prohibited things, unlike when it lacks that ability. Exercising patience when one has the ability is jihad; indeed, it is among the best forms of jihad.

It is also more complete in three respects:

(First): Patience in refraining from prohibited things is better than patience in afflictions.

(Second): Refraining from prohibited things when one can engage in them and the soul desires them is better than refraining from them without those circumstances.

(Third): When the soul’s desire for them arises because of a religious undertaking—as in the case of someone who