Principle Sixty-Two: Patience is the greatest support in every undertaking, and comprehensive, experiential knowledge of a matter is what enables a person to be patient.

This principle is of immense benefit, and the Qur’an states it clearly and implicitly in many places. Allah says, “Seek help through patience and prayer” (Al-Baqarah 45). In other words: seek assistance for all your objectives and in every affair by means of patience. Through patience the servant finds it easy to perform acts of obedience and discharge the rights of Allah and of His creatures. Through patience he finds it easy to relinquish the unlawful desires of his lower self, restraining it for fear of its wretched end and in pursuit of his Master’s pleasure. Through patience, distasteful matters become light upon him.

Yet patience has a means and an instrument without which it cannot exist: truly knowing the thing one is being patient about, its intrinsic virtues, and the fruits that follow from it. When the servant understands what acts of worship bring—an increase in faith, the purification of hearts, the completion of virtues, and the many forms of goodness and honor they yield; when he understands what forbidden acts entail—harm, base qualities, and the various punishments they necessitate; and when he understands the blessings contained in Allah’s decrees and the rewards prepared for whoever fulfills his duty regarding them—once he grasps all that, bearing every hardship with patience becomes easy.

Thus the excellence of knowledge is manifest: it is the root of all virtues. For this reason Allah often mentions in His Book that those who deviate in the three arenas do so only because their knowledge is deficient and their comprehension incomplete.

He also says, “Only those of His servants who possess knowledge truly fear Allah” (Fatir 28).