his heart will remain impoverished—Allah’s protection be sought—and he will never feel content.

True wealth is the wealth of the heart. When a person relies on what is with Allah instead of what is in other people’s hands, Allah frees him from need of them, grants him self-respect, and distances him from asking at all.

Second: “Whoever strives to be chaste, Allah will preserve his chastity.” Thus, whoever keeps away from the women whom Allah has forbidden to him, Allah will safeguard his honor.

If, however, a person follows his lower desires in matters of chastity, he ruins himself—Allah protect us—because once he gives free rein to his passions and begins chasing after women he is destroyed: the eye commits fornication, the ear commits fornication, the hand commits fornication, the feet commit fornication, and then the private parts commit fornication, which is the shameful sin—Allah forbid.

Therefore, when someone renounces this prohibited behavior, Allah protects him, shelters him, and likewise shields his family.

Third: “Whoever trains himself to be patient, Allah will make him patient,” that is, Allah will bestow patience upon him.

So, if you restrain yourself from what Allah has forbidden, bear the hardship of need and poverty, and refrain from pestering people with requests, Allah—Exalted is He—will make you patient and assist you in patience. This is the point drawn from the hadith, for it is cited in the chapter on patience.

The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—then said, “No one has been given a gift better or more expansive than patience.” In other words, Allah has never bestowed upon anyone a gift—whether provision or anything else—better and more far-reaching than patience, because when a person is patient he can cope with everything: if hardship befalls him, he is patient; if Satan tempts him to commit what is forbidden, he is patient; and if Satan tries to hold him back from what Allah has commanded, he is patient.