Rule concerning patience and gratitude – Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah

If the servant reflects on the Religion in its entirety, he will see that it all returns completely to patience and gratitude, because patience is of three categories:

1. Patience in performing acts of obedience: for the servant only practices what he has been commanded after being patient and steadfast, and after fighting his inner and outer enemy; thus, it is in proportion to this patience that he fulfills his obligations and performs the recommended acts.

2. The second type of patience: patience in refraining from prohibited acts so as not to commit them, for the soul with its desires, the beautification (of sins) by Satan, as well as bad companions — all of them call him to evil and encourage him toward it. Abandoning what is forbidden is proportional to the strength of one’s patience. Some of the pious predecessors said: “Acts of obedience are performed by both the righteous and the wicked, whereas only the truthful one is capable of abandoning disobedience.”

3. The third type of patience: patience regarding calamities that afflict him and are outside his control.

Height: 14.8 cm
Width: 10.5 cm
Number of pages: 38 pages
Author: Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah