No Patience, No Faith

The tradition in this post is simple to understand, yet profound if we were to closely examine it. It is a tradition that most of us have heard many times throughout our lives. This tradition, very vividly, points to the significance of patience.

An important point that must be noticed is that this tradition is about the nature of patience, not about the person who has it. In other words, it helps us to understand what patience is and not who a patient individual is. This is a noteworthy distinction.

Following this good tradition, I will extract a few more points from it, which may readily be overlooked.

Arabic Text:

عَلِيُّ بْنُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ عَنْ أَبِيهِ عَنْ حَمَّادِ بْنِ عِيسَى عَنْ رِبْعِيِّ بْنِ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ عَنْ فُضَيْلِ بْنِ يَسَارٍ عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ اللَّهِ ع قَالَ:

الصَّبْرُ مِنَ الْإِيمَانِ بِمَنْزِلَةِ الرَّأْسِ مِنَ الْجَسَدِ فَإِذَا ذَهَبَ الرَّأْسُ ذَهَبَ الْجَسَدُ كَذَلِكَ إِذَا ذَهَبَ الصَّبْرُ ذَهَبَ الْإِيمَانُ.

Farsi Translation:

امام صادق عليه السّلام فرمود:

صبر نسبت بايمان مانند سر است نسبت به تن، هر گاه سر برود تن ميرود، همچنين هر گاه صبر برود ايمان ميرود.

English Translation:

Narrated by Ali Ibn Ibrahim from his father from Hammad Ibn Eissa from Rub’ie Ibn Abdullah from Fudail Ibn Yasar from Abu Abdullah (pbuh) who said:

“Patience is to faith, what the head is to the body. If the head goes, the body goes. Likewise, if patience goes, faith goes.”

Source:

Al-Kafi, Volume 2, Page 89, Tradition #5

Here are a few notable points:

·    The comparison between patience and head, in the tradition, entails that the existence of patience is necessary for the existence of faith. Faith cannot exist without patience.

·       Patience and faith are inseparable. An individual cannot have one without the other. A body cannot survive without its head, neither can a head survive without a body. 

·         Faith feeds and nourishes patience, whereas patience guides and regulates faith.

·        Think about your head. What is the most significant organ inside your head? Your brain. Now, think about the function of your brain. Almost anything and everything that the body does, involuntary and voluntary, are all organized, controlled and implemented via the human brain.

·         Think about our nervous system. Our thinking, reasoning and cognition, all of them rely heavily on the human brain, inside the human head.

·       We see, hear and feel through our brain. Since patience and head are comparable, we may infer that our faith sees, hears and feels through our patience. 

·     Our faith is only as much helpful as our patience permit it to be. Without the patience there wouldn’t be faith. 

·         If our patience is low in quality, so will be our faith. 

In the past two decades, we’ve advance exponentially in sciences, especially in brain sciences. Such advancements have made the significance of our brains very clear to us. Now, apply that same level of significance to patience. If or when you do this, you’d be able to realize how important it is to not only have patience but to strive to increase its quality and strengthen it. If you want your faith to help you in any way, first, you need to ensure that it is equipped with what permits it to function; you need to ensure that you have patience. 

If you want a strong and unshakable faith, which can move mountains, you need a strong and unshakable patience. Patience and faith are, necessarily, inseparable from one another. 

Be patient. Be faithful.