What does Islam say about patience in hardship?

What patience actually is

The scholars define it precisely, so that the reader knows what is being asked. Al-Sa'di defines patience as restraining and withholding the self from what it dislikes — a holding back, not a feeling. Ibn Rajab draws the line between patience and contentment: the patient one still tastes the bitterness and wishes the pain would go, but he restrains himself from objecting; the content one's heart is at ease with the decree, and if his contentment is strong it may remove the sensation of pain altogether.

Al-Tabari's definition, quoted by Yusuf Afandi Zadah, is the same in substance: patience is preventing the self from its desires and restraining it from its whims — which is why Ramadan is called the month of patience, for the fasting person holds himself back from food and drink.

The three kinds of patience

Ibn 'Uthaymin sets out three types, and ranks them:

1. Patience in obeying Allah — performing what He commanded, which costs both bodily and inward effort.
2. Patience in avoiding sin — restraining the self from what it craves, which costs inward effort only.
3. Patience with Allah's painful decrees — bearing loss, illness and affliction without resentment.

Ranked by the type itself, the first is the highest, then the second, then the third — because the third is not in your hands at all: the decree has already happened. Ibn 'Uthaymin notes that the ranking can reverse when measured by the person, since one man may find resisting sin harder than bearing calamity. He points to Yusuf عليه السلام as one who was tested in all three: calling to Allah while imprisoned, refusing the wife of al-'Aziz, and bearing what his brothers did to him.

Al-Sa'di gives the same threefold division in his commentary on Surah al-Baqarah, and adds that patience is needed in every state of a person's life — not only in calamity.

Why hardship comes at all

Affliction is not a sign of abandonment. Al-Sa'di explains that Allah tests His servants so that the truthful is distinguished from the liar and the patient from the impatient — this is His established way, and its purpose is to separate, not to destroy faith. The trial comes "in measure": a portion of fear, hunger, loss of wealth, lives and fruits, because if the whole of it came, people would perish. Trials purify; they do not annihilate.

Allah says:

"And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient."— Qur'an 2:155

Al-Sa'di notes that the loss of "lives" includes the death of loved ones and illness in one's own body; "fruits" includes crops and trees struck by blight, cold or locusts. Ibn 'Uthaymin adds that the loss of wealth covers all that a person owns, and that the loss of lives includes devastating diseases.

The two responses, and what each earns

Al-Sa'di sets the two paths side by side. The one who panics suffers twice: he loses what he loved, and he loses the reward that patience would have brought — so he ends with loss upon loss, and a diminution of his faith. The one whom Allah enables to be patient restrains himself in word and deed, counts his reward with Allah, and recognises that what he gains through patience is greater than the affliction itself. For such a person the affliction becomes, in effect, a blessing — it became the road to something better.

Ibn 'Uthaymin lists four stations a person may occupy when struck:

He explains how gratitude in calamity is possible: one may compare the loss of worldly things to the loss of religion and find it lighter, and thank Allah that the blow did not fall on what is more severe; or one may count the reward, since the greater the affliction the greater the recompense. He relates of a worshipping woman who was struck by calamity and showed no trace of panic; when asked about it she said that the sweetness of its reward made her forget the bitterness of her patience.

The Prophet ﷺ warned against the opposite:

"He is not one of us who strikes the cheeks, tears the garments, and calls with the call of the days of ignorance."— Sahih al-Bukhari 1297

Patience at the first blow

The scholars single out the moment of impact, because that is where patience is real. The Prophet ﷺ said:

"Patience is at the first strike."— Sahih al-Bukhari, from Anas ibn Malik

The commentators explain why: a calamity arriving suddenly shakes the heart and jolts it. If a person holds firm at that first shock, its edge breaks and its force weakens, and continuing in patience becomes easy. But if days pass and the heart settles into forgetfulness, the patience that follows is mere habit and does not carry the same reward. The one who panics, they add, sins and wearies himself — and does not push back Allah's decree by a single step.

The words to say, and what they bring

The patient are described in the Qur'an as those who, when struck, say: "Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return." Al-Sa'di explains the meaning: we are Allah's property, managed under His command, so we have no claim of ownership over ourselves or our wealth — and since the One who disposed of it is the Most Merciful, there is no grounds for objection. And we are returning to Him, where every worker will be paid in full.

Ibn 'Uthaymin notes that this combines affirmation of Allah's lordship with faith in the return and recompense, and that the Prophet ﷺ taught an addition to it:

"There is no Muslim who is struck by a calamity and says what Allah has commanded him — 'Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return'; O Allah, reward me in my calamity and replace it with something better — except that Allah replaces it with something better."— Sahih Muslim 918, from Umm Salamah

What the patient are given

The reward is stated in terms that exceed accounting. Allah says:

"Only those who are patient will be paid their reward without measure."— Qur'an 39:10

Ibn 'Uthaymin explains that "without measure" means without the precise, measured exchange that governs dealings between people — the reward of Allah for patience is more than what is deserved, poured out without reckoning. Al-Sa'di, on the verse of good tidings, says the patient receive salawat from their Lord — praise and commendation — and mercy, and they are the rightly guided: they knew the truth, that they belong to Allah and return to Him, and they acted on it.

The scholars also discuss whether calamity itself earns reward or expiates sin. Ibn Rajab reports the disagreement: 'Izz al-Din ibn 'Abd al-Salam and a group held that reward is only for the patience, since reward attaches to a person's act and calamity is not his doing; others held that the affliction itself earns reward, citing the hadith that no fatigue, illness, worry, grief, harm or distress — not even a thorn — touches a Muslim except that Allah erases sins by it.

Key takeaways

• Patience is obligatory, not optional; contentment is a recommended station above it, and resentment is forbidden.
• It is restraint, not numbness — the patient one feels the pain and holds himself back from objecting to Allah.
• The three kinds are ranked: patience in obedience, then in avoiding sin, then with painful decrees.
• The reward is without measure, and the affliction itself may erase sins.
• Patience is counted at the first blow — that is the moment it is tested and the moment it is rewarded.

Further reading

• Al-Sa'di, Tafsir al-Karim al-Rahman — commentary on Qur'an 2:153–157
• Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali, commentary on Qur'an 2:155–157
• Ibn 'Uthaymin, Tafsir Surat al-Baqarah

And Allah knows best.