Patience is a Virtue

It’s easy to sometimes have a vague understanding of the deen while still believing in Allah (SWT) and the Qur’an in its entirety. We pick it up with firm belief that its message is true, that it holds answers for us. And that belief alone carries us for a while. But then at some point, we start to regress or overlook certain verses—sometimes because we misperceive them, and sometimes because we choose to.

That’s why there are so many reasons we don’t understand—and just as many ways we can. And that’s also why Allah reminds us that He can, at any moment, say “Kun fa ya kun”—“Be, and it is.” He can make anything happen in our journey, especially when we’re trying to follow through.

Patience is a part of everything. It’s a universal factor in how we live, even when we think timing is everything. But timing is really just a way to see things through—it helps bring things to completion. Because when we learn something, we don’t always understand it right away. We wait to fully grasp it, and in the meantime, we try to live it.

Learning is like any relationship—it’s a connection based on how we see our lives and what we expect from it. Deep down, we know life keeps changing. The outcomes are never guaranteed, but we still move forward based on what we’ve been given.

Eventually we realize—it’s not the task itself we’re committed to, but the reason we committed. And everyone’s reason looks different, because we’re all dealing with different inner worlds, different surroundings, different tests. Allah doesn’t test those who are patient in the same way He tests those who are still struggling to be.

The patient ones have already faced obstacles. They’ve felt the weight of differences, confusion, and delay. But they stayed committed to Allah, trusting that His creation was made in peace. They know that every good is from Him. And they’ve come to see that the painful, resentful, or off-putting interactions in this world aren’t personal. They’re often just Iblis interfering—twisting what was never meant to hurt us into something that feels like it did.

And that’s why we will always have a lesson to learn. So we can understand that real understanding requires being receptive—to more than just opinions or time. It requires awareness of what’s actually happening in our living circumstances, because only living circumstances can measure other living circumstances.

It’s not about checking boxes or rushing toward outcomes. It’s about removing the checklist and learning to embody the want, the need, and the impermanent stages of constant impermanence—still going for the peace that Allah made possible.

In the fragile and ever-changing nature of our lives, it’s easy to overlook or even doubt the subtle, gentle truths in the Qur’an. Iblis uses that uncertainty, trying to make divine guidance feel heavy or harsh—something rigid instead of healing. But Allah, in His mercy, continuously reaffirms the truth of the Qur’an—reminding us that its message is certain, not because it forces us, but because it lovingly guides us back to what’s real. That’s why Allah speaks so thoroughly about belief and the different levels that come with it. Because belief isn’t just a switch—it deepens over time, and patience is what teaches us the value of delayed understanding and reward.