Outdo Them in Patience

Again, the desperation of Abū Sufyān is worth revisiting. Having now travelled through the years of the sīrah and of prophethood, beginning with the first days of the daʿwah — the oppression the Muslims went through in those difficult days in Makkah, and the arrogance and pride of the people of Quraysh, and the way they used to belittle the Muslims and treat them as insignificant subjects — now one sees Abū Sufyān going from house to house begging the Muslims to offer him protection. If the Muslims today would get over the belief that we are weak and can do nothing, the ones who are bombing the Muslims today would become like Abū Sufyān and would come begging the Muslims for peace.

But the Muslims need to get over the belief that they are weak and incapable of defending themselves. And this is not proper, because Allah (ʿazza wa jall) says, in Sūrat Āl ʿImrān — and this ayah was revealed after the Ghazwah of Uḥud; it was discussed in the account of the Ghazwah of Uḥud:

Do not see yourselves as in a humiliated state, and do not be sad, when you are the highest. Wa antum al-aʿlawna in kuntum muʾminīn: if you are believers, you will be the highest — if you are believers. But if you are disbelievers, or you do not follow the conditions of īmān, then yes, you could be in a state of humiliation; but a believer is always strong. And remember that this ayah was not revealed after a victory; it was revealed after a defeat, the defeat of the Battle of Uḥud. Allah (ʿazza wa jall) says:

O you who believe: Allah (ʿazza wa jall) is ordering the believers to have ṣabr. Iṣbirū means ṣabr; it is a command, an order; it is in the form of fiʿl al-amr, a verb of command: be patient. And then wa ṣābirū: ṣābirū is also derived from the root word of ṣabr, but it is in the form called mufāʿalah, and mufāʿalah is when the verb is between two parties. For example — and all of these words are in the form of mufāʿalah — there is muṣāraʿah: wrestling in Arabic is called muṣāraʿah because it is between two parties. Mulākamah: boxing is called mulākamah; it is in the form of mufāʿalah because it is between two parties. Muʿāmalah: a financial transaction, because it is between two parties, is called a muʿāmalah, or a mutājarah; and so on and so forth.

So here there is wa ṣābirū. In other words, we need to outdo the enemy in patience, because the enemy is patient: not only is the Muslim patient, but the enemy is patient too. Allah (ʿazza wa jall) orders us to be patient — iṣbirū — and the next order is a repetition of patience; however, here Allah (ʿazza wa jall) is telling us that it is not enough only to be patient: you need to be more patient than the enemy; you need to outdo the enemy in patience. Wa ṣābirū. And that is exactly what the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) did.

The people of Quraysh were patient and persistent — because the word ṣabr in Arabic means not only patience but also persistence. Among the people of Quraysh, for example, Abū Jahl was a very persistent individual; Abū Lahab was very persistent; many of the leaders of Quraysh who were fighting the Muslims were very persistent and committed to fighting the Muslims. They had this commitment and zeal and persistence and patience in fighting the religion of Allah. But on the other side, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was very patient, and he was instructing and training the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) to be patient.

The Companion came to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) while the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was sitting next to the Kaʿbah, and he said to him: a-lā tadʿū lanā, a-lā tastanṣiru lanā? — O Messenger of Allah, are you not going to ask Allah (ʿazza wa jall) to give us support? Are you not going to ask Allah (ʿazza wa jall) to give us victory? — because they had suffered a lot. So the Ṣaḥābī was asking the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) to make duʿāʾ to Allah that Allah lift from us, take away from us, this pain and suffering we are going through. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) did not say: yes, I will make that duʿāʾ. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) sat up, and he was angry — the anger could be seen in his face — and he said: la-qad kāna yuʾtā bi-man kāna qablakum fa-yūḍaʿu al-minshāru ʿalā raʾsih — a man from the nations before you would be brought, and the saw would be placed on top of his head, and he would be split in half, fa-lā yaruddu dhālika ʿan dīnih — and that would not make him give up his religion.

And a man from the nations before you would be brought, and he would be combed — fa-yumshaṭu bi-amshāṭ al-ḥadīd, combed with combs of iron, mā bayna laḥmihi wa ʿaẓmihi wa ʿaṣabih, which would comb away his nerves and his flesh from the bones — fa-lā yaruddu dhālika ʿan dīnih, and that would not make him give up his religion. Wa la-yutimmanna Allāhu hādhā al-amr — and Allah (ʿazza wa jall) will give victory to this religion of His, ḥattā yasīra al-rākibu min Ṣanʿāʾa ilā Ḥaḍramawta lā yakhāfu illā Allāha wa al-dhiʾba ʿalā ghanamih — until the traveller travels from Ṣanʿāʾ to Ḥaḍramawt fearing no one but Allah, and the wolf for his sheep (al-Bukhārī 3612).

So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was training the Companions to be patient: eventually Allah will give you victory. Wa al-ʿāqibatu li-al-muttaqīn — and the end belongs to the pious (7:128). But you have to be patient, and you have to give destiny its time. Do not be in a hurry. Allah (ʿazza wa jall) has destined things to happen in a certain way; we should not go against the qadar of Allah (ʿazza wa jall). Let everything take its time; eventually the Muslims will win. We should not be in a hurry; we should not hasten things to happen; they will happen with the qadar of Allah (ʿazza wa jall). Atā amru Allāhi fa-lā tastaʿjilūh (16:1): Allah (ʿazza wa jall) says that the command of Allah — whatever Allah has destined — will come; do not hasten it.

And the patience of the Muslims was now bearing its fruits: now Abū Sufyān was coming alone into Madīnah, begging the Muslims to give him peace, and the Muslims were ignoring him. So when the Muslims of today keep on feeding the ummah that you are in a state of weakness — that we are incapable, that the enemy is strong, that we cannot do anything, that we are living in Makkah, that we are as in the Makkan era — all of these concepts instil fear in the Muslim mind, and instil in the Muslim mind a feeling of inferiority, weakness and humiliation, and that programmes the Muslims to be weak and to accept oppression.

How can we say that, when we are one-fifth of the population of the world? When the Muslims number over one billion; when the Muslims sit on the most valuable resources on the planet — the oil of the world lies under the Muslims; it is like a living being that travels under the earth and goes and parks under the Muslim land; when the Muslims control some of the most important waterways and important parts of the world; when the Muslim land spans the whole planet — how can the Muslims say that we are in a state of weakness and a state of humiliation? The Muslims need to break out of this way of thinking and realise the strength they have, and realise that they are not lacking in financial resources, or numbers, or land; what they need is īmān; what they need is trust in Allah (ʿazza wa jall); what they need is tawakkul.