Sabr Against the World's Temptations

Secondly is the ṣabr shown toward the temptations of this world that the nafs wants — in other words, refraining from the ḥarām, the prohibited, the forbidden, and avoiding any form of disobedience to Allah (swt). Ḥarām things are so attractive, especially to a young person — especially between the ages of thirteen and thirty-nine, the age of youth. Anything after forty, a person begins to become more mature, begins to think of his actions before he does them; before that, he is on autopilot, doing first and thinking after, for good or for bad — it does not matter. Usually it is the ḥarām stuff that benefits, because the nafs al-ammārah within, and the nafs without, combine their forces, together with the temptations around — especially a system that gives full liberty to the nafs al-ammārah — and it becomes so difficult, especially under peer-group pressure, when friends are doing it, when it is a fad, when it is a fashion, from hairstyles to studs put on everywhere to all sorts of foolish things: following the trend, following the crowd, following the flow, so to speak, without caring what Allah (swt) says — this is trouble.

But if one is a good Muslim, the consequences of these actions are known: that there is a Day of Judgement, and Allah (swt) will question every deed done. Therefore, even where a person might get away with it this time — with friends, or alone, in a private space, committing the ḥarām — one day he shall stand before Allah (swt) and answer for his deeds. Thinking, therefore, of the consequences of ḥarām actions, īmān allows a person to refrain, to restrain himself from these ḥarām acts — and this is another form of ṣabr.

ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him) says there are two types of ṣabr. One is ṣabr toward balāʾ, affliction, that one is not in control of — something bad happening within the family, something bad happening to oneself. If ṣabr is shown toward this, he says, māshāʾAllāh, the jackpot has been hit. But there is a higher form of ṣabr: when shayṭān, and the nafs, and the temptations around — people, or shayṭān himself in his own nature — push, urge, motivate, entice one to do something ḥarām, and one gives in to it — this is absolutely ḥarām. But to control oneself, to restrain oneself, to stop the nafs from falling into the ḥarām of Allah — this, he says, is the highest form of ṣabr, a better form of ṣabr.

The first type, whether one likes it or not, is going to happen; there is no control over it. If, for example, a person is diagnosed with some disease, some sickness, what can be done? Jump up and down? Jump off a cliff? Nothing can be done. Diabetes is diabetes; cancer is cancer. If ṣabr is shown, the ḥasanāt are earned. But being tempted by sin every day of one's life — looking at ḥarām every day, being tempted by ḥarām continuously, in the education system, in the marketplace, in the workplace, constantly tempted by the ḥarām — and controlling oneself, saying no, thank you, this is the highest form of ṣabr, the most virtuous form of ṣabr.