Of Patience And Thankfulness.

[Abu Fauzi]

Assalam alaikum,
According to Sidi Sheikh Abdulqadir al-Jilani, may Allah be Merciful to him, "the truthful person offers thanks for the blessings he receives, endures with patience the punishments, carries out the Commandments and keeps away from the prohibitions. Thus, the hearts are developed. Offering thanks for receiving blessings increases them and enduring with patience the punishments removes and mitigates them.

Endure with patience the death of children and other family members, the loss of property, loss of good reputation, the failure of worldly goals and the harm caused by creatures, and then you will receive a great deal of good. When you thank for being in easy circumstances and be patient when having hard times, the wing of your faith will become fully pledged and strengthened, and your heart and innermost being will fly to the door of your Lord.

How can you lay claim to faith when you have no patience? Have you not heard the saying of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, that "Patience is to faith as the head is to the body." If you do not have patience, then your faith is without a head and hence its body is worthless. If you know the One who sends the affliction, you would bear His affliction. If you know this world, you would not fall into disobedience by seeking it."

For further reading on this, see Sheikh al-Jilani's
"JILA'AL-KHATIR (Purification Of The Mind)".