Jazakallah brother. I finished my assignment and here it is: (references at the bottom)
The Patience of the Prophet
By: Nabal12
Patience is the first weapon for the believer to use when facing hardship. Patience is when a person restrains himself from being fearful during hard times. Also, a person who is patient restrains himself from doing prohibited acts and does what is obligated and righteous. Therefore, which Muslim can possibly deny the fact that the prophet was the perfect example of a patient man? Allah chose the qualities of a leader in Islam to be one who has both patience and certainty in one's deen. Allah (S.W.T.) says in the Qur'an
“And We made from among them, leaders, giving guidance under Our command, when they were patient and used to believe with certainty in Our Ayat.” (Verse 24) Surat As-Sajdah.
It is said that there are three types of patience:
The first type of patience is when a person works constantly to fulfill obligations and to do righteous deeds. One tactic that the Quraysh used to attempt to change Muhammad's (S) behavior was bribery. This brought out the famous answer from Muhammad (S),
"By Allah, if even they place the sun in one hand and the moon in my other hand, I will not be dissuaded from my mission."
The second type of patience is when a person abstains from prohibited acts and from evil. Abstaining from prohibited acts requires a great struggle against one's desires, and takes much patience in refraining from evil. Even before Prophet Muhammad received his first revelation, he was always staying away from evils such as stealing and lying. He never wanted to harm a single living thing either.
The third type of patience is when a person practices patience during times of hardship without complaints. An example of this is the Quraysh. The Quraysh would always dump filth and garbage on Muhammad (S) and spread thorns in his path. It is amazing how patient Muhammad's (S) response to these types of provocation was. Once when he noticed that the woman who would often thrown thorns in his path had not thrown any for the day, he went over to see if she had become sick.
There are many examples of times when prophet Muhammad showed patience. One of those times was during the Boycott of the Muslims and in the year of grief which is the year that Khadija and Abu Talib had died, the prophet had went to Ta’if in order to gain more allies and to help his people. Instead of help, he was greeted with hostility from the local tribal leaders. Still through all this, he remained calm, poised and patient. People who saw him in the streets continued to taunt him and throw stones and when he finally seeked refuge in a vineyard, the prophet looked at the sky and said
"O Allah, To Thee I complain of my weakness, my lack of resources and my lowliness before men. O most Merciful! Thou art the Lord of the weak and Thou art my Lord. To whom wilt Thou relinquish my fate! To one who will misuse me? Or to an enemy to whom Thou hast given power over me? If Thou art angry with me then I care not what happens to me. Thy favor is all that counts for me.” After this, Nabi Muhammad returned to his home, awaiting another miracle.
If it wasn’t for Prophet Muhammad’s patience, Hamzah (RA) and Umar (RA) would not have converted. Hamzah a prominent and powerful person in Makkah could not stand to see his cousin being abused any longer so he accepted Islam in spite of everyone around him but freely. Within a few days of Hamzah's acceptance of Islam, Umar (RA) who would become the second Khalifah of Islam, also became a Muslim. He was angered by his sister and brother- in- law's becoming Muslim, but he was quickly changed when he heard the verses of the Quran.
Overall, we have learned that patience is the key to success in this life and in the hereafter. And who better to teach us this and to use as an example? I don’t think anyone can teach it as well as Nabi Muhammad.
Bibliography:
http://www.islamonline.net/english/I...rticle18.shtml
http://www.islamweb.net/ver2/archive...ang=E&id=38016
http://www.deenislam.co.uk/demo/hear...20Patience.htm
http://www.ispi-usa.org/muhammad/muhammad9.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For this, I never directly copied anything off the other sites, I'd summarize or paraphrase. Alhamdulillah I'm proud of it :D