Individual Patience and Collective Patience

Patience is mentioned in the Quran 103 times in various conjugations. One verse involving patience, though, is particularly noteworthy due to the co-presence of two distinct conjugations:

Believers, have patience, help each other with patience, establish good relations with one another, and have fear of God so that you may prosper. (3/200)

Here, in the same verse, the believers are told to show patience in two different forms. The nuance between these forms is reflected in the numerous translations of this verse with varying levels of interpretations. Here, I want to focus on a subtlety that I think is important in our time.

The two instructions about having patience in the above verse are usbiruu and saabiruu. The second one, based on its grammatical conjugation, has a notion of being done with other actors. This is why some translations interpret it as "help each other to be patient" or as "race with the disbelievers in being patient". By logic, if the second usage of patience has a collective spirit in it, then the first must have a rather individual meaning. Indeed, when Allah tells His messengers to be patient, He uses this first form that has the individual emphasis.

And certainly were messengers denied before you, but they were patient over [the effects of] denial, and they were harmed until Our victory came to them. And none can alter the words of Allah. And there has certainly come to you some information about the [previous] messengers. (6/34)

And be patient, [O Muhammad], for the decision of your Lord, for indeed, you are in Our eyes. And exalt [Allah] with praise of your Lord when you arise. (52/48)

And be patient, [O Muhammad], and your patience is not but through Allah. And do not grieve over them and do not be in distress over what they conspire. (16/127)

So, given that there are two kinds of patience, one rather social the other rather individual, it is necessary to explore the different meanings behind them and their implications in our lives. To do so, we can start by looking at the meaning of patience.

The common belief about patience is about preserving your position in adverse conditions. This position can refer to your mood, your attitude or your actions. However, despite this broad sense of meaning, patience is deemed as a passive action. That is not in agreement with the approach presented in the Quran.

If good touches you, it distresses them; but if harm strikes you, they rejoice at it. And if you are patient and fear Allah , their plot will not harm you at all. Indeed, Allah is encompassing of what they do. (3/120)

O Prophet, urge the believers to battle. If there are among you twenty [who are] steadfast, they will overcome two hundred. And if there are among you one hundred [who are] steadfast, they will overcome a thousand of those who have disbelieved because they are a people who do not understand. (8/65)

In the two verses above, believers are told to have patience in the face of the enemy. Anyone with a clear mind would know that patience as mentioned here cannot be just about waiting passively. Rather, it means that the believers should make meticulous and elaborate plans and execute them consistently. If the believers do not take this lesson from these verses, then history is proof that God allows the disbelievers to overcome the believers, by which the believers are forced to learn the proper meaning through dire losses. So, individual patience is NOT about passively waiting, it is not just about accepting what befalls you.

But those who were certain that they would meet Allah said, "How many a small company has overcome a large company by permission of Allah. And Allah is with the patient." (2/249)

If patience is not a passive reclusion, then what is it exactly? To see that, we can look at the words of prophet Noah (pbuh), where he is complaining about his people to Allah:

He said: O my Lord! surely I have called my people by night and by day! but it has had no effect on them except to make them run away. Every time I invite them to Your (guidance) so that You can forgive them, they put their fingers into their ears, cover their heads with their clothes, persist in their disbelief and display extreme arrogance. Then surely I called to them aloud; Then verily, I proclaimed to them in public, and I have appealed to them in private... (71/5-9)

In these words, we see a man who is committed to his mission and persists on it for several centuries. He clearly shows patience in his dealings with people and in enduring the backlash for voicing the message of God. However, his persistence never means doing the same thing for centuries. He constantly changes his strategies. He tries to reach them at different occasions. He tries to talk to them in groups and individually. He uses announcements as well as personalized messages. And all this is done by a single man in the face of a powerful community and a ruling elite that are committed to ensuring the failure of his mission. So, the patience that we observe here is about change in order to survive and persist.

Therefore, the individual patience has to do with change at the individual level. Similarly, collective patience has to do with change at the group or communal level. And the change we are talking about here is not for the sake of itself nor for the sake of rising to the power. It is for the sake of establishing freedom and justice for all.

By time, Verily Man is in loss, Except those who believe and do good, and enjoin on each other truth, and enjoin on each other patience. (103/1-3)

And when they went out against Jalut and his forces they said: Our Lord, pour down upon us patience, and make our steps firm and assist us against the unbelieving people. (2/250)

Based on this conclusion, the very first question that one must answer is what have you done to evolve. Without a satisfactory answer, it is in vain to expect a different outcome from the events, because they are still the same, because they are going to act and react as before, and this state of certainty is going to put cream on the cake of those inflicting the innocent. So, those striving on the path of truth and justice must include as part of their agenda a component of evolution.

When you allow each individual to evolve on their own, it is natural and inevitable that there are going to be differences among people. Such differences are considered to be evil due to their potential for creating conflict. So, the traditional approach in these matters is to suppress differentiation and establish a unanimity. These proponents of status quo even use the verses of the Quran to fortify their views:

And obey Allah and His Messenger, and do not dispute and [thus] lose courage and [then] your strength would depart; and be patient. Indeed, Allah is with the patient. (8/46)

However, from our analysis here, it is obvious that God does want change and He does favor differences among people. So, the admonition in the above verse must be in a different direction. In fact, when you try to look at things through this perspective, you quickly realize that this verse has a link to the fact that hostile polarization among people is one of the greatest enemies of creativity and change. Peace and stability, on the other hand, are the conditions that are more favorable for fostering the birth of the new. Healthy change thrives on support and stability. Unhealthy change, on the other hand, feeds from the destructive effects of abrupt and unpredictable events. So, by creating a micro climate of stability and support, the believers or those who strive on the path of freedom and justice must encourage change and evolution.