Supplicating for patience when one is not afflicted

25-11-2008 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalamualaykum, dear scholar, could you please inform me whether is it true that we should not ask for patience when we are living at ease? There is a hadeeth which says that Muhammad saw prevented a sahabi from asking Allah swt for patience since it also means asking for trials. However i've heard that it is a weak hadeeth. Jazaakallah khayr brother Shafiq

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

 

It might be that you are referring to the Prophetic narration that was reported by At-Tirmithi which some scholars classified as Dha’eef (weak) and some classified as hasan (good).

This narration includes the prohibition of supplicating for patience as this implies supplicating for afflictions.

The scholars stated that this prohibition applies to before being afflicted, and that if it is after being afflicted, then this is not prohibited. Rather, in this case, it is desirable to supplicate for patience.  Allaah Says (what means): {Our Lord, pour upon us patience.}[Quran 7:126]

Of course, the prohibition which we mentioned here of supplicating for patience –if the narration is assumed to be sound – is about patience when being afflicted, and there are other kinds of patience, like being patient on performing acts of obedience to Allaah and being patient on refraining from acts of disobedience, then it is desirable to supplicate for these in any case.

Allaah Knows best.