Sabr

Sabr (Arabic: صَبْرٌ, romanized: ṣabr) (literally 'endurance' or more accurately 'perseverance' and 'persistence'[1]) is one of the two parts of faith (the other being shukr) in Islam.

[2] It teaches to remain spiritually steadfast and to keep doing good actions in the personal and collective domain, specifically when facing opposition or encountering problems, setbacks, or unexpected and unwanted results.

Arabic lexicographers suggest[citation needed] that the root ṣ-b-r, of which ṣabr is the nominalization, means to bind or restrain.

The word ṣabr has a special technical application in the expression yamīn aṣ-ṣabr (يمين الصبر), which refers to perjury.

[3] In the Quran, words that are derived from the root ṣ-b-r occur frequently, with the general meaning of persisting on the right path when under adverse circumstance, whether internal or external, personal or collective.

[1] In Quran there is usually a close connection between being patiently persisting in doing right and expecting relief or deliverance from God (tawakkul).

Related by Hibat Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan al-Lālakāʾī in Sharḥ ʾuṣūl ʾiʿtiqād ʾahl as-sunnah wa-al-jamāʿah (no.

[citation needed] Imam Ahmad said, "Allāh has mentioned ṣabr (patient perseverance) in over ninety places in His Book (Quran)."

[1] In addition to the above, Sabr was also classified as thus: According to Qur'an, a practical example of Sabr was described and stated as thus: "Piety is not to turn your faces to the east or the west; rather, piety is [personified by] those who have faith in Allah and the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the prophets, and who give their wealth, for the love of Him, to relatives, orphans, the needy, the traveller and the beggar, and for [the freeing of] the slaves, and maintain the prayer and give the zakat, and those who fulfil their covenants, when they pledge themselves, and those who are patient in stress and distress, and in the heat of battle.

Sābirūn are to remain steadfast not only in health and prosperity (where their ṣabr is to be used as gratitude to God) but also in the performance of religious obligations, in refraining from forbidden things and in the event of uncontrollable calamities.