Qaida fi al-Sabr
- Author died
- 728 AH
- Editions
- al-Jāmi‘ah al-Islāmiyyah bi-al-Madīnah al-Munawwarah
Qaida fi al-Sabr (A Principle on Patience) is a treatise by Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728 AH / 1328 CE) on the spiritual virtues and practical means of enduring hardship, with a particular focus on bearing harm inflicted by other people .
Title and Relation to a Larger Work
The treatise appears under the title Qaida fi al-Sabr on manuscript title pages . However, in the catalog Asma' Mu'allafat Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya by Ibn Rushayyiq al-Maghribi (d. 749 AH) and in Al-'Uqud al-Durriyya by Ibn Abd al-Hadi, the work is titled Qaida fi al-Sabr wa-l-Shukr (A Principle on Patience and Gratitude) and described as comprising around sixty folios .
Internal evidence suggests that the standalone text on patience represents the first part of that broader work . In its opening, Ibn Taymiyya states that the whole of religion resolves into patience and gratitude, while the text concludes with a brief mention of the second foundation—gratitude, defined as acting in obedience to God—without detailing it further, ending with the scribal formula «تمت بحمد الله وعونه» ("Completed with God's praise and help") .
Contents and Structure
Ibn Taymiyya introduces the treatise by establishing that religion consists of two complementary halves: patience and gratitude . He supports this with the Quranic statement: إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لآياتٍ لِكُلِّ صَبَّارٍ شَكُورٍ ("Indeed in that are signs for everyone patient and grateful") and the prophetic narration: عجبًا لأمر المؤمن إن أمره كله عجب، لا يقضي الله لمؤمن قضاءً إلا كان خيرًا له، إن أصابته سراء شكر فكان خيرًا له، وإن أصابته ضراء صبر فكان خيرًا له ("Wondrous is the affair of the believer; his affair is all good. God decrees nothing for a believer except that it is good for him: if ease befalls him, he gives thanks and it is good for him, and if hardship befalls him, he shows patience and it is good for him") .
He divides patience into three categories:
- Patience in carrying out obligations until they are fulfilled .
- Patience in abstaining from prohibited matters .
- Patience in enduring tribulations that occur without personal choice .
He further classifies tribulations into two kinds:
- Tribulations in which creation has no choice, such as illness and natural afflictions; these are relatively easier to bear because one recognizes divine predestination without human intervention .
- Tribulations inflicted through the actions of people against one's property, honor, or physical safety; these are exceptionally difficult to endure because the human soul naturally resents humiliation and seeks retaliation, and only prophets and the truthful (siddiqun) bear them patiently .
The remainder of the treatise is devoted to elaborating twenty distinct perspectives and spiritual reasons that assist a Muslim in patiently enduring the harm inflicted by people .
Transmission and Manuscripts
Substantial extracts of the work were transmitted and cited under Ibn Taymiyya's name by Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Manbiji (d. 785 AH) in his book Tasliyat Ahl al-Masa'ib (Consolation for the Afflicted) .
Multiple manuscript copies of the treatise have survived in library collections:
- A four-folio manuscript preserved at Oxford University, bound within a compilation containing Ibn Taymiyya's Kitab al-'Ubudiyya .
- A manuscript preserved at Princeton University, transcribed in 822 AH by Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Majd al-Salihi al-Dimashqi, contained within a compilation alongside other theological treatises .
- An eight-folio copy preserved at the General Awqaf Library in Baghdad (MS 4715/2), copied in 1217 AH by Sultan ibn Mulla Husayn al-Qarahghul .
- A manuscript titled Qaida fi al-Sabr li-Ibn Taymiyya bearing the attribution note of Ibn Taymiyya's disciple Idris ibn Baydakin al-Turkmani .
Answer updated