If the servant meditates on Religion in its entirety, he will see that it... Read More

If the servant meditates on Religion in its entirety, he will see that it amounts in its entirety to patience and thanksgiving and this because patience is of three categories:

1.Patience on the obedience he practices: for the servant does not put into practice what has been commanded him until he has been patient and enduring, and after having fought his internal and external enemy; it is therefore proportional to this patience that he fulfills obligations and puts into practice preferable actions

2.The second kind of patience: patience regarding forbidden acts so as not to commit them because the soul and its demands and the embellishment (of things) by Satan as well as evil companions, all incite it to evil and encourage him to do so. The abandonment of prohibitions will be proportional to the strength of patience. Some pious predecessors have said: "Acts of obedience are done by the pious and the wicked, while only the truthful is capable of abandoning disobedience."

3.The third kind of patience: patience regarding what affects him such as calamities which are outside his will.