The Difference Between Patience and Pleasure in Islam

Understanding the Higher State of Pleasure and the Reward of Patience

The Prophet ﷺ used to say:

“O Allah, by Your knowledge of the unseen and Your power over creation, keep me alive so long as You know that living is good for me and cause me to die when You know that death is better for me. O Allah, cause me to fear You in secret and in public. I ask You to make me true in speech in times of pleasure and of anger. I ask You to make me moderate in times of wealth and poverty. And I ask You for everlasting delight and joy that will never cease. 

I ask You to make me pleased with that which You have decreed

أَسْأَلُكَ الرِّضَاءَ بِالْقَضَاءِ

…and for an easy life after death. I ask You for the sweetness of looking upon Your face and a longing to meet You in a manner that does not entail a calamity that will bring about harm or a trial that will cause deviation. O Allah, beautify us with the adornment of faith and make us among those who guide and are rightly guided.” 

[Sunan an-Nasa’i]

If one is able to reach this praiseworthy higher state of pleasure, one is truly able to experience the “good life” to its fullest as understood by the great Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, Ali and Ibn Abbas in the ayah:

 *مَنْ عَمِلَ صَالِحًا مِّن ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنثَىٰ وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً ۖ وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْرَهُم بِأَحْسَنِ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ

Whoever does righteousness, whether male or female, while he is a believer – We will surely cause him to live a good life, and We will surely give them their reward [in the Hereafter] according to the best of what they used to do. 

[16:97]

These are the special people who experience contentment amid life’s challenges, hardship, and pain.

As for the many who struggle to attain this level of pleasure, there is tremendous reward for striving to be patient, fulfilling one’s obligations and refraining from complaint and anger. 

Scholars have summed up the difference between these two states in the following statement: 

“The one who is pleased does not wish to be in any other circumstance as opposed to the one who is patient” 

...meaning that the patient one is accepting of their situation while the one who is pleased doesn’t have a care in the world as to whether or when the situation will change!

Adapted from the Commentary of the Forty Hadith of Al-Nawawi | Ustdh al-Din M. Zarabozo