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Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) described Ramadan as the month of patience (narrated by Nesa’ee). He also stated that being grateful to Allah is half the faith, and being patient is the other half of faith.
He said: “I wonder for the affairs of the believer, all his affairs is good for him; this fate only belongs to those who believe. If he is enjoying a blessing, he is grateful to Allah, and this is good for him; and if he is experiencing difficulty, he patiently persevere, and this is good for him”
In Ramadan, we go through a good training of patience. We experience high ethics in our own worlds. We accustom our stomach to patience by not eating anything though we are hungry, by not drinking even a sip of water though our throat dries out of thirst.
During Ramadan we must control our desire for food and drink and intimate contact, and we pray regularly and offer additional prayers, and we recite the Qur’an often, and we conduct ourselves properly and not harm anyone in word or deed, and we hasten in all good deeds.
All this requires patience, perseverance, determination and commitment. Our priorities change so that pleasing God and getting close to Him is our main goal, everything else becomes secondary. Because Ramadan requires patience and sacrifice, Allah promised a great reward for those who fast this month with devotion and conduct themselves properly.
On the other hand, if we happen to get angry, or if our souls force us to backbite or to tell lies and bad words, we instantly refrain and remember that we are fasting and thus show patience against such evils.
What leads man to certain mistakes, causes him to perpetrate certain crimes, and lies on the grounds of many calamities that he is faced with is the patience that he could not show in the beginning. If he had shown patience in the first place and persevered, he could have avoided that calamity. So, “The cure for impatience which doubles the disasters humans encounter is fasting.”
This training of patience that we carry out during Ramadan makes us recall those whose circumstances are more straitened than ours. This is because however poor one may be, one can by all means still find others poorer and more in need than oneself.
