Ṣabr
Definition
Sabr is the capacity to hold firm — in obedience, from disobedience, and through affliction — when every impulse of the lower self is pulling in the opposite direction. Al-Ghazali describes it as a battle between two inner armies: the forces of divine guidance (aql and iman) and the forces of appetite (hawa and nafs). Patience is the victory of the first over the second. He categorizes it into three domains: sabr in performing acts of obedience when they feel burdensome; sabr from acts of disobedience when they feel attractive; and sabr with divine decrees when they feel devastating. All three are obligatory, but the third — patient acceptance of what God has decreed — is the most spiritually exalted and the most difficult to sustain.
As understood in the classical tradition of Imam al-Ghazali and the scholars of his school.
How the scholars use Ṣabr.
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"Abu Abdullah al-Mursi, Abu al-Abbas ibn al-Faqi, Abu Ali al-Balansi, Abu Muhammad ibn al-Kabila, Abu al-Hassan al-Biyari, Abu al-Abbas ibn Tafut, Abu al-Sabr Ayub al-Fakhar, and Ahmed ibn Hakama. From Qasr al-Majaz, the Jurist Abu Zayd Abd al-Rahman, the son of the Judge Abu al-Abbas ibn Khluf, and from Qasr al-Kabir, the Jurist Abu Muhammad ibn Muslim and Abu Ishaq Ibrahim bin Yahya and his son came. That year also saw the arrival of Emir Saif al-Din Taqsidamur from the Qasiqiya, Emir Musa bin Karaman, Judge Fakhr al-Din, Overseer of the Army and Secretary of the Mamluks, and Taj Abu Ishaq and Al-Sit Haq, the caretaker"
— Ibn Battuta, Volume One: From Tangier to the Lands of the East
Appears in
3 books in the library
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Every book above uses Ṣabr the way the classical scholars meant it. Listen with the full Study Kit in the app.