heat of the desert of Arab. Then, they would lay them down on their backs on the blazing sand by placing a heavy rock on their chest so that they can’t turn their side. They would sear the bodies of some with hot metal rods. They would hold some of them in water for so long that they would start suffocating. They would wrap some of them in mats and smoke their nostrils that would make it difficult for them to breathe. In short, such oppressions were inflicted upon them that if there was a mountain in their place, even that mountain would have trembled. But may we be sacrificed upon the embodiments of patience and contentment! Neither did they observe impatience falling prey to the calamities and hardships, nor did they mourn or wail over them and nor did they reveal their hardships to anyone either. Rather, they remained content upon the Will of Allah Almighty. They faced hardships and calamities with full determination and attained the especial closeness of Allah Almighty.

3. The blessed month of Muharram also teaches us the lesson of patience. This is the same very month in which the incident of Karbala took place. The army of sinful Yazeed and Ibn-e-Ziyad inflicted such oppressions upon Imam-e-Aali Maqaam, Imam Hussain رَضِىَ اللهُ تَعَالٰی عَـنْهُ and his blessed family and other blessed personages that just thinking about them makes one’s soul and every strand of hair shiver. In reply to it, the legacy of patience and contentment that those blessed personalities left behind is indeed something for us to follow. 

4. In order to develop a mind-set of patience over calamities, think about the punishments of the Hell. Even biggest of the calamities of this world cannot even equate to the smallest of the punishments of the Hell. The Holy Prophet صَلَّى اللهُ تَعَالٰى عَلَيْهِ وَاٰلِهٖ وَسَلَّم said: ‘Among the Hell-dwellers, the one who would be inflicted with the smallest of the punishment would be made to wear the shoes of fire that would make his brain boil.’ (Sahih Bukhari, vol. 4, pp. 262, Hadees 6561)

5. In order to develop a mind-set to observe patience over calamities, ponder over the condition of someone who is facing calamities more than yourself. Think to yourself that my hardships are a lot lesser than