Patience means to endure. Some people think that such endurance and forbearance is cowardice. But this thinking is due to ignorance. Patience is the greatest power. The Quran says: "God is with the patient." (2:153) God provides support to those who live in this world with patience. This has been stated in a hadith thus: "Know that God's help comes with patience and with every hardship there is ease." This is not religious philosophy, rather it is based on the law of nature. There are many example which illustrate how patience helped people achieve success. Isaac Newton (d. 1727) is considered the father of modern science. It is said about him that when he was young he would often remain silent, which gave him the epithet 'woolgatherer'. Later it was discovered that Newton had the extraordinary ability to concentrate on a point. This could have not happened without patience. One has to be patient about hundred other things to be able to devote all one's focus on a single issue. For example, today I was speaking to a woman who said that whenever she heard her infant child cry, she would become restless and uneasy. I replied that if you remain patient when your child cries, it would be good for you. I explained to her that crying was nature's way of making a child exercise. An infant cannot walk or run, so his exercise is possible only by crying as then he sways his arms and legs. An infant's crying is his exercise. Because parents are not patient when they hear their child cry, they run to hold him up in their arms. This abruptly puts a stop to the natural process of making a child exercise. Newton remarked in later life: 'I have no special sagacity, only the power of patient thought.' It was this ability of being able to exercise patience which helped him achieve tremendous success.
