I always wondered why patience (sabr) is mentioned so many times in the Koran — more than 90 times in fact. The Koran repeatedly links patience to faith, success, divine support, spiritual strength, and reward without measure, to name a few.

We all know the adage — the best things come to those who wait. Patience also builds gratitude; a noble attribute indeed. Patience is one of the most emphasised virtues in the Koran.

Patience in the Koran is not presented as passive waiting — it’s a form of strength. Again and again, we are reminded that life will stretch us, test us, and sometimes break our plans.

But in those moments, sabr becomes a kind of inner anchoring. It’s the quiet discipline of the heart that keeps a person steady when circumstances are not.

The Koran links patience with dignity, clarity, and trust. It teaches that patience is not just for hardship, but also for worship, for relationships, for self‑control, and for choosing what is right when it’s not easy. It’s a virtue that shapes character from the inside out.

And perhaps the most beautiful message is this: patience is never unnoticed. Every moment of restraint, every silent prayer, every time you choose calm over anger or hope over despair — all of it is seen, counted, and held by God.

The Koran promises that the reward for patience is beyond measure, because only God knows the weight of what a person carries.

So when we speak of sabr, we’re really speaking of a way of walking through the world — steady, trusting, and rooted — even when the winds are strong.

Never to lose hope or become despaired, Allah says that we must never despair or lose hope of His mercy. May we walk through our challenges with a steady heart and a trusting spirit.

Patience in a world where power has lost its conscience is vital now more than ever. The global order increasingly resembles the law of the jungle rather than a civilised system of nations.

Power acts first and justifies later. Borders are crossed, resources seized, and lives lost under familiar banners of security and strategic interest. The pattern is consistent: ordinary people suffer while profits accumulate among distant elites and corporations insulated from the consequences of their decisions.

History shows this is not accidental. When power operates without moral restraint, it behaves like a bully — bullying and taking what is not theirs, because a bully is of the mind that it can.

Yet history also teaches another truth: bullies ultimately never win. Pharaoh’s arrogance ended in ruin. Empires that once dominated vast territories collapsed under corruption and excess. Colonial powers and modern totalitarian regimes rose through force and fell through moral bankruptcy. Injustice may dominate for a season, but it is inherently unstable.

The Koran offers a moral lens through which to understand both the crisis and the response it demands. Humanity, it reminds us, was created not for domination but for moral recognition: “O mankind, We have created you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of God is the most righteous of you.” (Koran 49:13)

Difference, then, was never intended as a justification for conquest or hierarchy. It is a test of character.

Central to this moral vision is patience, often misunderstood as passivity.

In Islamic teaching, patience is not silence in the face of injustice; it is moral endurance. It restrains cruelty without abandoning justice and resists wrongdoing without surrendering conscience.

Even in war, the Koran imposes strict ethical limits — prohibiting excess, collective punishment, and harm to non-combatants — principles tragically absent from much of modern conflict.

The Koran also exposes the economic logic behind injustice, warning against systems in which wealth circulates only among the powerful, and reassures that oppression is never unseen: “Do not think God is unaware of what the wrongdoers do.” (Koran 14:42)

This assurance anchors patience not in denial, but in trust.

In times such as these, patience becomes an act of resistance. It is the refusal to become what we oppose and the strength to endure without losing moral clarity.

Allah advises patience not as a retreat from responsibility, but as a safeguard of humanity itself. History confirms what revelation teaches: power without conscience collapses, while justice, patiently upheld, endures. So be patient: indeed, the promise of Allah is true (Koran 30:60).

May patience and peace be yours in abundance.

As salaam alaikum (peace be unto you).

• Linda Walia Ming is a member of the Bermuda Hijab Dawah Team, a group of Muslim women who reside in Bermuda and have a goal of educating the community about the religion of Islam