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What is the Importance of a Promise?
In mutual dealings in social life, it often happens that a person gives his word to another. There is apparently no third person or group between the two, yet there is always a third present and that is God who is the supreme witness. That is why every promise becomes a divine promise.
Therefore, man should be extremely sensitive about giving his word. His conviction should be that every commitment made between two persons is under the watchful eyes of God, and that he will be accountable for its fulfilment in the court of God. This compels him to be highly responsible as regards his promises. Whenever he gives his word to anyone he should make it a point to keep it.
People who invariably fulfil their promises are predictable characters in a society, and give their society that particular quality which exists on a vast scale throughout the universe. Every part of this universe is functioning with the most exact precision. For instance, we can learn in advance about any star’s or planet’s rotation, and where it will be moving after a hundred or even a thousand years. Similarly, we know in advance what the boiling point of water will be. In this way the entire universe evinces a predictable character.
Many other virtues come in the wake of the regular fulfilment of promises. One of these is mutual trust. In a society where mutual trust exists, there is no discord and dissension between people; there is an atmosphere of confidence and peacefulness as there is no fear of promises being broken.
Readiness to fulfil promises is a commendable trait, and it is spirituality that makes man the possessor of this highest of human virtues.
What is Patience?
Patience is the exercise of restraint in trying situations. It is a virtue, which enables the individual to proceed towards worthy goals, undeterred by adverse circumstances or repeated provocations. If he allows himself to become upset by opposition, taunts or other kinds of unpleasantness, he will never reach his goals. He will simply become enmeshed in irrelevancies.
The only way to deal with the irksome side of daily living is to exercise patience. Patience will ensure that whenever one has some bitter experience, he will opt for the way of tolerance rather than that of reaction to provocation. It will enable one to absorb shocks and to continue undeterred on one’s onward journey.
Sabr or Patience, as well as being a practical solution to the problems faced in the outside world, is also a means of positive character building. One who fails to exercise patience gives free rein to negative thoughts and feelings, and develops a personality, which is likewise negative; while one who remains patient is so morally bolstered by his own positive thoughts and feelings that he develops a positive personality.
Sabr is no retreat. Sabr only amounts to taking the initiative along the path of wisdom and reason as opposed to the path of emotions. Sabr gives one the strength to restrain one’s emotions in delicate situations and rather to use one’s brains to find a course of action along result-oriented lines.
The present world is fashioned in such a way that everyone is necessarily confronted with unpleasant matters at one time or another. Unbearable circumstances have to be borne somehow; harrowing events have to be witnessed and all kinds of pain have to be suffered. In such situations, succumbing to impatience leads to the kind of unnecessary emotional involvement which is counter-productive, while a demonstration of patience has a healing, beneficial effect, allowing one to tread the path of discreet avoidance.
Success in the present world is destined only for those who adopt the path of patience in adverse circumstances.
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