3 things to learn about patience − and impatience − from al-Ghazali, a medieval Islamic scholar

• From childhood, we are told that patience is a virtue and that good things will come to those who wait.
• And, so, many of us work on cultivating patience.
• The writings of medieval Islamic thinker Abu Hamid al-Ghazali can give us insights or help us understand why we need to practice patience – and also when not to be patient.

Who was al-Ghazali?

• He traveled to places as far as Baghdad and Jerusalem to defend Islam and argued there was no contradiction between reason and revelation.
• More specifically, he was well known for reconciling Aristotle’s philosophy, which he likely read in Arabic translation, with Islamic theology.
• This work is composed of 40 volumes in total, divided into four parts of 10 books each.

1. What is patience?

• Humans, according to al-Ghazali, have competing impulses: the impulse of religion, or “bāʿith al-dīn,” and the impulse of desire, or “bāʿith al-hawā.” Life is a struggle between these two impulses, which he describes with the metaphor of a battle: “Support for the religious impulse comes from the angels reinforcing the troops of God, while support for the impulse of desire comes from the devils reinforcing the enemies of God.”

• The amount of patience we have is what decides who wins the battle.
• As al-Ghazali puts it, “If a man remains steadfast until the religious impulse conquers … then the troops of God are victorious and he joins the troops of the patient.

2. Patience, values and goals

• It all starts with commitments to core values.
• For a Muslim like al-Ghazali, those values are informed by the Islamic tradition and community, or “umma,” and include things like justice and mercy.
• Living in a way that is consistent with these core values is what the moral life is all about.

3. When impatience is called for

• Certainly, there are forms of injustice and suffering in the world that we should not calmly endure.
• Despite his commitment to the importance of patience to a moral life, al-Ghazali makes room for impatience as well.
• But could the necessity for impatience be extended to social harms, such as systemic racism or poverty?

Liz Bucar received funding from Templeton Religion Trust to support work on this topic.