Creative Patience: Mastering the Art of ‘Sabr’
A path for all human beings seeking a peaceful life.
Sabr—the word that echoed through my childhood, whispered in moments of pain and repeated like a sacred mantra, even today, when life feels unbearable.
“Sabr,” my mother would tell me over her shoulder, as she worked on the piping hot roti she was cooking on the stove. I was just a youngster, tugging at the back of her apron frustratedly because my tummy was rumbling.
“Sabr,” my grandmother would smile knowingly as I wondered out loud again and again why the flowers we had planted last week had not yet sprouted despite us tending to them religiously every single day.
“Sabr, Sabah, sabr,” I heard a stranger whisper over my shoulder, as silent tears rolled down my 14-year-old cheeks while I looked down upon my father’s cold face while he lay there still, silent and unmoving in his coffin.
It is a word that has been woven through the fabric of my life—interlaced into childhood hunger, the slow bloom of flowers, and the aching stillness of grief. I’ve carried it with me all these years, but only now, through age and life experience, do I truly grasp its depth. Only now do I see how it has been shaping me, guiding me and inviting me toward something greater. And how, perhaps, it has been doing the same for you too, whether you are yet aware of it or not.
The Roots of Sabr
Sabr is an Arabic word that has its foundations in the Islamic holy book, the Qur’an, and in its most basic English translation translates to patience, although this barely covers even half of its deeper meaning. I would describe it more so as perseverance, or patient perseverance, but yet again this still doesn’t convey just how profound its significance is.
They say that Sabr is half of a person’s faith, and even when you take it in its most basic translation - that of patience - it’s easy to understand why. Without patience, life with all its ebbs and flows and peaks and troughs could become intolerable. But with patience, life may still be hard, but there would be more purpose in the struggle; an understanding of the bigger meaning behind it all.
God emphasises the importance of Sabr in many verses in the Holy Qur’an, as well as in many other spiritual traditions including Christianity, Judaism, Sikhism, Hinduism and Taoism. The concept itself transcends religious boundaries, and speaks to the essence of the human being.
In the Qur’an God says,
“…be patient over what befalls you”
and
“…seek help through patience and prayer”
and
“…excellent is the reward of the workers who have been patient…”.
With its continual references in the Qur’an and like Job in the Bible, the Buddhist practice of Khanti, or the Hindu concept of Shraddha, Sabr is a spiritual force that reaches beyond the confines of religion —it is the quiet strength that carries us through life’s storms.
In more recent years, what I’ve come to understand through studying the different world religions, my own life experience and lots of meditation and reflection, is that what is referred to as Sabr in the Qur’an, and all the many examples from other faiths and traditions, is so much more than just patience. It’s not just a word, it’s a state of being. And within this state of being, Sabr is an act of ultimate submission - submission to the point where you willingly place your everything into the hands of the powers that govern this Universe and know that everything is unfolding exactly how it needs to, with your very best interests at its core.
‘Beautiful Patience’
There is another verse in the Qur’an where the term ‘Sabr-e-Jameel’ is used. This translates roughly in English to ‘beautiful patience’, but what does this mean?
Different scholars have ascribed different meanings, but they all pretty much convey the same message: that beautiful patience, or Sabr-e-Jameel, is to be content and at peace no matter what is happening around you; to be content and at peace even in adversity and in the most difficult of times.
Eckhart Tolle, in the beautiful book Stillness Speaks, says:
“Whenever you deeply accept this moment as it is — no matter what form it takes — you are still, you are at peace.”
And for me, this conveys the meaning of Sabr-e-Jameel perfectly. To have Sabr-e-Jameel means to live fully and deeply connected to the present moment, accepting it in its entirety - after all, this moment is all we truly ever have.
The Dark Side of Sabr
Unfortunately, in my South-Asian culture, the term Sabr is often misconstrued and its meaning manipulated to overlook toxic behaviour and abusive relationships — in a sense, it is even used to justify it.
I’ve heard many stories and even seen firsthand how people will advise others to have Sabr when it comes to situations of domestic abuse and violence or other situations where they are being treated unfairly or inhumanely.
Even my own mother endured years and years of hardship and abuse within my father's family, believing that all that was happening was the will of God and that she just had to have Sabr and endure it all.
What I’ve come to understand, however, is that this is so far removed from what Sabr actually teaches us. The best and most beautiful way to explain its true and deeper meaning is through what I learned in an impromptu talk by my Spiritual teacher - a Sufi Spiritual Master from Senegal - Sheikh Aly N’Daw.
He somehow cleared up the confusion floating around in my head about Sabr and how it has been manipulated by culture, by speaking straight to my heart with clarity and Truth.
Creative Patience
About Sabr, Sheikh Aly explained that it is not simply about just having patience; instead, he said Sabr is all about having ‘creative patience’ — meaning to say that we don’t just sit back and use the concept of having patience as an excuse to do nothing to change our situation.
If we are experiencing injustice, being treated unfairly, being abused or going through a difficult time, Sheikh Aly explained that we can have Sabr while still taking action to change our situation — or to ‘create’ a new one.
Taking action, making changes, trying to improve ourselves and our circumstances while equally placing our every faith in God, is what having Sabr really means.
There is a story of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) that says there was once a Bedouin man who was leaving his camel without tying it.
The Prophet asked him, “Why don’t you tie down your camel?” to which the Bedouin answered, “I put my trust in God.”
The Prophet replied, saying,
“Tie your camel first, and then put your trust in God.”
This perfectly illustrates the concept of ‘creative patience’ and shows that we play a massive part in creating our own lives. True Sabr is not passive waiting; it is an active force. It is the wisdom to take inspired action while trusting the unseen and to move forward while surrendering to the divine flow. It is knowing that while we tie our camel, we also place our trust in the One who controls all things.
5 Ways to Cultivate More Sabr
For those of us who have still not transcended our social conditioning, the art of Sabr can be an extremely difficult thing to master. When we look at society and how it works, it is quite clear to see that most of us aren’t living our lives in the present moment. We are constantly rushing from one thing to another, and when something that we perceive as negative does befall us, we find ourselves in a state of reaction rather than acceptance.
However, mastering the art of Sabr is a life-long process and available to us whenever we should seek it — and that is a beautiful thing. As we move through life, it will test us continually to see how far we have travelled along its path, and the beauty of this lies in the fact that there will be opportunities every single day for us to cultivate it even further. We are being given gifts disguised as grievances or challenges - it just depends on how we choose to see them and whether we use the opportunities we are given, for growth.
Here are five tips for practising the art of Sabr and strengthening it, that I have learned through my own life experiences. I hope they can help you, too.
1. Giving gratitude for absolutely everything
Alhamdulillah is another Islamic phrase that means all praise and thanks is to God. Your Muslim friends might use this term in a celebratory context when something wonderful happens. However, how many of us can truly say we give thanks for what we perceive to be the good, the bad and everything in between? How many of us have mastered being able to say and mean ‘Alhamdulillah for everything’?
Learning to give gratitude for everything could transform your life. Instead of seeing yourself as a victim when something not-so-pleasant befalls you, choosing to see the gifts and learning to give gratitude for it instead can help to elevate your Being and bring you closer to the Divine.
Easier said than done, I know - however, I do believe that everything that happens to us is what is best for us, even if we can’t understand that in the moment. Give gratitude for it all and life will naturally become so much easier, no matter what circumstances you find yourself in.
2. Remembering that ‘this too shall pass’
Everything passes. Ev-er-y-thing!
The beautiful moments, the challenging moments, the quiet moments, the loud moments, the ‘good’ times, the ‘bad’ times… absolutely nothing in this life stays the same forever. Change is our only constant.
If you take the time to really understand this and meditate on it deeply, it could set you free in so many ways.
3. Asking yourself ‘what can I learn here?’
When something comes along and disturbs my peace, I am grateful to have finally come to a place where I try my best to understand what it is trying to teach me.
Your peace can be disturbed through a situation, by the actions of other people, by your own actions and more often than not, by your own thoughts.
When I am deeply troubled by something to the point that it takes control of my mind and steals my peace, I try my best to take a few moments to breathe and become still. And then I ask my heart, “what can I learn here?”.
What you will find is that there is always something to be learned. Anything that continues to trigger you, shows you that there is still work to be done. Only you have the choice to do the work and set yourself free.
4. Understanding that you are the stillness within
You are not the you that you believe you are. You are the stillness within; you are the peaceful Being behind all the noise.
When you can understand that the real you is the observer of your own life, it is easier to become unattached to whatever is happening in your life. It’s like taking a step back and watching it all unfold on the movie screen of your life. And therefore, it is much easier to have Sabr.
“To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.”
~ Eckhart Tolle.
5. Believing that God is with you and within you, always
What’s more to say than,
“He is with you wherever you are.” ~ Qur’an 57:4
I believe we are all a part of the eternal Higher Power, incarnated on this earth to have this human experience. For me, that means that nothing can harm us. Nothing at all can harm us — for God is with us and within us always and everything is unfolding as part of this experience we’re on.
Life will rise and fall like the tide, but you—your essence—are the ocean beneath it all. Nothing in this world is truly lost, nor is anything ever beyond repair. When you embrace Sabr, you step into the sacred knowing that you are held, guided, and exactly where you are meant to be.
Embracing Sabr as a Way of Life
Sabr is the quiet strength that steadies the soul in the storm, the unwavering faith that there is meaning even in suffering. It is not resignation, but resilience, and it is not passivity, but power—the kind that allows us to rise after every fall, to trust when the path is unclear, and to keep moving forward even when life tests us beyond our limits.
The human journey is filled with moments that call for Sabr. In times of hardship, we can either resist what is or surrender to Divine wisdom. In moments of delay, we can either despair or trust that everything is unfolding exactly as it should.
Across traditions, Sabr has been the hallmark of those closest to the Divine. From Prophet Ayyub (Job), who bore immense suffering yet never wavered in faith, to the Buddha, who sat in stillness until enlightenment found him, to the unwavering endurance of Jesus, Moses, and countless spiritual seekers and peacemakers—history tells us that patience is the path to transformation.
Perhaps the greatest test of Sabr is not just in enduring trials, but in trusting the unseen. In believing, even when we cannot yet see, that the struggle will bear fruit, that the pain has a purpose, and that every moment of waiting is an act of faith in itself.
As Rumi once wrote:
"Be like a river, enduring the rocks in its path—not by resisting, but by flowing. With time, even the hardest stone is shaped by patience."
Allow the quiet yet transformative power of Sabr into your life, and gift yourself the peaceful life you seek.
With Light, Love & Peace,
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This was such a timely read, especially during Ramadan when I’m sure many people could use the reminder of what Sabr truly is. I love how you distinguished between simple patience and creative patience. What a great perspective!❤️
Thank you Sabah for these beautiful reminders. It feels like a lot is going on at the moment and reading this post reminded me to have sabar and faith in how things are unfolding. Love and hugs 💚💚