Human beings are instruments of Allah, organs of the Universe, having a purpose and function in the scheme of things. Islam states this as a fact and requires that human beings realise this and behave accordingly. This function has three interdependent aspects:- input, transformation and output, which require (1) receptivity, (2) processing and (3) striving.

Endurance will be understood here as referring to the processing of experiences according to the realisation of the above truth about the human cosmic function in order to create the appropriate output in behaviour.

Endurance is the third duty in Islam, the others being learning (seeking knowledge) and Striving. The one has to do with knowledge and thought, the other with action and the third with motivation. These three are interdependent.

The following verses establish the importance of endurance in Islam.

Endurance means the creation of something permanent in oneself that can resist temptations, distractions and other corrupting external forces. It is the assimilation of the attributes of Allah. It is the cultivation of qualities such as faith, love, hope, awareness, conscience, will, integrity, courage, truthfulness, justice, uprightness and righteousness. Love includes compassion, mercy, benevolence, forgivingness, consideration, friendliness, charity, generosity, tolerance, magnanimity and doing good and beneficial works. Righteousness (taqwa) includes all the moral principles mentioned in the Quran, not merely as actions or abstinences but as part of a person's nature. Apart from forbidding the outer crimes, the Quran also forbids the inner sins. The main outer crimes are murder (unlawful or unjust killing), theft, lying, injury, persecution, injustice, adultery, fornication, fraud, bearing false witness, deception; usury and other ways of taking advantage of the weaknesses, ignorance or disadvantages of other people for personal gain; avoiding ones obligations and duties to promote the welfare of family, friends, the community, animals and the environment; breaking promises and treaties. Among the inner sins are egotism, conceit, arrogance, selfishness, greed, envy, hate, viciousness, unwarranted hostility, lust, gluttony, vanity, laziness, boasting, ostentation, disloyalty, infidelity, hypocrisy, ingratitude. The Quran also forbids back-biting, gossip, frivolousness, circumlocution, wastage of talents and resources; holding and expressing unfounded or unverified opinion based on prejudices or fantasy; inventing, suppressing or distorting truth; banning what Allah has made lawful, tolerating or advocating what Allah has forbidden; setting bad examples or not setting good examples, and making unnecessary difficulties.

Endurance refers to constancy, perseverance, forbearance, tolerance, patience, the bearing of misfortune or adversity, the overcoming of fickleness and distractibility, the creation of concentration, strength of purpose, and single-mindedness, the ability to bear hardships and suffering without perversion of thought, feeling and action. Indeed, fortune and misfortune ought to be treated alike since we can learn from each and we ourselves should be distinct from, and in control of, the events which happen to us. Adversity is, in fact, regarded as existing in order to create such detachment and to test it. Just as the muscles grow through exercise by overcoming weights so also does the psyche develop by overcoming adversity. In fact it may be asserted that no one can achieve anything if he has not learnt to endure difficulties. Failure is usually the result of the inability to endure. It is the people who have it too easy who usually fail in the end because they do not possess the required stamina. Life on earth was not meant for ease but for development. This truth could have been gleaned from observing the processes of History and Evolution. However, besides the ability to bear hardships, the individual must also learn to cope with fortune and change of circumstances that often upset the balance and distract people. He must be within himself a centre of calm when there is turmoil all around him.

The keeping of one's words, promises, contracts, oaths and treaties should be included here. It has obvious social value in creating stability, certainty and security without which there can be no social order. Psychologically, it creates the need to consider, gain appropriate knowledge, think and plan before giving ones word. It demands psychological constancy and stability, and the assumption of ones responsibilities. The worst aspect of the human condition effecting all other aspects of life, is the instability of the human mind. Indeed, it may be said that a person with an unstable mind cannot have existence. The difference is as between a solid object and a liquid. However, this does not refer to the possibility of learning. Objects can be re-shaped, liquids cannot.

The purpose of endurance is, therefore, the establishment of a permanent self. It is only he who has such a permanent centre who can compare different things and perceive changes. All motions are relative. We need to regard one object as stationary in order to compare the motions of other objects with respect to it. If the reference point is itself moving then the comparisons will be defective. This kind of thing happens when the observer himself is unstable.

It is also involved in the ability to tolerate and to forgive, without which the life of the individual as well as the society would be impossible.

Several techniques are used to establish endurance. One, already mentioned, is to regard adversity as a test or as something to be used for one's benefit. The world can be seen as ultimately good because evil, in causing repulsion from one pole, has the same affect as good that attracts to the opposite pole. We should also look at the wider scene. It is a matter of unjustifiable conceit to suppose that all events refer to oneself. You might want sunshine for your holiday but rain may be better for the farmers and crops. The death of someone may cause us grief but it has a much wider significance, both as to causes and effects, than just to oneself. The Quran recommends that when a misfortune strikes a person he should take refuge in Allah, that is, the ultimate Unity. Acceptance of one's condition and what happens to one is of the very essence of Surrender.

Intentional Suffering consists of taking up some useful task knowing the hardships, opposition, persecution, abuse and even dangers involved without flinching. The Prophets, including Jesus and Muhammad, and many Saints have willingly endured this as part of their mission. Missionaries often undertake difficult and hazardous journeys and life-styles. On a more modest scale a person may wish to reform a criminal or a delinquent child or treat someone suffering mentally though this involves undergoing very irksome experiences. People who climb high mountains, row across the seas single handed, cross deserts and travel through dangerous jungles or to the icy Poles, or undertake hazardous tasks may have no outer purpose, but they are certainly strengthening their characters.

The Quran also warns against the temptation to let hatred seduce a person into doing injustice (5:8), and recommends that when evil is done to a person he should return it with good. The very fact that some evil causes him suffering should be a lesson in the nature of evil. Rather than fight the person doing evil, he should fight the evil itself. Real human strength and power is measured by their capacity for constancy, patience, tenacity, persistence and courage. All of the great achievements of mankind, which do not depend on accident, depend just on these qualities.

Endurance refers to persistence and resistance to change due to external forces and distraction. However, external forces can destroy a thing unless the entity also possesses some flexibility or adaptability. This implies that the something which is permanent exists at a higher level or at a more fundamental level than where the changes are taking place. Human beings, as all other things, are constantly changing from birth to death physically and also psychologically from situation to situation. What then is there in them about which it can be said that they are the same person? Is it merely physical, psychological, or social continuity in time - the fact that the body continues or that memories persist or that the name by which people recognize a person remains the same? In fact we must all die and these things disappear. If there is to be a resurrection, what is it that is resurrected?

There seem to be four possible answers:-

(a) A person may be described as a pattern produced by the arrangement of a number of fundamental particles. If the number of particles is finite or the number and types of combination is finite because this is governed by some law, then once all the combinations have been exhausted, the same combinations must occur again and again. If there is infinite time, then this will happen an infinite number of times. It is also observable that the materials are always passing in and out of a person and that in each particular material, e.g. carbon, all the atoms are similar. It is not, therefore, necessary that the same particles should form the person. We cannot, therefore, identify a person with the material he consists of. No, a person is a certain kind of order or Truth. Mere combination and recombination does not, in fact, explain the persistence of things unless the repetition of the same pattern is superimposed in the same space. Perhaps, this is connected with the way we see things - we recognize things only when they are repeated.

(c) Human beings like all other things are known only by their effects on other things. Human beings are centres of convergence, transformation and emission of various forces. All their activities produce a line of cause and effect which produces changes in the rest of the world and these remain as permanent traces. This is why it is also possible to retrieve knowledge by deciphering these traces. Conversely, human beings are also products of the convergence of these causal lines.

A person is physically the product of the materials and energy that is circulating through all other creatures. Psychologically he is the product of the genetic as well as social, psychological and cultural influences that surround him. A distinction has to be made between the material, M and the Social, S (its organisations, laws, institutions etc.) and the Psychological, P which refers to thoughts, feelings, motives etc. But all are really only different forms of order. The behaviour of the individual, M causes changes in these surroundings, P mediated by S, and P affects others, M. Thus one generation can be regarded as an incarnation of a previous generation and is incarnated in the next generation. But this does not apply to the individual soul, centre of consciousness - else everyone would remember their past lives.

(d) A human being is regarded as containing the Spirit of Allah (32:9) and it is this which when organised is the soul of the person. This soul can atrophy or develop depending on the inner intentions and efforts of the person (91:9-10). This implies that the enduring principle within a person may be very weak or strong, and people may be said to be alive or conscious to various degrees and they are restricted or free to various degrees. A person is said to be in hell when he suffers from severe restrictions (13:5, 40:71) and is neither dead nor alive (20:74). A person may also become unaware of his soul (9:67) because he identifies himself with his body or mind (the ego) or the world or something in it, such as a person, institution, wealth etc. - he commits idolatry. It is obvious then that when this is taken away and his body and mind die, then he, in so far as he is identified with it, also dies. Immortality is a question, therefore, of identifying oneself with the Spirit of Allah. The cultivation of this certainly requires persistence in the face of distracting temptations.

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