Episode 1In us
Human patience: waiting, enduring, holding back anger.
But: Runs out.
The 99 Names · Name 99 of 99 · Act
الصَّبُورُaṣ-Ṣabūr
The Most Patient
Say it: aṣ-Ṣabūr. A recording by our own reciter is on its way.
Heard together with: al-Ḥalīm / aṣ-Ṣabūr
Start with what we know
Then take away everything it needs. What is left is not a bigger version of us. It is the Name.
Episode 1
Episode 2In nature
Stalactites grow by drips over millennia.
Episode 3At our best
The pitch-drop experiment (University of Queensland): set up by Thomas Parnell in 1927, flowing since 1930; nine drops by 2014; pitch about 250 billion times as viscous as water (1984 estimate) or about 30 billion (2014 estimate); 'no one had ever seen a drop fall'.
But: The world's longest-running laboratory experiment (Guinness) is still only a century.
Episode 4The Break
Take away limit, provocation, waiting as cost.
The pitch drop has been patient for a century. 'None is more patient than Allah' (Bukhari 6099), and He still gives health and provision.
From the tradition: Bukhari 6099: 'None is more patient than Allah against the harmful saying. He hears from the people they ascribe children to Him, yet He gives them health and provision'. Exodus 34:6 'slow to anger'; 2 Pet 3:9.
On screen
In Shawshank, patience is a plan to escape. aṣ-Ṣabūr's patience is a plan to forgive.
Where it shows up
- In scripture
- Q 16:61; 35:45; Bukhari 6099; Ex 34:6; 2 Pet 3:9.
- The same thread in Jewish and Christian scripture
- Ex 34:6 erekh appayim; 2 Pet 3:9. Strong.
- In the universe
- Webb light arriving after billions of years.
- In nature
- Stalactite growth; 'Our Planet' caves? (none listed: gap).
- In people
- Carers' patience.
- In science
- Viscosity; geological time.
Living it
Ṣabr: patience in hardship and in doing good.
Its kind
Act: something done: mercy shown, provision given, a prayer answered.
In the Qur'an: none; cf. hadith 'none is more patient (aṣbar) than Allah' (Bukhari)
Watch and listen
Films, documentaries and voices that reach towards this Name. Each links out to where you can watch it.
Sources for this page
news.uq.edu.au/2014-11-10-explainer-pitch-drop-experiment; hadith-api eng-bukhari 6099