The 365 · Verses · Day 56 · Patience
Three things escape Allah's accounting: His mercy, His provision, and the reward of the patient. Patience joins the list.
Qur'an Q 39:10
قُلْ يَـٰعِبَادِ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱتَّقُوا۟ رَبَّكُمْ ۚ لِلَّذِينَ أَحْسَنُوا۟ فِى هَـٰذِهِ ٱلدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةٌ ۗ وَأَرْضُ ٱللَّهِ وَٰسِعَةٌ ۗ إِنَّمَا يُوَفَّى ٱلصَّـٰبِرُونَ أَجْرَهُم بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ
“Say, '[God says], believing servants, be mindful of your Lord! Those who do good in this world will have a good reward, God's earth is wide, and those who persevere patiently will be given a full and unstinting reward.' (Abdel Haleem)”
Svenska: Säg [Muhammad] till Mina troende tjänare: 'Frukta er Herre! De som gör det goda i denna värld har gott att vänta [i nästa liv]. Guds jord är så vid [att ni kan lämna ondskans rike för att få dyrka Gud i frihet]. Bara de som håller ut skall få sin [fulla] lön och mer därtill.' (Knut Bernström)
The story
Ibn Kathir cites al-Awzā'ī on the closing clause: 'Their reward will not be weighed or measured; they will be given an immense reward.' As-Suddī said: bi-ghayri hisāb means in Paradise. The verse is the only verse in the Quran where Allah explicitly removes the accounting from a reward. Mujahid commented on the middle clause 'Allah's earth is spacious': 'So emigrate through it, strive hard, and keep away from the idols.' The verse therefore holds three commands at once: have taqwā, do good, and emigrate (geographically or spiritually) when the present situation prevents the first two.
In the language
يُوَفَّى (yuwaffā) is from the root و-ف-ي, 'to fulfill, to pay in full.' The passive construction means 'they will be paid in full.' It is a stronger word than yu'tā (will be given); it implies the reward arriving without deduction or delay. بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ (bi-ghayri hisāb) is 'without reckoning,' and the Arabic phrasing is unambiguous. Not 'a great reckoning'; not 'a heavy reckoning'; without it, off-scale entirely.
Why this verse
The only verse in the Quran where Allah explicitly removes the accounting from a reward. Every other reward is measured (10x, 700x, more); this one is bi-ghayri hisāb, without reckoning. Patience is named alongside Allah's mercy and provision as the three things that escape the accounting.
Bring it into today
The next time you are wronged and choose patience over retaliation, sit with it for ten seconds. Say to yourself: 'This is the deed Allah does not measure.' The interior recognition strengthens the practice. Over time, patience becomes the default rather than the exception.
A reflection to carry
There are exactly three things in the Quran that escape the accounting: Allah's mercy (Q 7:156, encompassing all things), Allah's provision (Q 2:212, He provides without measure), and the reward of the patient (Q 39:10). Patience is therefore named alongside Allah's own attributes; the patience He gives the servant becomes the very channel through which He pours His unmeasured response. The lesson: practice patience as if the unmeasured reward were already yours. The verse promises that it is.
Read the longer reflection
There is a passage in al-Ghazalī's Ihyā' where he discusses why patience receives the unique honor of being unmeasured. His answer: every other virtue (charity, fasting, prayer, hajj) has a defined external act associated with it. Patience has no defined external act. It is a continuous interior posture, present in every other virtue: the patience to keep up the prayer, the patience to keep the fast, the patience to give when reluctant, the patience to forgive when wronged. Because patience is the substrate of every other deed, its reward cannot be measured by the same scale as those deeds; it is the scale itself. The verse therefore takes patience out of the measuring system and lets Allah pour the reward without limit.
Sources: Ibn Kathir. The Qur'an and its translation are verified; the scholarship is retold faithfully in our own words and credited to its sources, never reproduced verbatim.
A verse, a healing, and a Sunnah, every morning.
Subscribe, free