The 365 · Verses · Day 60 · Patience
He does not let the reward of the patient go to waste. The work that looked invisible was held all along.
Qur'an Q 11:115
وَٱصْبِرْ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يُضِيعُ أَجْرَ ٱلْمُحْسِنِينَ
“Be steadfast: God does not let the rewards of those who do good go to waste. (Abdel Haleem)”
Svenska: Och ha tålamod! Gud låter inte dem som gör det goda och det rätta gå miste om sin lön. (Knut Bernström)
The story
The verse comes in Surah Hud, near its close. The whole surah recounts the patient struggles of prophets (Nuh, Hud, Salih, Lut, Shu'ayb, Musa), each persecuted by his people, each called to sabr. Verse 115 lands like a contract closing the surah: be patient, and your patience is not lost. The Prophet ﷺ himself said: 'Surah Hud has aged me' (Sunan at-Tirmidhi 3297, classed hasan sahih). The aging came from the weight of the prophets' stories: each one persecuted, each one bearing decades of patience, each one watching most of his people reject the message. The closing of the surah carries that weight forward and offers the believer the same assurance the prophets received.
In the language
يُضِيعُ (yudī'u) is from the root د-ي-ع, 'to waste, to let perish, to lose.' The negation lā yudī'u (He does not let go to waste) is a divine commitment that the work of the patient does not evaporate. The phrase الْمُحْسِنِينَ (al-muhsinīn) is the active participle of ahsana, doer of ihsan (excellence). The verse therefore connects two virtues: sabr and ihsan. Patience that is also excellent is the patience the verse promises will not be wasted.
Why this verse
The verse closes Surah Hud, a surah heavy with prophetic stories of patient struggle. The seal: be patient, your reward is held. The phrase 'lā yudī'u ajr al-muhsinīn' is a Quranic refrain (also 9:120, 12:90, 18:30) reassuring the patient that their work is not lost.
Bring it into today
The next time you bear a wrong patiently and the world does not notice, do not let your soul track it as a loss. Recite this verse. The receipt is with Him. The world's noticing or not noticing is a side effect, not the substance.
A reflection to carry
The hardest part of patience is the feeling of waste. You bore the wrong, and nothing came of it. You absorbed the harm, and the world moved on. The verse interrupts that thought directly: He does not let the reward go to waste. The qualifier is ihsan: patience done with excellence, without grumbling, without keeping score, without bitterness. That patience He keeps. The phrase lā yudī'u is in the present-future tense in Arabic, meaning a continuing reality: He does not waste, has not wasted, will not waste.
Read the longer reflection
Surah Hud is one of the heaviest surahs in the Quran. The Prophet ﷺ himself said: 'Surah Hud has aged me' (Tirmidhi 3297). The aging came from the weight of the prophets' stories: each one persecuted, each one bearing decades of patience, each one watching most of his people reject the message. The closing of the surah carries that weight forward and offers the believer the same assurance the prophets received: be patient, your reward is held. The verse is therefore not a casual reminder; it is the seal Allah placed on the surah of patient prophets. The reader is now in their lineage. The same contract applies.
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.
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