Hazrat Abu Hasan Siraaj R.A. says: I was performing tawaaf once while on Haj; when I saw a very pretty woman, shining in her beauty. I looked at her and said: "By Allah, this beauty and fine complexion must surely be because she never experienced any grief or sorrow."

When I said this she overheard me and said: "Sir, it is that what you think? By Allah, I am bent down under all the sorrows and grief that have come my way. My heart and mind is filled with so much grief and all along there has been no one can who share these with me."

I asked: "And how is that, lady?"

She replied: "My husband once slaughtered a goat as a Qurbaani offering, while I was breast feeding my infant child. My two young sons were playing around me. When I went to cook the meat, the one son said to the other: 'Come, let me show you how father slaughtered the goat.' The other said: 'Well show me.' The first one then made the second once lie down and cut his throat, as his father had slaughtered the goat. When he realized what had happened, he ran away into the mountains; where he was attacked by a wolf and eaten up.

The father went in search for him; searching from place to place until he died of extreme thirst. In the mean time I was at home frantic with worry waiting for news of him. I put down my infant child and went to the door to inquire about anyone who might have news of my husband. The child crawled to the fireplace where a pot was boiling. The child touched it and the boiling pot fell upon the baby, burning it to death in such a ghastly manner that the child’s meat became separated from the bones.

When my married daughter heard all this, in the house of her husband, she fell down of shock. Thus I was left alone to bear all that."

I asked her: "And how, lady; did you manage all these misfortunes with patience?"

She replied: "Whoever ponders on the difference between patience and impatience, finds a world of difference between the two. The reward of patience is praiseworthy; whereas for impatience there is nothing."

Then she recited some lines of poetry before walking away:

Patience did I exercise,
For that was my strongest pillar;
And should impatience have helped me,
Then I would have tried her.
Such patience did I on have that;
Had my trails descended on mountain high,
In broken rocks they would have ended.
Indeed did I control my eyes,
Those tears not fall;
And now within my heart alone,
My tears do roll.

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May Allah (SWT) grant us the ability to be patient! Ameen!

From Fazail e Haj (Virtues of Haj) by Shaykul Hadith Muhammed Zakaria, originally recorded in Rowdh.