Patience, Introspection and
the Willingness to Learn

After faith, three basic things are required in order to lead a meaningful life. They are patience, introspection and the willingness to learn lessons (tawassum). Without adopting these three things no one can become a true believer. After believing, every believer first of all faces the stage of finding out how to lead his life as a believer in his own environment. According to the law of nature, one finds unfavourable situations at every moment, which makes one intolerant. On all such occasions, a person has to remain patient, so that he may remain on the straight path without any deviation.

The second thing is introspection. In this testing ground, one makes mistakes again and again. It is essential that a person should hold himself accountable for these mistakes by subjecting himself to unbiased introspection. Without instant introspection the tendency to make mistakes will become an ineradicable part of one’s personality. The third thing is the learning of lessons (tawassum). This means observing the phenomena of the universe in order to learn lessons from them, thus receiving spiritual nourishment from physical events. This is spiritual food for the seeker of truth, without which no one can become an aspirant to spiritual development. Religious life begins from faith. But it is only the starting point of spiritual life; it is not the final destination. After that man has to go through a course uninterruptedly, without completion of which no one can reach the stage of a true believer in the real sense. Basically, the components of this course are only three: patience, introspection and learning lessons. This course cannot be performed by any kind of formal rituals. This is entirely a conscious intellectual journey. Just by awakening one’s consciousness, one can achieve success in this test.