Tafsir of Al-Muddathir 74:7

It is said that this means: endure the harm of the polytheists. It is also said: endure the performance of religious obligations. Ibn Zayd said: endure the war against the red and the black [all of mankind], though there is remoteness in this view, as there was no [command for] Jihad on the day of its revelation. Al-Nakha’i said: be patient in your giving, as if he connected it to what preceded it [the command to purify one's garments and avoid idols], making it patience in giving without considering it excessive.

The most sound approach, as Jar Allah [Al-Zamakhshari] stated, is that it is a command for the act itself, with the meaning being: let your patience be directed toward His exalted and majestic side and presence. Thus, the verb "patience" is used without a specified object, which implies generality, encompassing everything that one must endure or refrain from. Patience against the harm of the polytheists is intended here, as it is an individual instance of this general concept, not because it is the sole intended meaning.

It is narrated from Ibn Abbas that patience in the Quran comes in three forms: patience in performing obligatory duties, which has three hundred degrees; patience in refraining from what God has forbidden, which has six hundred degrees; and patience during calamities at the initial shock, which has nine hundred degrees, due to its severity on the soul and the impossibility of achieving it without profound certainty (yaqin). This is why the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: "I ask You for a certainty through which You make the calamities of this world easy for me."

Scholars have mentioned that patience, in terms of its legal ruling, is divided into four categories:

1. Obligatory (Fard): Such as patience in refraining from prohibitions and in performing mandatory duties.
2. Recommended (Mandub): Such as patience in refraining from disliked acts and in performing sunnah acts.
3. Disliked (Makruh): Such as patience in refraining from performing sunnah acts or in committing disliked acts.
4. Forbidden (Haram): Such as patience when someone attacks one's own sanctity with something forbidden, and one refrains from intervening despite having the power to do so, among others. The full discussion of this topic is found in its proper place.

The virtues of praiseworthy, religious patience are countless. It suffices to mention the words of the Almighty: "Only those who are patient shall be given their reward in full without reckoning," and the words of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace: "God the Almighty says: 'If I send a calamity upon one of My servants, regarding his body, his wealth, or his child, and he meets it with beautiful patience, I would be ashamed on the Day of Resurrection to set up a scale for him or to unfold a record for him.'"