What is patience?

Lexically, patience (sabr) means confinement. Religiously, it is the confinement of the self to obedience to Allah, avoidance of His prohibitions, and refraining from dissatisfaction with His decree and destiny. Religiously, patience is divided into three categories: patience in obeying Allah, patience in avoiding disobeying Allah, and patience in enduring Allah’s painful decrees. The first two categories are of higher honor because they are voluntary. As for the third category, the decree is executed whether a person is patient or not, noting that the patient one in this category is rewarded, while the discontent one sins.