How important are Sabr, Taqwa, Chastity, Self-Sufficiency, and Asking Forgiveness in Islam?

Patience is one of the names of God. We are taught to be good examples of Allah's qualities. When I get impatient, I know I'm failing God and I try to catch it and sort it out to bring back a better attitude.

We are taught to patiently persevere when things are uncomfortable for us in life. We are also taught to be tolerant and compassionate. Both those things require a great deal of patience. A lot of intolerance and indifference and the condemnation of others comes from impatience.

If we have great faith and our piety guides us in our ways of living, we will inevitably bring good things to the world. True piety involves all of God's attributes. We can model our behavior on the guidance we receive from conemplating God's qualities.

Righteousness is a beautiful quality, but many people claim to be righteous and they are just the opposite. A distorted expression of righteousness can do a lot of damage. Only a loving heart can awaken in a way that it is genuinely capable of righteousness.

Obeying and pleasing Allah should be the goals of every Muslims life. We lose the meaning of life when we are only wanting to satisfy our personal needs. By surrendering to Allah, true joy can be achieved.

Self-sufficiency is a good quality, but I believe Allah knows that there are many situations in life where we are unable to provide for ourselves and for our families and communities. We are all given the opportunity to help those in need. The prophet, Muhammad, peace be upon him, often spoke of the need to give to the ones who couldn't provide for themselves.

In regards to chastity, Muslims do not think celibacy is preferable. Intimacy is viewed as a legitimate way of being in our relationships with our spouses.

As for asking for forgiveness. Allah loves to forgive. When we repent, we relieve our hearts of burden and allow Allah the chance to help guide us back to the straight path.