Perseverance

Ways to Persevere in the Path of Allah

It is hard to live our lives in accordance to Islam teachings in this day and time. There are so many challenges that could change (or decrease) our level of iman or taqwa.

This is true in this age as it was in the time of the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. In fact, the Prophet had already warned the companions about the challenges that the Muslims would face in the future with regard to Iman and Taqwa to Allah s.w.t.

One sahabah (didn't get his name) once asked the Prophet. It sounded something to this effect, "Do our heart keep changing all the time?," (refering to our Iman). The Prophet replied, "Yes, and it is up to Allah. If He wants to guide you to the true path, He will, and if He wants you to go astray from the true path, He will" So, we shoud be scared of the possiblity of going astray from the path of Allah.

There are many ways to ensure that we persevere in the true path. Of course the ways we can do that are beyond mention, but we can list down several ways for us to think about and to act upon them. Among others are:

1) Always feel and consider yourself as a slave of Allah
2) Always feel yourself helpless and always in the need of Allah's help
3) Persevere in doing good deeds
4) Avoid sins, minor or major because every sin will contribute to one black dot on our hearts. If we did a sin, then immediately do the Istighfar and taubah.
5) Read Al-Quran (everyday), and try to understand each word in it because Allah's words are for us to follow
6) Remembering Allah by doing zikr everyday (every second for that matter) -
7) Do istighfar everytime we did sins (or taubah everyday for that matter)
8) Keep increasing our Islamic knowledge by learning from true scholars (ulama')
9) Always remember that Allah sees us at all times ( be it in private or in public), so that we can avoid doing sinful actions
10) Always ask for hidayah from Allah

Insya Allah, by doing the above and all other good habits, we will be able to guard our Iman in this time of tribulation (distress/a trying experience/challenge).


Wallahu alam.