Your level of faith increases and decreases…

Sometimes you will feel great strength in faith, other times you may not feel that, or you may even feel doubtful or bored. When I say faith, I not only mean what you believe in and the strength of those convictions, but your energy level to apply them to the best of your ability. Even the best of Muslims, Abu Bakr, and other companions noticed this fluctuation, even if they did not fall into doubt about Islam. This is normal and it is because of our flaws as humans and inability to constantly be involved in the remembrance of Allah. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said regarding this, “Truly, for every action is a period of enthusiasm and for every period of enthusiasm is a rest period; so whoever’s break is within the boundaries of my Sunnah, then they will be prosperous, but whoever’s break is to other than that, they have perished.” ^[1]Recorded by Muslim no. 1532; book 21, no. 57; English book 10, no. 3661.

Understand that iman (faith) sits in the heart but it is directly related to your actions, like two sets of gears that influence one another. Good deeds and sins alike affect our faith, raising it and lowering it accordingly. Likewise, high faith motivates us to more good deeds, and low faith is tested greatly when temptation to sin beckons. Thus, the believer constantly keeps a watch over his iman and realizes that once he or she knocks on the door of sin, it takes a good struggle to get back to where you were beforehand. So the faith of a Muslim is comprised of this set of gears—feeling and belief in the heart as well as application of Islam in your daily life.

You will continue to love Islam and increase your faith throughout life as long as you continue to learn about Islam and iman gradually in your leisure time. Even if it be with 30 minutes of reading a week or listening to a single lecture a week aside from the Friday prayer, or attending a masjid dars (lesson) that you are not otherwise obligated to attend. But no less than that.

The guidance of Islam is vast, encompassing, comprehensive, and detailed. If you walk the path slowly, step-by-step, you will learn to appreciate that fact and love the journey, be overwhelmed and amazed in wonderment at it. If you step off that gradual path, you may find yourself decreasing in faith and practice and then disdaining the reminder and avoiding it. On the other hand, if you run down the path, you will run out of energy and it will overcome you and you will have to rest and you may miss the boat in doing so.

The Prophet ﷺ said, “Indeed, this religion is strong and well-established so enter deeply into it, but with moderateness. Do not make the worship of your Lord hateful to you. For the one who traverses it harshly will neither reach (his goal) nor will it spare anyone.” ^[2]Recorded by al-Baihaqi from Abdullah ibn `Amr. The chain is supposedly weak but the beginning has supporting narrations. Allah knows best. Al-Albani declared it hasan in Saheeh al-Jaami no. 2246.

We may be confounded when we hear of people who seemed to have practiced Islam so diligently all of a sudden “fall off the wagon”. Usually it can be traced to immoderation and or shallow theological foundation, or relying too much on humans for validation. However, what is more common for new Muslims is not stimulating their minds in Islam enough or neglecting to gradually take steps to get closer to Allah in the various spheres of their lives where Islam provides guidance. So instead, they may forget about and turn away from Islam and claim, “I tried Islam, didn’t help me, I’m past that now.” But did they really try it? What does that really entail?

Islam is perfect, but because of our own imperfections, we need to continuously remind ourselves of its vast and awesome guidance and what Allah offers us for our patient perseverance. Since other forces act against our spiritual progression, we must continue to fuel and oil our own knowledge and practice on a moderate basis. Otherwise, our religious and spiritual gearbox will rust and succumb to outside elements and temptations. The point being: never stop learning about Islam, but don’t let it overwhelm you.

If you ever feel overwhelmed by what you are learning and doing in Islam…

…then take a step back, say to yourself, “I bear witness that none has the right to be worshiped except Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah” or simply “I put my faith in Allah” and remember that the most important parts of Islam are the simplest with regard to what we are required to believe and do.

If other Muslims are telling you more information and instruction that is complicated, then it is quite possible that what they are saying is incorrect or at the very least, they should not present it to you in that manner or at this time. Feel free to tell anyone, “I’m fine, I’m being taken care of, thank you for your concern and advice,” and ignore it until you are more comfortable to take in anything else. This is especially so if you have a specific mentor, since many others—who lack any qualification or experience—will offer other information and advice. And remember, “Allah burdens no person beyond their ability,” [2:286] so do not overburden your own self either, and do not let anyone else overburden you.

Remember, Islam never requires anyone to completely change everything in their lives in a day, so if you feel like that is what you’re being asked to do, then remember that Islam is flexible and you are allowed to take things slowly, even if the Muslims that you’re limited to do not appear flexible. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ used to instruct callers to teach Islam to people in stages, beginning with the prayers, and then learning about the zakat (obligatory charity) once they have become accustomed to praying, and so forth. So even if you learn something to be obligatory or forbidden that you’re too overwhelmed to apply immediately, you can take a step back, knowing that this is not what the Prophet would have asked of you yet until you’ve reached a higher level of faith and become used to other more fundamental practices in the religion.

If what you’re having trouble with is consistent observance of the prayer itself, then my advice is the same advice I was given when I complained to a local imam about difficulty keeping up with the prayers: re-educate yourself about tawheed—after all, this was the first step that the prophets called towards even before the prayer.

On the other hand, maybe praying is okay but you are a little confused on proper form, perhaps stemming from the seemingly contradictory instruction from Muslims. For example, one may say that you should pray this way, and then another comes and says “that’s all wrong, rather, pray this way,” or a Muslim tells us “that’s halaal, there’s nothing wrong with doing/eating/wearing that,” and another says, “what!? Halaal? No way, that’s haraam, everyone knows that!” Differences of opinion in Islamic practice—i.e. not faith and creed—are matters of great flexibility in our religion, especially for new Muslims. Unfortunately, most ethnic Muslims do not realize this, although it is something that was respected by Muslim scholars since the earliest of times.

A Bedouin once came to the Prophet and said, “The rules of Islam have become a lot for me, show me something encompassing I can cling to?” He said, “Do not let your tongue cease remembering Allah.” Recorded by al-Tirmidhi and others.

A general rule you can keep to is that if it’s easy to follow a more conservative opinion in matters of halaal and haraam, then do so. If it is difficult, then put it on a list of “things to research” when you have the ability to consider it and learn a bit more about how fiqh^[3]Fiqh is different from theological or `aqeedah studies of belief and conviction which generally allow only one true answer. rulings are decided.

If confusion arises over issues of practice, like some specifics of prayer especially, then do whatever feels comfortable for now from what you’ve learned or whatever is practiced most prominently in your locale. The differences between how Muslims worship Allah across the different schools of fiqh are subtle, and such differences are not deemed as sinful deviations or heresy. It is unfortunate that some Muslims don’t realize that, and magnify those differences and condemn others because of it. All that is unnecessary, and if you want, you could even just smile and nod every time someone tells you differently, and apply it or not at your own discretion. In many cases, there were different ways that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ used to do things. Some Muslims were raised in areas that only knew one method, so they are suspicious of other methods.