Steadfastness, and the Gold Medal

The eighth virtue of ṣalāh: the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says that ṣalāh strengthens īmān. Ṣalāh strengthens īmān. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says that ṣalāh is the sign of īmān, the nūr of a believer's heart, the key to Jannah, the life-force of his dīn, and the quwwah, the strength, of his yaqīn, his certainty in Allah (swt). Allah (swt) says in Sūrat al-Nisāʾ:

O believers, believe in Allah; believe in His Prophet, Muhammad (peace be upon him); and in the books, and in the Book which was revealed to him — and be steadfast in your dīn. The majority of the mufassirīn, in explaining this āyah, say that Allah (swt) is addressing the muʾminūn in it: He is commanding them to believe in Allah and in the books that were revealed to the anbiyāʾ, and Allah (swt) wants them to increase the strength of their īmān and their steadfastness in His dīn. A person's steadfastness in the dīn is judged by his actions. Of those actions in Islam, if one wants to be in the path of Allah (swt), the best path is to obey the commandments of Allah and shun His prohibitions — keep away from His ḥarām things — and be sincere. Obeying His commandments is the best of commandments; and the best obedience is ṣalāh. Performing ṣalāh five times a day — connecting with Allah (swt) five times a day — makes one's īmān stronger and stronger and stronger, and one becomes steadfast in His path. Steadfast means doing things on a regular basis: consistency, not once. A man might boast of a gold medal, won for a sprint at school — five hundred metres — and claim to be the best. Can he run it now? No: that was twenty-five years ago; he cannot even run. But he has his gold medal. Islam does not give a single cent for that. But if one is winning five times a day, that five-hundred-mile journey, the marathon, then one is a born champion — and that is what a Muslim is. If a person consistently takes that gold medal, then he is a gold medallist. A Muslim who performs ṣalāh five times a day is an athlete of the highest calibre, the fittest person on earth; and he is a person who stands so high in the sight of Allah (swt), because his īmān is qawī, strong, and he is steadfast: he is upon istiqāmah.