“He’s so hard headed.” We say this about someone who is so set in his opinion that he won’t change it without great difficulty. He’s completely content with his point of view, and doesn’t waver.
Take this as an example for firm faith. When a person is truly content with the path of life he has chosen, and he feels a profound satisfaction and pleasure in believing in Allah as his Lord, Islam as his religion, and the Prophet as his Messenger, then nothing–with Allah’s permission–will shake him.
Many times a tragedy such as death or a hardship shakes us up and we start worshipping Allah with zeal. However, this is not enough to keep us steadfast. What happens when the emotions calm and the zeal cools? A fiery tawbah that is based on the rush of emotions in the wake of tragedy will cool quickly as the memories and emotions fade.
These rushes of intense zeal and emotion come and go, and so you cannot base your steadfastness on emotionality alone. This is why you see people get fired up in Ramadan but then cool off quickly afterwards and regress to where they were before the month. You need to recruit both your heart and mind to come to steadfastness from both an emotional and intellectual angle, and then the body will answer by remaining firm on good deeds. The basis of all this is a deep sense of contentment and satisfaction with one’s decision to be a Muslim.
“He has tasted the sweetness of faith,” said the Prophet (sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam). Who? “The one who is pleased with Allah as his lord, with Islam as his religion, and with Muhammad as his messenger.” If you want to feel pleased with Allah as your lord, you inculcate in yourself a sense of profound contentment with one’s lord. You couple this with intellectual reflections upon the Book of Allah, a dedication to seeking knowledge, and the feelings of the heart to build up a firm base of thabaat, or steadfastness. “Allah does not change the state of a people until they change that which is in themselves.”
–loose translation from Ibrahim ad-Duwaysh, “Wasaa’il ath-Thabaat”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy6EfhtidxU
