7 habits that hold Muslims back from the deeds that matter
1. Waiting until you "feel" spiritually motivated
Your Iman will not always feel high. Some days it will feel barely there. The question is whether your worship depends on that feeling.
The Salaf continued doing righteous deeds on difficult days, not because they felt like it, but because they knew that consistency is what Allah loves, and that sincerity is often built through action, not solely before it.
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
"Every action has a period of zeal, and every period of zeal is followed by a lull. Whoever's zeal aligns with my Sunnah has been rightly guided, and whoever's slackening turns to other than that has perished." (Musnad Ahmad 6958)
2. Living without intention
If your daily portion of Qur'an, your studies, your family, and your worship are not given their time deliberately, the Dunya will fill those hours on your behalf.
It does not ask permission. It just takes.
A believer who does not plan his day will spend it reacting to everyone else's plan for him.
Ibn al-Qayyim رحمه الله said:
"When Allah wants good for someone, He grants him blessing in his time and makes his time work for him." (Madarij al-Salikin, 3/135)
3. Blaming distractions instead of the heart
Your phone and social media are not the main problem.
The heart runs toward what it loves. If it loves Allah, it finds its way back. If it loves entertainment, it finds that instead. The solution is not to fight distractions one by one. It is to fill the heart with what is better until everything else loses its pull.
Al-Hasan al-Basri رحمه الله said:
"Among the signs that Allah has turned away from a servant is that He keeps him occupied with what does not concern him." (Jami' al-'Ulum wal-Hikam, 1/294)
4. Confusing being busy with doing good
You can spend an entire day occupied and have almost nothing on your scale.
Being busy is not the same as being productive in the sight of Allah. The believer who asks "which deeds are most beloved to Allah?" and arranges his day around that answer will always outweigh the one who stays active from morning to night without ever asking the question.
5. Waiting for the right conditions
Shaytan does not always say no. For the things you intend to do, he says: "Wait until life settles down."
But life does not settle down. The person waiting for the perfect moment to repent, to seek knowledge, to memorise Qur'an, or to improve their prayer is waiting for something that will not arrive on its own. This only leads to procrastination.
Anas رضي الله عنه said:
"Procrastination is one of the great soldiers of Iblees. How often he has deceived people by means of it." (Qasr al-Amal, no. 141)
6. Following every desire the moment it appears
Not every impulse deserves a response.
Patience is often nothing more than delaying a desire long enough for it to weaken. And every time you hold back for the sake of Allah, something in your soul becomes stronger, more capable of holding back the next time, and the time after that.
7. Trying to appear righteous rather than becoming sincere
Performed righteousness exhausts you because it depends on an audience.
But when your identity becomes a servant of Allah seeking His pleasure, righteous actions begin to follow on their own, quietly, whether anyone notices or not. That is the version of yourself that lasts.
Al-Hasan al-Basri رحمه الله would rebuke himself, saying:
"You speak with the words of the righteous, the devout, the worshippers, yet you act with the actions of the immoral, the hypocrites, the show-offs. By Allah, these are not the qualities of the sincere." (Muntalaqa Talib al-'Ilm, 1/100)
The thread running through all seven:
Every one of them is a different way of avoiding the struggle that leads to Allah.
Allah did not create this life as a place of ease. He created it as a test. And the difficulty of obedience today is the price of an ease tomorrow that never runs out.
Team AMAU