TRAINING AND EDUCATION:
Gradual, conscious training in faith, based on knowledge, is one of the basic factors in standing firm in Islam.
Training in faith is that which fills the heart and consciousness with fear, hope and love (of Allah), as opposed to the dryness which results from ignoring the texts of the Qur’an and Sunnah and devoting too much attention to the words of men.
Training based on knowledge is that which is based on sahih evidence, as opposed to mere imitation and blind following.
Conscious training is that which recognizes the way of the sinners and wrongdoers, studies the plots of the enemies of Islam and properly understands and evaluates reality and events, as opposed to a blinkered worldview and narrow horizons.
Gradual training is that which takes the Muslim step by step towards achieving perfection with proper planning, as opposed to spontaneous and hasty progress in fits and starts.
In order to understand the importance of this element in standing firm, let us go back to the sirah of the Messenger of Allah (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) and ask ourselves:
What was the source of the Companions’ steadfastness in Makkah, at the time of their persecution?
How could Bilal, Khabbab, Mas’ab, the family of Yasir and other dispossessed Muslims stand firm?
How could even the greatest of the Sahabah stand firm when they were boycotted by others?
Is it possible that they could have stood firm without extensive training under the supervision of the Prophet (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam), which had honed and refined their personalities?
Take, for example, the Sahabi Khabbab ibn al-Arat (RadiyAllahu Anhu), whose owner used to heat an iron skewer until it was red-hot, then place it on his bare back where it would burn until it was extinguished by the fat of his back flowing over it. What made him able to bear all that with patience and perseverance?
And think of Bilal beneath the rock on the burning sands, and Sumayyah in chains and fetters …
Look at the Madani period: we may ask, who was it who stood firm with the Prophet (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) at Hunayn when most of the Muslims fled? Was it the new converts who had become Muslim at the Conquest of Makkah, and who had not yet received sufficient training at the hands of the Prophet (SallAllahu Alayhi Wa Sallam), most of whom had gone out only in search of booty? No … most of those who stood firm were the crème de la crème of the believers, who had already received that great training.
If they had not received such training, do you think they would have stood firm?