Nawawi Hadith 21: Firm After Belief

Part One: Two Sentences for a Whole Life

Brothers,

Today’s khutbah is based on the 21st hadith in Imam Nawawi’s 40 Hadith:

On the authority of Abu 'Amr, and some call him Abu 'Amrah, Sufyan ibn Abdullah ath-Thaqafi (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: I said, 'O Messenger of Allah, tell me something about Islam that I will not need to ask anyone else about after you.' He said, 'Say: I believe in Allah, then be steadfast.' (Muslim)

Sufyan ibn Abdullah came to the Prophet ﷺ with a specific request. He did not ask for a list of rules. He did not ask for every detail of fiqh. He asked for one sentence, something so complete that he would never need another teacher again. And the Prophet ﷺ gave him exactly that: two commands, seven words in Arabic, that carry the entire religion inside them.

This is a pattern we see again and again in the Sunnah. A young man asks for advice and is told to be mindful of Allah wherever he is. A companion asks what will save him and is told to guard his tongue. Here, a man asks for the whole of Islam and is given belief followed by steadfastness. The brevity is not a shortcut. It is a compression of everything else into its root.

Let us take these two commands one at a time, because each one carries a lifetime of meaning.

Part 1: Say, I Believe in Allah

The first command is a declaration: “I believe in Allah.” Not a philosophy. Not a debate. A statement of the heart that then moves the tongue.

Indeed, those who say, 'Our Lord is Allah,' and then remain steadfast, the angels descend upon them, ˹saying˺, 'Do not fear or grieve, but rejoice in the good news of Paradise, which you have been promised.' (Fussilat, 41:30)

Notice how this verse pairs the same two elements as our hadith: saying the statement of faith, and then remaining steadfast upon it. This is not a coincidence. The Quran itself teaches that belief without follow-through is unfinished.

Indeed, those who say, 'Our Lord is Allah,' and then remain steadfast, there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve. (Al-Ahqaf, 46:13)

Belief in Allah means more than acknowledging He exists. It means accepting that He alone is worthy of worship, that His commands govern your life, that His judgment is the one that matters. This belief is the door. Everything after it is what you do once you are standing inside.

Many people say the words of faith with their tongue while their life tells a different story. The Prophet ﷺ was not interested in a hollow declaration. He paired the statement with an instruction for what comes next, because a claim of belief that changes nothing about how a man lives is not the belief this hadith is describing.

Part 2: Then Be Steadfast, the Meaning of Istiqamah

The second command is istiqamah: be steadfast, be upright, hold the course.

Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, explained this word in a way that has been passed down in the books of tafsir: istiqamah means that you remain firm upon the command and the prohibition, and that you do not swerve like a fox swerves.

Think about that image. A fox does not run in a straight line. It darts, doubles back, changes direction constantly, always looking for an opening, always avoiding the direct path. Istiqamah is the opposite of that. It is walking the straight path even when a shortcut looks tempting, even when no one is watching, even when the direct path is harder.

Allah keeps firm those who believe, with the firm word, in this worldly life and in the Hereafter. And Allah sends astray the wrongdoers. And Allah does what He wills. (Ibrahim, 14:27)

This firmness is not something we generate on our own strength. It is something Allah grants to those who hold to the “firm word,” the declaration of faith lived out consistently. That is why we ask for it constantly in our prayer, in Surat al-Fatihah itself: guide us to the straight path. Not guide us once. Guide us continually, because the path must be walked every single day.

The weight of this command was not lost on the Prophet ﷺ himself. It is reported that Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, once said to him, “O Messenger of Allah, you have grown gray.”

Hud and its sisters have made me gray. (Tirmidhi)

Surah Hud contains the verse: “So remain steadfast, as you have been commanded, you and those who repent with you.” The Prophet ﷺ, the most beloved of creation to Allah, the one already guaranteed Paradise, was aged by the weight of a single command to remain steadfast. If istiqamah affected him this deeply, what should it mean to us?

Part 3: The Discipline of Consistency

Istiqamah is not a single dramatic act. It is not a burst of devotion followed by collapse. It is the discipline of showing up, day after day, in small and steady ways.

A'ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: 'The most beloved of deeds to Allah are those that are most consistent, even if they are small.' (Bukhari & Muslim)

Consider what this means practically. Five short prayers performed every single day, without fail, are more beloved to Allah than a single long night of worship performed once and then abandoned. A small amount of Quran read daily outweighs an entire juz read once a month in a rush of guilt.

The Prophet ﷺ warned against the opposite pattern directly. He once told a companion, Abdullah ibn Amr, not to overdo his worship to the point of burnout:

O Abdullah, do not be like so-and-so who used to pray at night and then abandoned the night prayer. (Bukhari)

This is a warning we should take seriously. Istiqamah is broken not only by open sin, but by starting strong and quitting. A man who prays every prayer for a month and then drifts away has not been steadfast. Steadfastness is measured in years, in the slow accumulation of days where a man kept his word to Allah.

Part Two: Staying Firm When the Path Gets Hard

Brothers,

Part 4: The Test That Follows the Declaration

Saying “I believe” is not the end of the story. It is the beginning of a test.

Do people think once they say, 'We believe,' that they will be left without being put to the test? We certainly tested those before them. And Allah will surely make evident those who are truthful, and He will surely make evident the liars. (Al-Ankaboot, 29:2-3)

This is one of the most important verses in the Quran for understanding what comes after belief. The moment you say “I believe in Allah,” you should expect trials, not immunity from them. The trial is how Allah distinguishes the truthful believer from the one who only spoke words.

Everyone who has ever declared faith in Allah has been tested by something: loss, hardship, temptation, delay, confinement. The question this hadith puts in front of us is simple: after the trial comes, do you remain steadfast, or do you swerve like the fox?

Part 5: Firm Behind These Walls

Brothers, this hadith speaks directly into the life many of you are living right now.

Some of you said the shahada before you ever came here. Some of you said it in this very facility, in a cell, without a khutbah, without a community around you, with nothing but conviction and a chaplain or a book to guide you. Either way, the declaration has been made. The test Sufyan ibn Abdullah was warned about is the one you are living in.

Out there, in a free environment, istiqamah has support built around it: the adhan calling five times a day, a masjid down the street, brothers to pray beside, family reminding you of your deen. In here, most of that scaffolding is gone. You may not hear the adhan. You may not always get to pray in congregation. You may be one of very few Muslims on your unit, or the only one.

This is exactly where istiqamah is proven, not where it is impossible. A man who only holds firm when everything supports him has not yet been tested the way Sufyan ibn Abdullah’s hadith describes. Real steadfastness is praying alone in your cell when no one would know if you skipped it. It is keeping your tongue clean when everyone around you curses. It is holding to your daily dhikr on your fingers when there is no one to check on you. It is refusing to let confinement become an excuse to let go of what you declared before Allah.

Some men here made a real declaration of faith and then let the difficulty of this environment pull them away from it, cell by cell, day by day, until the man who said “I believe in Allah” barely resembles the man walking these halls now. Brothers, do not let that be you. The declaration was the easy part. The steadfastness is the part that counts, and it counts most exactly where it is hardest.

Part 6: A Practical Path to Firmness

How does a man build istiqamah when his circumstances are stripped down to almost nothing?

Anchor to what cannot be taken from you. No rule in this facility can stop you from believing in your heart, moving your lips in dhikr, or making dua in silence. Build your steadfastness on what is always available to you.

Keep the five prayers non-negotiable. Whatever else is missed, whatever else is hard, the five daily prayers are the frame that holds istiqamah together. Protect them first, in whatever space and time you are given.

Do small things consistently rather than big things occasionally. A short daily portion of Quran, a fixed number of tasbih after each prayer, a regular dua before sleep. These small habits, repeated without fail, are what the Prophet ﷺ called most beloved to Allah.

Seek out brothers, even one. If there is another Muslim near you, pray with him, remind him, let him remind you. Istiqamah is easier carried together than alone, even if together means only two men.

Expect the trial and do not be surprised by it. Remember the verse: do people think they will be left merely because they said “we believe”? Confinement, boredom, loneliness, provocation, these are the trial. Meeting them without abandoning your declaration is the proof of your truthfulness.

Part 7: The Reward of Standing Firm

The angels who descend upon the steadfast do not wait for perfection. They come to those who kept saying “our Lord is Allah” and kept walking that path, stumbling at times but never abandoning the direction.

Indeed, those who say, 'Our Lord is Allah,' and then remain steadfast, there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve. (Al-Ahqaf, 46:13)

No fear and no grief. That is the promise for the one who remains firm after belief, whatever walls surround him, whatever years remain, whatever trial comes next.

O Allah, You who turned the hearts, keep our hearts firm upon Your religion.

O Allah, just as we have said we believe in You, grant us the steadfastness to live that belief every single day.

O Allah, do not let confinement or hardship pull us away from what we declared before You in sincerity.

O Allah, make us of those who are consistent in small good deeds rather than those who burn bright and then go dark.

O Allah, when the trial comes, and we know it will come, make us among the truthful, not among those exposed as liars to their own claims.

O Allah, protect our tongues, our hearts, and our limbs in every hour we spend behind these walls.

O Allah, send Your angels of glad tidings upon us as You promised the steadfast, removing our fear and our grief.

O Allah, gather us with Sufyan ibn Abdullah and all those who asked for guidance and then held to it until they met You.