Sometimes we wonder why we have to face hardships and challenges. Or why we often push ourselves so hard to achieve certain goals. In this article, I explore how trials and deliberate effort can deepen faith, build character, and turn personal struggle into a source of strength. Not only for ourselves, but also for the people closest to us, and for the world around us.

There’s a saying often quoted:
“Hard times create strong people. Strong people create easy times. Easy times create weak people. Weak people create hard times.”

It describes a cycle: rise, comfort, decline, struggle - repeating itself throughout human history. But can it be broken? What if we meet it with faith?

It is no secret that faith grows especially in times of hardship. But how can it be deepened?

Struggle is not the destination. It is the soil where something stronger can take root and grow. Sometimes it is even the only way real transformation can happen.

When faith takes root in times of hardship, it can lead us beyond ourselves, toward something that could never have been possible without these trials. It shapes our character, our choices, and the way we show up for the people around us.

In Islam, strength is not limited to endurance or resistance. It is about how the heart stays soft while the soul remains firm. It is about standing up without arrogance, showing courage without losing mercy, and choosing the right path even when complacency, born of ease, calls us back.

Whatever trials or challenges we may face, what matters most is to preserve our humanity: to treat others with respect and compassion. Even if nothing remains but a crust of bread and a sip of water, Islam teaches us to share and not to allow hardship to rob us of our good character. In the most challenging moments, we must maintain our composure and respect for one another. We must remain calm and measured, preserving our own dignity as well as the dignity of those around us. When everything else seems lost, this must remain. Preserving our humanity is already the essence of all strength and the heart of Islam.

Once this is understood, inner strength can continue to unfold. From here, the heart begins to grow - calm, patient, ready to carry what once felt unbearable.

True strength grows when we hold our ground, even as everything inside us trembles. We hold on to Allah in confusion, pain, or fear - not perfectly, but persistently. This strength is quiet, yet it carries weight. It gives us the patience to withstand pressure from those around us, the care to break cycles of numbness and neglect, and the courage to leave behind what is harmful for what is right, even when it costs us ease or safety.

Sometimes it means stepping away from what is familiar: when life in our own land grows heavier, when rising costs and social pressures tighten, when schools and social media try to pull faith from our children. Sometimes it means facing the difficulties of making hijrah for the sake of Allah and settling in a place where daily life is much harder.

This strength, once achieved, must not end with us. It is meant to shape our children. They see what we build on, how we act in times of abundance and under pressure, and how we treat others, even when no one is watching. They should not simply inherit our faith, but live it, carry it forward, and strengthen it. They are meant to break, once and for all, the cycle of generations forged by weakness, through a faith that sees in “hardship” not despair, but the soil where true strength grows.

When we walk the path of faith sincerely, every hardship we endure - whether chosen or given - becomes a legacy that reaches beyond ourselves. It builds communities not driven by fear or comfort, but held together by trust, courage, and compassion.

Faith, when lived through hardship or in the face of challenges, shapes people who do not hide when trials come. They step forward and stand firm when courage and action are needed. They build. They repair. They protect. They give others hope and strength when everything feels dark.

In the end, hardship is not the enemy. It is the training ground. It teaches discipline without pride, generosity without expectation, and steadfastness without hardness of heart. It turns weak beginnings into strong foundations.

This is how Allah, in His wisdom, uses difficulty not to break us, but to make us into people who can carry more. For our families, our societies, and the ummah as a whole.

Every choice to believe, every effort to draw closer to Allah, whether through patience, mercy, compassion, self-control, thirst for knowledge, or by enduring and embracing challenges, and every tear shed in the quiet of the night is not lost. It builds a strength that may not be immediately visible, but it lives on, within us, through us, and beyond us.

And what if times become easy, hardship lessens, and life feels comfortable? The cycle warns us: comfort can quietly weaken what struggle has built. Yet Islam calls us to remain awake. We are not meant to drift into complacency. We are meant to stay strong. Not by waiting for hardship, but by seeking challenges willingly: learning when it would be easier to remain ignorant, disciplining ourselves when comfort tempts us, standing for truth when silence feels safer, and giving when taking would be easier.

In this way, even in times of ease, we can choose the path of growth. Without letting up, we orient ourselves to faith as a source of motivation. Always seeking the best path, not the easiest. This is how we shape our children and the generations to come: a generation whose principles forge strength - a strength that serves not only ourselves, but those around us.

Let me know your thoughts. Share how challenges have shaped your faith and who you are. Leave your comments on my Instagram posts @minsakinah.

Anna @ Min Sakinah