Islam is a constant spiritual and moral struggle

"Islam is a constant spiritual and moral struggle for sincere obedience to God and self-perfection. Misunderstanding the nature of the moral and spiritual struggle of Islam is probably one of the core problems with Muslims today. We often make Islam rigid, and it is not meant to be that way. When you study hadith with a traditional scholar, often the first hadith you study is called the opening hadith. It says,

'Those who show mercy [to others], the Most Merciful shows mercy to them. Be merciful to [all] who are on the earth, and He who is in the heaven will be merciful to you.'

We always started the study of hadith here because this is a religion of mercy, and mercy comes out of love."

(Shaykh Dr. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah)