not neglecting the rawātib, the supererogatory prayers attached to the five obligatory prayers, then he must be diligent in maintaining them; and if he has been in the habit of rising for the night prayer, he should persist in that; and if he used to perform two units of the ḍuḥā prayer, he should keep to that as well. In short, with every form of good to which a person has grown accustomed, he ought to persevere.

It was part of the Prophet’s ﷺ practice that his deeds were dīmah—continuous and unwavering. Whenever he undertook an act of worship, he made it firm and did not alter it. This is because when someone adopts a good practice and then abandons it, that very abandonment inclines the soul to turn away from goodness altogether; retreat after advance is worse than never advancing at all. Had you not done the good deed in the first place, it would have been easier than doing it and later forsaking it. This is something plainly observable and repeatedly experienced.

The author ﵀ cited several Qur’anic verses, all of which indicate that a person should hold fast to the good he has become accustomed to. Among them is the Almighty’s saying: “And do not be like the woman who unravels her spun yarn after it has become strong, turning it into loose strands” (Q 16:92)—that is, do not resemble the spinner who twists the wool and, after perfecting it, picks it apart into broken fibers; rather, remain constant in the good you are upon. Another verse is His saying: “And let them not be like those who were given the Scripture before; a long span of time passed over them and their hearts became hard” (Q 57:16), meaning that although they once performed righteous deeds, the long passage of time hardened their hearts and they abandoned knowledge, so do not become like them.