Istiqāmah in the Qurʾan

Istiqāmah is not a claim made once but a standing renewed in every decision: the heart held upright upon the truth, from the daily standing of prayer to the final standing before the Lord of the worlds.

By Dr. Ahmed Muhammad Ali Abouseif, President of the American Imams Academy (AIA)

Abū Bakr (may God be pleased with him) saw white hairs in the beard of the Prophet ﷺ, who was still in the prime of his mission, and exclaimed in wonder: “O Messenger of God, you have grown old!” The Prophet ﷺ answered in words that pointed neither to advancing years nor to the weariness of travel, but to particular verses:

«شيّبتني هودٌ وأخواتها»

“Hūd and its sisters have turned me grey.”^[1]

Which verse in Sūrat Hūd was so heavy that it drew grey into the face of one who does not speak from mere desire? According to more than one commentator on this hadith, the answer is a single verse:

﴿فَاسْتَقِمْ كَمَا أُمِرْتَ وَمَنْ تَابَ مَعَكَ وَلَا تَطْغَوْا﴾ (11:112)

“So stand firm, as you have been commanded, and those who have turned in repentance with you, and do not transgress.”

One command, of five words, weighed more heavily upon the Prophet ﷺ than twenty years of conveying the message, of denial and of siege: “Stand firm.”

A Circle within a Circle

The root q-w-m is among the most widely attested roots in the Qurʾan, recurring some six hundred and sixty times. But most of that number lies far from our subject: three hundred and eighty-three occurrences belong to the word qawm, “people” or “community,” which has no bearing on moral uprightness. The circle this article examines is narrower and finer. It comprises the verb istaqāma, on the pattern of seeking and striving (istafʿala), which occurs ten times in nine places;^[2] the active participle mustaqīm, which occurs thirty-seven times, mostly in the fixed phrase “the straight path” (al-ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm) that recurs like a refrain through the suras; the adjective qayyim (five times, as in “the upright religion”); and the noun aqwam (four times, meaning “most correct” and “most firm”).

This circle alone is our direct verbal witness. “Establishing the prayer” (iqāmat al-ṣalāh), “the Day of Resurrection” (yawm al-qiyāmah) and al-Qayyūm are derivatives of the same root, but they are other forms with distinct meanings. We shall return to them as an illuminating thematic connection, not as direct verbal witnesses to istiqāmah itself.

From the Standing of the Body to the Standing of the Heart

The root sense of q-w-m is to be erect and standing, the opposite of falling, prostrating or sitting. One says qāma al-rajul when a man rises upright after sitting or lying down. The pattern istafʿala in istaqāma carries the sense of seeking and striving: that a person strive to attain this uprightness for himself and to preserve it, rather than its being a state that befalls him by chance. So istaqāma al-ṭarīq is said of a road that does not bend, and istaqāma al-rajul ʿalā al-amr of a man who holds to a matter and veers from it neither to right nor to left. Hence istiqāmah in a human being is something like an inward standing of the heart answering to the outward standing of the body. As the body stands erect and does not stoop, so the heart stands upright upon the truth and does not incline.

One Standing, Three Stages

This original sense, erect standing, is what gathers into one picture, by way of thematic connection rather than direct verbal witness, three different stages in the Qurʾan, all from the same root.

The first is the standing of the body in prayer:

﴿وَقُومُوا لِلَّهِ قَانِتِينَ﴾ (2:238)

“And stand before God, devoutly obedient.”

To this belongs “the establishment of prayer,” which recurs dozens of times as a condition of success. The second is the standing of creation on the Day of Resurrection:

﴿يَوْمَ يَقُومُ النَّاسُ لِرَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ﴾ (83:6)

“The Day when people will stand before the Lord of the worlds.”

On that day every human being stands alone, with no support and no lineage. The third is the standing of the heart upon uprightness in daily life, which is the subject of this article.

It is as if the Qurʾan draws a single image of standing in three degrees: a daily, bodily standing (prayer); a standing of the heart that extends through time (istiqāmah); and a final standing from which there is no escape (the Resurrection). Uprightness is the bridge joining the first to the third. Whoever has made it his habit to stand before God in his daily prayer is better able to stand for Him in the whole business of his life, and firmer when he stands before Him alone on the day when neither wealth nor children will avail.

Another notable thematic connection is that the adjective qayyim, close in derivation to istiqāmah, is used of religion itself in the very place in Sūrat al-Rūm that contains the verse of the fiṭrah and the verse of ḥanīfiyyah together (30:30):

﴿ذَٰلِكَ الدِّينُ الْقَيِّمُ﴾

“That is the upright religion.”

The phrase recurs in verse 43 of the same sura. It is as though a single sura gathers, in adjacent verses, three concepts of this series: a ḥanīfiyyah that is the continuing inclination; a fiṭrah that is the sound origin on which that inclination rests; and an upright religion that is the goal of the uprightness attained by whoever is true in his inclination.

A Command That Weighs, and a Firmness That Is Rewarded

The verse that turned the Prophet ﷺ grey (11:112) does not bear this weight alone. In Sūrat Fuṣṣilat the command recurs in a wider form:

﴿إِنَّمَا إِلَٰهُكُمْ إِلَٰهٌ وَاحِدٌ فَاسْتَقِيمُوا إِلَيْهِ وَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ﴾ (41:6)

“Your God is but one God, so be upright toward Him and seek His forgiveness.”

Forgiveness is mentioned after uprightness, as if to acknowledge that perfect uprightness without any shortcoming is beyond reach; so uprightness goes hand in hand with seeking forgiveness and is not its opposite. In the same sura comes the verse of reward:

﴿إِنَّ الَّذِينَ قَالُوا رَبُّنَا اللَّهُ ثُمَّ اسْتَقَامُوا تَتَنَزَّلُ عَلَيْهِمُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ أَلَّا تَخَافُوا وَلَا تَحْزَنُوا﴾ (41:30)

“Indeed, those who say, ‘Our Lord is God,’ and then stand firm: the angels descend upon them, [saying]: ‘Do not fear and do not grieve.’”

It recurs in sense at 46:13. What is striking in this verse is that the saying alone, “Our Lord is God,” did not bring down the angels; the reward was made to hang upon the words “and then stood firm.” The first declaration is a necessary condition but not a sufficient one, and the uprightness that follows is what proves the claim true. In another place the matter is left to a person's free choice, without compulsion:

﴿لِمَنْ شَاءَ مِنْكُمْ أَنْ يَسْتَقِيمَ﴾ (81:28)

“For whoever among you wills to be upright.”

Uprightness is thus affirmed as a gift offered, not a decree imposed.

One passage widens the circle of uprightness beyond individual worship to include fidelity to covenants between peoples:

﴿فَمَا اسْتَقَامُوا لَكُمْ فَاسْتَقِيمُوا لَهُمْ﴾ (9:7)

“So long as they are upright toward you, be upright toward them.”

This is said in the context of the treaties of the Muslims with certain idolaters. In this one verse the form istaqāma occurs twice in a single sentence, once for the other party and once for the Muslims themselves. The Qurʾan thereby affirms that uprightness is not a purely religious virtue practiced in seclusion, but a trait of character that extends to fidelity to contract and word even toward one who differs in religion, so long as he is upright in his own fidelity. Whoever supposes that uprightness is confined to prayer, fasting and the private affairs of the individual has missed this verse, which places honesty in social and political dealing at the very core of uprightness, not on its margin.

A Comprehensive Saying and a Fear of the Tongue

Sufyān ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Thaqafī (may God be pleased with him) asked the Prophet ﷺ:

«يا رسول الله، قل لي في الإسلام قولاً لا أسأل عنه أحداً بعدك»

“O Messenger of God, tell me something about Islam such that I need ask no one after you.”

He ﷺ replied:

«قُلْ: آمَنْتُ بِاللَّهِ، ثُمَّ اسْتَقِمْ»

“Say: I believe in God, and then stand firm.”^[3]

Sufyān was not asking for brevity of speech. He asked for the essence of the whole religion in a single statement that would spare him from asking anyone but the Prophet ﷺ thereafter. The reply came in two halves with no third: affirmation by the heart, and steadfast adherence in action. And when Sufyān asked, in the remainder of the hadith, “What do you fear most for me?”, the Prophet ﷺ took hold of his own tongue and said, “This.”^[3] In this way he tied the uprightness of all the limbs to the uprightness of the tongue in particular, for it is the most prone to slips and the least easily watched.

The Heart Is a King and the Limbs Are Its Soldiers

In his commentary on the hadith “I believe in God, and then stand firm,” Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī made clear that the root of uprightness is the uprightness of the heart upon tawḥīd. He said: “When the heart stands firm upon knowledge of God, upon fear of Him, reverence for Him, love for Him and reliance upon Him, all the limbs stand firm in obedience to Him; for the heart is the king of the members, and they are its soldiers.”^[4]

For him, uprightness is not an isolated act added to others, but the inevitable result of an uprightness already present in the heart. If the king stands firm, his soldiers obey him; if he inclines, they swerve after him. He added that what most deserves watching, after the heart, is the tongue, because it is the heart's interpreter and spokesman. This is precisely what the hadith made plain when it singled out the tongue above the other limbs.

From another angle, one notes in the construction of the verse in Fuṣṣilat that uprightness is joined to the saying by thumma (“and then”) and not by wāw (“and”), a particle that indicates delay and interval. It is as though uprightness is a process extended in time, which follows belief and never ceases, rather than an event that happens once and is then folded away.

Why Does Uprightness Weigh More Heavily than Belief?

Many ask why “stand firm” weighed more heavily on the Prophet ﷺ than “believe,” when belief is the foundation. The answer is that the claim is spoken once but tested at every moment. Belief is an avowal uttered in an instant; uprightness is a commitment whose renewal is demanded in every decision: in dealing with others when no one is watching, in speech when silence or flattery would be easy, in money when the forbidden lies within reach and no overseer is in sight.

This explains why it is easy for many to proclaim their belief loudly on a single occasion, yet hard for them to stand firm in some small daily matter that no one sees. Uprightness, as the hadith portrays it by tying it specially to the tongue, begins with the limb most trivial in people's eyes and most perilous before God: a word spoken in backbiting, a promise broken without compunction, a jest that carries a slight lie. Whoever thinks that uprightness is a test of major sins alone has missed that it begins where no one calls him to account but himself.

The social dimension revealed by the verse in Sūrat al-Tawbah suggests a contemporary picture no less pressing. Many who are scrupulous about the uprightness of individual worship are lax in fidelity to a commercial contract, in the truthfulness of a professional promise, or in trustworthiness toward one who differs from them in religion or opinion, as though uprightness for them were a narrow circle that never passes beyond the walls of the mosque. In commanding uprightness toward those with whom Muslims made covenants from outside their own community, the Qurʾan cuts off the road to this truncated conception. Uprightness is one indivisible trait of character, tested in the prayer niche as it is tested in the contract of sale, and in the promise watched over by none but God and the one to whom it was made.

Conclusion

From the standing of the body in prayer, to the standing of the heart in uprightness, to the standing of creation on the Day of Resurrection, the Qurʾan draws a single image of firmness in three degrees. What turned the Prophet ﷺ grey was not an event but an extended, unending command: “Stand firm.” It was not “you have stood firm,” nor “you will stand firm,” but a present command, renewed at every moment, for whoever believes in God and then wills to stand firm. God is sufficient for us, and an excellent Guardian is He.