success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm

A lot of the prophets were not 'successful' in the worldly sense.

Saleh: He was a prominent figure among his people. Before prophethood his people hoped that he would be a future leader, but when he called his people to Allah the ones who followed him were the weak ones. Today even celebrities want to join D&T.

Lut: Only one household believed in him, and that was his own family, minus his wife.

Nuh: He did da'wah for 950 years and according to narrations, less than 100 people followed him. That's an average of

9.5 years of da'wah per follower.

Imagine doing da'wah for 9 years, and only one person believes in you. Thank God Allah made me as me, and not as prophet Nuh. 

Musa: A whole nation (the children of Israel) followed him, but after they crossed the Red Sea his followers rebelled and refused to listen. 

So don't hope for results, hope for Allah's mercy and forgiveness. Because if He says 'i'll give you 1000 followers tomorrow!', you'll get 1000 followers tomorrow. 

Let's look at the da'wah of Rasulullah. He goes around Makkah for 13 years and only a few followed him. But then he met the people of Madinah, and the Aus and Khazraj couldn't wait to be his followers. 

There were some things that made the Ansar (Aus & Khazraj) more susceptible to Islam:

- They were neighbours with the Jews, therefore they were more familiar with prophethood, holy books and monotheistic religion. They heard about the coming of Rasulullah from these Jews.

- A short while before Hijrah, a battle happened between the Aus and Khazraj (the Battle of Bu'ath). A lot of their old people were killed and the young ones were left (the leader of Aus, Sa'ad bin Muadh, was in his early 30s). Old people give a lot of resistance to new teachings, as compared to the youth.

These young men were the perfect help for Rasulullah, and there were also a lot of geographical advantages in Madinah. 

Allah gave help to His Messenger after a long period of unfruitful work. He gives help whenever He wants, wherever He wants, and however He wants. 

But we have to try our best. 

Prophet Nuh was turned down a lot of times, but he kept on trying night and day, in open and in secret.

Try our best, eventhough there are a lot of excuses and lies that we can tell ourselves.

"My work is too demanding"

"My family needs me all the time"

"I don't have money"

And so on.

The more i walk along this road, the more i am convinced that there is indeed a high price to pay for Jannah.