Honoured teacher, please offer some guidance on how to develop greater perseverance.
For example, we decide to undertake something, examine it from every angle to determine whether it is right or wrong, and reach an agreement with the people whose cooperation is needed to carry it through. Yet once we begin, we lose the perseverance required to continue, and the task remains unfinished in some way, leaving us with no desire to carry on with it.
There is, of course, a narration from Muhammad al-Baqir, peace be upon him, in which he says:
When you resolve to do something, do not tell anyone about it until you have completed it, for otherwise you will lose the energy to carry it through.
Of course, I have conveyed only the general meaning of the narration; I did not have the exact wording available to write here.
There have also been occasions when I have told no one about a task I intended to undertake, yet it still did not reach completion. I am not referring only to material matters; the same problem arises in spiritual matters as well. Please examine this issue, and if there are any particular recommendations or supplications concerning it, kindly share them.
Could it be that such a matter has not been destined for us by God, and that in some way we are not granted permission to continue with it?
Thank you, honoured teacher. I ask rather a lot of questions; the reason is that, in the online world, you are the only teacher whose answers I trust. I am deeply grateful.