How can one remain steadfast in obedience, avoid backsliding and prolonged hope, knowing that many obey God for a temporary need, and what is the ruling on shaving or trimming the beard?

To maintain obedience and uprightness and to overcome prolonged hope (tul al-amal), it is advised to constantly resort to Allah and supplicate for steadfastness, to reflect on Allah's Names and Attributes to increase faith, to remember death and the terrors that follow it, to promptly offer sincere repentance and avoid procrastination, to associate with the righteous and keep away from the wicked, to adhere to the remembrance of Allah and strive against one's soul in acts of worship, to reflect on the effects of obedience and the consequences of disobedience, and finally, to reflect on the swift perishing of this world and its insignificance compared to the Hereafter.