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It depends

I keep failing at this. Does that mean I was never sincere?

No. Repeated failure followed by repeated return is described in the Qur’an as the behaviour of the righteous, not evidence against them — the passage praising them explicitly includes those who fall into wrong and then remember Allah and seek forgiveness. What would be a problem is not the falling; it is deciding, on the strength of it, to stop getting up.

The honest answer turns on your circumstances. What it hinges on is below.

The long answer

This is the most common reason people quietly stop practising, and it is worth answering directly because the assumption behind it is simply false.

The assumption is that a sincere person would have stopped by now, so continuing to fail proves the sincerity was never real. The Qur’an describes the opposite pattern as normal:

“And those who, when they commit an immorality or wrong themselves by transgression, remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins - and who can forgive sins except Allah? - and who do not persist in what they have done while they know.” (Qur’an 3:135)

Notice what that verse is doing. It is in the middle of a passage describing the people being praised — and it includes them doing wrong. Not as an exception or a warning, but as part of the description. The distinguishing feature is not that they did not fall; it is what they did next.

A few things that help:

  • Separate the sin from the identity. “I did something wrong” is repairable. “I am the kind of person who does this” is not, and it is not a claim Islam asks you to make about yourself.
  • Do not stack failures. The common pattern is that one lapse becomes a lost week, because someone concludes the day is already ruined. Each act is counted separately; there is no ruined day.
  • Keep the prayer even when you feel like a hypocrite for praying it. Prayer is not a declaration that you are doing well. It is closer to the opposite.
  • Reduce the size of the commitment. Consistency in something small is praised above intensity that collapses.
  • Change the conditions, not just the intention. Most repeated failures have a setting attached — a time, an app, a group of people. Willpower is worse at this than logistics.

And the governing principle: “Allah does not charge a soul except with that within its capacity. It will have the consequence of what good it has gained, and it will bear the consequence of what evil it has earned. "Our Lord, do not impose blame upon us if we have forgotten or erred. Our Lord, and lay not upon us a burden like that which You laid upon those before us. Our Lord, and burden us not with that which we have no ability to bear. And pardon us; and forgive us; and have mercy upon us. You are our protector, so give us victory over the disbelieving people."” (Qur’an 2:286)

What that verse rules out is the possibility that you have been handed something you cannot do. If it feels impossible, the thing to examine is the method, the pace, or the expectation you have set — not your capacity to be Muslim.

If what you are describing is closer to persistent hopelessness than to specific sins, that is worth taking seriously as its own thing, and worth talking to someone about.

What it rests on