Failure is not “The Failure”

لَٰكِنِ الرَّسُولُ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَعَهُ جَاهَدُوا بِأَمْوَالِهِمْ وَأَنفُسِهِمْ ۚ وَأُولَٰئِكَ لَهُمُ الْخَيْرَاتُ ۖ وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ

( #AlQuran 9:88)

“But the Messenger and those who believed with him fought with their wealth and their lives. Those will have [all that is] good, and it is those who are the successful.”
The promise of eternal success by Allah is for trying, not for victory.
When a group of people claim to stand on truth and justice and fight for it against evil, they essentially claim to be the representatives of Allah on this earth. This is a position of great respect, dignity and honour. And with great honour and dignity, comes great responsibility and accountability.
Time has proven that in such a group claiming to be the representatives of Allah against evil and injustice, there are always impurities, called hypocrites. Defeat, hardship and frustrations is a way of Allah to differentiate the pure from the impure; the true believers from the hypocrites. 
لِيَمِيزَ اللَّهُ الْخَبِيثَ مِنَ الطَّيِّبِ وَيَجْعَلَ الْخَبِيثَ بَعْضَهُ عَلَىٰ بَعْضٍ فَيَرْكُمَهُ جَمِيعًا فَيَجْعَلَهُ فِي جَهَنَّمَ ۚ أُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْخَاسِرُونَ

” so that Allah may distinguish the wicked from the good and place the wicked some of them upon others and heap them all together and put them into Hell. It is those who are the losers.” ( #AlQuran 8:37)
One of the strongest filters for this purpose is defeat.
Human Psychology is to struggle and fight hard for victory but in case of defeat, there is frustration. Frustration can then cause lots of issues. Some people can start pursuing unfair means, others start doubting the truth or become hopeless and stop trying and go astray. Only those who truly believe stand the test of defeat and keep trying, no matter what, till the end, and achieve eternal success.
It is thus imperative to deal with defeat or failure in a positive way, specially when we are fighting for truth and justice against evil. We may see countless defeats before any meaningful success and actually may never see success in our lives. But we should be confident that if we keep trying with the best of our abilities in this life, even if we never see success here, we will get the success on the day of judgement. And that is the very reason that Allah has promised success for us for trying, not for victory, as depicted in the verse at the start of this write.
May Allah guide us all to the right path and keep us on it in times of hardship, difficulties and defeat, till we die. Ameen.