Assalamualaikum Sspot family,
I've been having better success with waking up for Fajr on time recently and just wanted to share what's been working for me. Of course, these are reminders to myself first and foremost.
1) Start practicing a nighttime routine. The preparation to pray Fajr on time starts the night before. Proper sleep hygiene is KEY to making sure that your following day starts off successfully by praying Fajr on time. Discipline yourself. Brush your teeth, wash your face, make wudu, apply your skincare, PRAY ISHA, put on proper sleepwear, dust your bed, sleep facing the qiblah and do your evening athkar. I can't tell you how many times I've woken up so disappointed in myself because I didn't do these steps to ensure my success in waking up for Fajr.
2) Go to sleep on time. If you're routinely staying up late every night, chances are you're not going to have any energy to get up and pray. 9 times out of 10, if you are falling asleep with an hour left to go until Fajr, you're NOT going to wake up after an hour! Let's stop lying to ourselves. Where I live in the Midwestern U.S., Fajr is around 4:40am these days so I like to be sleeping by about 10:30pm giving myself a full six hours of sleep before my alarm goes off. So if Fajr is at 5am where you live and you KNOW that you're not going to wake up unless you've gotten 7 hours of rest, you better make sure you've finished up your night routine and are in the bed by 10pm. Again, the key word here is DISCIPLINE so that means you have to stick to your bed time even if that basketball game is on or even if you want to finish up that last bit of the movie you started. NOTHING in the whole world is better than your meeting with Allah SWT. So just like how you would sleep early to make it to that job interview or to catch your flight, sleep early to meet with Your Lord.
And to be honest, unless you have something productive to do after Salatul Isha, you should be going to sleep anyway. Here's the support to my claim:
Aisha reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, would not sleep before evening prayer and he would not stay up after it.
Source: Sunan Ibn Mājah 702
Grade: Sahih (authentic) according to Al-Albani
And this set of Quran verses:
Surah An-Naba, Verse 9:
وَجَعَلْنَا نَوْمَكُمْ سُبَاتًا
And We made your sleep to be rest (to you),
Surah An-Naba, Verse 10:
وَجَعَلْنَا اللَّيْلَ لِبَاسًا
And We made the night to be a covering,
Surah An-Naba, Verse 11:
وَجَعَلْنَا النَّهَارَ مَعَاشًا
And We made the day for seeking livelihood.
(English - Shakir)
via iQuran
3) Make intention to wake up for Fajr. Before I go to sleep I like to state my intention on waking up for Fajr and I also make a small dua and ask for Allah SWT's help to give me the strength to wake up for Fajr. So even after all of my preparation, if things go left and I don't wake up on time, at the very least, I made my sincere intention. Also, in the event that you do oversleep and miss praying Fajr and you wake up and remember to pray as the sun is rising, IT IS PERMISSIBLE to pray as soon as you wake up *even* if the sun is rising.
The Prophet (SAS) said: "There is no negligence in sleep; rather, negligence is when one does not pray until the time of the next prayer comes. Whoever does that (wakes up late), then let him pray it when he wakes up. However, the next day, he should be keen on performing it at its fixed time." [Muslim]
The Prophet
said: "Whoever completes one Rak'ah of Fajr before the sun rises, then he prayed the prayer (i.e. prayed the Fajr prayer on time)." [Ahmad and at-Tirmithi]
4) Set your alarm and keep it away from you. Make sure your phone is charged up the night before so there's NO excuse that your phone went dead in the middle of the night. I like to set 3 or 4 different alarms *on top* of the athan that my MuslimPro app lets off. In addition to the athan and multiple alarms, I also set a timer on my phone to jazz things up lol. So if there's 6.5 hours to go until Fajr, I set a timer for 6.5 hours. That way I'm hearing many different sounds and inshaAllah I'll wake up to one of them. Also, I keep my phone near my feet on my bed so when all these sounds go off, I'm physically forced to get up and silence them.
5) Avoid anything that will prevent you from getting a good night's sleep. Don't drink anything with caffeine close to bed time. Also, sugar has a delayed release so avoid eating sweets in the hours before you sleep. If you have noisy family members, roommates or neighbors, invest in some good ear plugs! Another piece of advice is to limit your screen time before bed so your eyes and brain aren't bombarded by a lot of light and activity right before trying to get some shut eye. You can try dimming the lights or reading a book or taking a warm bath before bed to relax your mind and body and prepare for a good night's rest.
I remember listening to a talk by Sh. Khalid Yasin some time back and I remember him saying that "Fajr is for soldiers." And subhanAllah that resonated so much with me. It's not easy or fun to get out of our warm, comfy beds so early in the morning but remember, Jannah isn't an easy feat. We have to work to get Jannah. We say we love Allah SWT and we say we want to earn Jannah but are we even doing the bare minimum to obey Him?
I'll leave you with this. When I was in college, I had a Muslim roommate who would set her ONLY alarm for the day for Fajr prayer. And when she explained why, she said that waking up for Fajr was the most important thing and if she missed Fajr, there was nothing else more important to set an alarm for. SubhanAllah. She had her priorities straight. May Allah SWT aid us in prioritizing our worship of Him. Ameen.
And Allah SWT knows best.
Do you have any tips on waking up for Fajr? Please share!
I've been having better success with waking up for Fajr on time recently and just wanted to share what's been working for me. Of course, these are reminders to myself first and foremost.
1) Start practicing a nighttime routine. The preparation to pray Fajr on time starts the night before. Proper sleep hygiene is KEY to making sure that your following day starts off successfully by praying Fajr on time. Discipline yourself. Brush your teeth, wash your face, make wudu, apply your skincare, PRAY ISHA, put on proper sleepwear, dust your bed, sleep facing the qiblah and do your evening athkar. I can't tell you how many times I've woken up so disappointed in myself because I didn't do these steps to ensure my success in waking up for Fajr.
2) Go to sleep on time. If you're routinely staying up late every night, chances are you're not going to have any energy to get up and pray. 9 times out of 10, if you are falling asleep with an hour left to go until Fajr, you're NOT going to wake up after an hour! Let's stop lying to ourselves. Where I live in the Midwestern U.S., Fajr is around 4:40am these days so I like to be sleeping by about 10:30pm giving myself a full six hours of sleep before my alarm goes off. So if Fajr is at 5am where you live and you KNOW that you're not going to wake up unless you've gotten 7 hours of rest, you better make sure you've finished up your night routine and are in the bed by 10pm. Again, the key word here is DISCIPLINE so that means you have to stick to your bed time even if that basketball game is on or even if you want to finish up that last bit of the movie you started. NOTHING in the whole world is better than your meeting with Allah SWT. So just like how you would sleep early to make it to that job interview or to catch your flight, sleep early to meet with Your Lord.
And to be honest, unless you have something productive to do after Salatul Isha, you should be going to sleep anyway. Here's the support to my claim:
Aisha reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, would not sleep before evening prayer and he would not stay up after it.
Source: Sunan Ibn Mājah 702
Grade: Sahih (authentic) according to Al-Albani
And this set of Quran verses:
Surah An-Naba, Verse 9:
وَجَعَلْنَا نَوْمَكُمْ سُبَاتًا
And We made your sleep to be rest (to you),
Surah An-Naba, Verse 10:
وَجَعَلْنَا اللَّيْلَ لِبَاسًا
And We made the night to be a covering,
Surah An-Naba, Verse 11:
وَجَعَلْنَا النَّهَارَ مَعَاشًا
And We made the day for seeking livelihood.
(English - Shakir)
via iQuran
3) Make intention to wake up for Fajr. Before I go to sleep I like to state my intention on waking up for Fajr and I also make a small dua and ask for Allah SWT's help to give me the strength to wake up for Fajr. So even after all of my preparation, if things go left and I don't wake up on time, at the very least, I made my sincere intention. Also, in the event that you do oversleep and miss praying Fajr and you wake up and remember to pray as the sun is rising, IT IS PERMISSIBLE to pray as soon as you wake up *even* if the sun is rising.
The Prophet (SAS) said: "There is no negligence in sleep; rather, negligence is when one does not pray until the time of the next prayer comes. Whoever does that (wakes up late), then let him pray it when he wakes up. However, the next day, he should be keen on performing it at its fixed time." [Muslim]
The Prophet
4) Set your alarm and keep it away from you. Make sure your phone is charged up the night before so there's NO excuse that your phone went dead in the middle of the night. I like to set 3 or 4 different alarms *on top* of the athan that my MuslimPro app lets off. In addition to the athan and multiple alarms, I also set a timer on my phone to jazz things up lol. So if there's 6.5 hours to go until Fajr, I set a timer for 6.5 hours. That way I'm hearing many different sounds and inshaAllah I'll wake up to one of them. Also, I keep my phone near my feet on my bed so when all these sounds go off, I'm physically forced to get up and silence them.
5) Avoid anything that will prevent you from getting a good night's sleep. Don't drink anything with caffeine close to bed time. Also, sugar has a delayed release so avoid eating sweets in the hours before you sleep. If you have noisy family members, roommates or neighbors, invest in some good ear plugs! Another piece of advice is to limit your screen time before bed so your eyes and brain aren't bombarded by a lot of light and activity right before trying to get some shut eye. You can try dimming the lights or reading a book or taking a warm bath before bed to relax your mind and body and prepare for a good night's rest.
I remember listening to a talk by Sh. Khalid Yasin some time back and I remember him saying that "Fajr is for soldiers." And subhanAllah that resonated so much with me. It's not easy or fun to get out of our warm, comfy beds so early in the morning but remember, Jannah isn't an easy feat. We have to work to get Jannah. We say we love Allah SWT and we say we want to earn Jannah but are we even doing the bare minimum to obey Him?
I'll leave you with this. When I was in college, I had a Muslim roommate who would set her ONLY alarm for the day for Fajr prayer. And when she explained why, she said that waking up for Fajr was the most important thing and if she missed Fajr, there was nothing else more important to set an alarm for. SubhanAllah. She had her priorities straight. May Allah SWT aid us in prioritizing our worship of Him. Ameen.
And Allah SWT knows best.
Do you have any tips on waking up for Fajr? Please share!
