Difficulty in doing the 5 prayers

Asalam alaikom sisters

I have a problem with my prayers.

I have always found it hard to do Salah and easy to do du'a. I don't wake up in time for Fajr, I find excuses not to make wudhu, and the time for the prayer passes while I am procrastinating about wudhu. I am very wonky on this pillar and worried too because the prayer is one of the first things we will be questioned about.

Please pray for me that I can establish my prayers again.

Sister Florence

Wa alaikum salam,
I have difficulties with Fajr too, as I am up at 7 with the kids...hmmm, I suppose, there's no excuse really, we all just need to try harder inshaAllah, Allah will make it easy for us. I suppose in relation to Fajr, step one would be to insure that we always set the alarm for Fajr and make Du'a before sleep, that Allah will make it easy for us.

dubmuz wrote:Wa alaikum salam,
I have difficulties with Fajr too, as I am up at 7 with the kids...hmmm, I suppose, there's no excuse really, we all just need to try harder inshaAllah, Allah will make it easy for us. I suppose in relation to Fajr, step one would be to insure that we always set the alarm for Fajr and make Du'a before sleep, that Allah will make it easy for us.

Asalam alaikom

Subhan Allah I never thought of that!! Duh!. :!: :!:

Insha Allah I will set the alarm clock every night and make the intention before I sleep. I am on medication that sedates me very heavily at night, but you never know. Anyway thanks for the advice dubmuz. But please pray for me too.

Florence

I know the feeling when you are tired or busy. I was reminded by my teenage daughter the other day (quite out of the blue) that praying on time attains best reward and that we risk losing so much reward by delaying our prayer. I was truly ashamed of my frequent casual attitude to my prayer. May Allah increase our piety and forgive us our misgivings.

salamalakum,
i think if you are worried about not doing your prayers then that is the first step as if you were not even bothered about them that would be worse
so now you have noted that it is something you want too change now you can work on it.
i find that if i make the intention in my head then when the alarm clock goes off i will here it because i made the intention before i slept whereas if i slept without any intention of getting up then i would not here even the fire alarm going off so its about the intention,and the lovely thing about islam is we get rewarded for our good intentions even if something happened that made us unable too follow through,so inshalah if you make sincere intention each night to get up for fajr then the reward is yours inshalah

So true, Tahira, JazakhAllahkhairn for the advice!

tahira wrote:salamalakum,
the lovely thing about islam is we get rewarded for our good intentions even if something happened that made us unable too follow through,so inshalah if you make sincere intention each night to get up for fajr then the reward is yours inshalah

Masha Allah you are right. How come we forget these simple truths about Islam? Verily the reminder benefits the believer.

yeah and what about the fact that if we have bad intentions and we dont follow them through then we dont get punished for our intentions
subhanalah mashalah
the beauty of islam and allahs mercy

A man was praying in his house. He was praying as fast as he could as many of us do.

All of a sudden, he heard the door behind him open.

Since, someone entered the room, he started making his ruku (bowing) and sujud (prostration) longer.

Upon completion of the prayer, he looked back to see who it was. To his amazement, it was a dog!

As salam alaikum,
I too can relate. I found I was ok but after you have kids it all gets a lot harder because it is not just a battle with yourself you now have to try to pray and manage with the needs of a baby who decides they want to be fed or something as the adhan goes off. And I also find if i dont get to pray as close to the time it very easily slips to the next prayer and then you find yourself having to catch up. But I think sometimes praying is the easy part but I find getting 2 minutes to make wudu much harder so i try to hold it for as long as possible and on the days i do well holding it I find i do better with praying on time but on days I find it hard to hold it I find i miss prayers or pray them late alot more and it is hard then when you have to catch up on prayers missed during the day.
I always keep trying and i tell myself one day inshallah it will be just my battle again and inshallah i will get to do all my prayers on time.
I love being a mum but it does mean your time is never your own. I do get frustrated at times beacuse my husband goes to the mosque for alot of his prayers as alhamdullah we live close to the mosque so he prays on time. So I have asked him if he prayed at home sometimes and helped me to do my prayers on time as in mind the baby while i make wudu and then we can all pray together and alhamdullah it is nice sometimes when he does and it has helped me with my prayers alahmdullah.

Asalam alaikom

Aisha, this is just a tip I got from an older sister, when I was a new muslim.

If you make wudhu everytime you used the bathroom, then you are normally in a state of wudhu and won't need to renew it inshallah for each prayer.

Florence

thats a good idea, thanks Florence

Guest wrote:yeah and what about the fact that if we have bad intentions and we dont follow them through then we dont get punished for our intentions
subhanalah mashalah
the beauty of islam and allahs mercy

Subhan Allah, not only do we not get punished for bad intentions that we don't act on, we actually get a reward (for not acting on it I think but Allahu alim)

As-salaamu aleikum Dear Sisters,

The thing is, Sister Aisha, that men are required to pray in congregation in the masjid, especially if they live close to one and/or can hear the athan being made at one. So, you don't want to discourage your husband from meeting this Islamic obligation.

Still, I completely understand the difficulties you are facing. I had the hardest time praying when I had my 2nd child just 13 months after having my 1st. It seemed inevitable that one would wake up and start crying and then the other would wake too. So during that time, my husband would pray at the mosque and come right home afterwards without delay to hold the kids so I could pray too.

When the kids are little, you really have to 'plan' your prayer times. Start getting ready for them earlier because it takes time to get the kids settled and their needs met so that you can make wudhu and perform your prayer. [It's just like when the children are little you have to start dinner earlier, just because you know you will be interrupted by the kids several times before you're done!]

In addition to the advice already given, one of the best ways to help yourself get up for Fajr prayer is to try to get to bed earlier. If you had to leave for work at that time or get the children on the school bus then, you would wake up, and the prayer is more important that either of those activities. Abandoning the prayer means abandoning Islam, and we never want to be guilty of that. So we have to make our prayer a priority in our lives!

asalamalakum,

its not really possible to get to bed earlier
magrib is 10 o clock and isha is midnight and fajr on the way too 3 am and then if you have to get up for school/work etc thats could be 7am
thats the reality of it
would love some extra sleep but there just doesnt seem to be enough hours in the day
(maybe if i get of here lol) no seriously i pop by the computer as im cooking cleaning etc

As-salaamu aleikum,

Yeah, I forgot your prayer times are often so close together. Of course, the best thing at all times is to make each prayer in its proper time, but if you are finding it impossible to do that, can you contact a Shaykh to get a ruling about that?

I mean, for example, if you pray maghrib and isha every night, but then repeatedly can't wake up for fajr, even though you set alarms to wake yourself up, could you ask if it is alright for you to pray both maghrib and isha prayers at the earliest maghrib time, so that you get enough rest to be able to wake for fajr? The maghrib and isha prayers can be prayed at one time, and the dhuhr and asr prayers prayed at one time, if there is a legitimate reason to do so. Would a knowledgeable Shaykh consider this a legit reason? I really don't know, but it wouldn't hurt you to ask.

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allaah have mercy on him) said in Majmoo’ al-Fataawa (22/293): "The reason for shortening prayers is travelling only, and it is not permissible in situations other than travelling. As for joining prayers, the reason for it is need and excuses, so if a person needs to he may join both shortened and full-length prayers whilst travelling, and he may join prayers when it is raining and so on, or because of sickness and the like, and for other reasons, because the purpose behind it is to spare the ummah hardship."

Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen said in al-Liqa’ al-Shahri (60/11): "Joining prayers is broader in scope than shortening them, i.e., the reasons for doing so are more numerous."

Then again, there is also a legitimate excuse for the person who tries and intends to wake up for prayer, but accidentally sleeps through the prayer time instead. in the Sunnah, it is mentioned that the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) and his Companions (radhi Allahu anhum) once all slept through the time for fajr prayer:

Abu Qataadah (radhi Allahu anhu) reported that the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) was with some of his Companions on a journey, and they halted at the end of the night. He lay down his head, then he said: "Guard our prayer for us." The first one to wake up was the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) when the sun was on his back. We woke up, startled, then he said, "Ride on." So we rode on and traveled until the sun had risen, then he stopped and called for the water vessel I had with me, in which there was a little water. He did wudoo’ from it, using less water than usual. A little water was left in it, and he said to me (Abu Qataadah), "Guard your water vessel, for you will see something happen with it." Then Bilaal gave the call to prayer and the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) prayed two rak’ahs, then he prayed Fajr, and did as he did every day. The Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) rode on and we rode with him, and we began to whisper to one another, saying: "What expiation is there for what we have done by neglecting our prayer?" Then the Messenger (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said: "Do you not have an example in me?" Then he said: "There is no negligence in sleep, rather negligence is the fault of one who does not pray until the time for the next prayer comes. Whoever does that, let him pray when he remembers it, and if it is the following day, then let him pray at the time of the prayer (that he missed)." [Bukhari and Muslim]



So, perhaps this is the best: to try your best to wake and perform all the prayers on time and just make up any prayers that you happened to sleep through.



"So keep your duty to Allah and fear Him as much as you can." (Qur'an 64:16)

Asalam alaikom

Very good points MMF. In Clonskeagh Mosque as far as I know at this time of the year they join the Maghrib and Isha at the time of Maghrib. So I suppose we could do the same and go to bed at Maghrib.

I am on medication that needs to be taken at particular times (11pm) if I am to be able to have a normal day and getting the prayers done on time is really diffficult for me partly because the medication makes me sleep through Fajr but if I don't take my meds I get so sick I can't pray at all. Insha Allah when the days get shorter things will be more manageable. Subhan Allah but we do really have a huge difference between the prayer times in Winter and in Summer.

Also if we combined our prayers because of rain - we'd be doing more combined than not Even though for the last month we've had mainly sunshine Irish weather is notorious for rain but on the other hand it's a great place to be for making du'a!! Just make sure you have a ground length jilbab for the good days and an ankle lenght one for the rainy days.

Admin wrote:Salams
I just love this bit

"the lovely thing about islam is we get rewarded for our good intentions even if something happened that made us unable too follow through,"

love this bit too..