Advice to One Who Struggles to Pray

The Context

A sister posted in our sub about struggling to pray on time. She mentioned having prayer notifications and alarms on her phone, and that not helping much at all.

The Advice

﷽

I’ve struggled through the same problem as you (and probably worse), so this is my sincere advice to you: learn your religion and learn who Allah is. No amount of support groups or alarms will do for you what the fear of Allah and Judgement Day will.

Often, when we don’t pray (or tell ourselves we can’t), it’s because we don’t actually understand the importance and eminence of the prayer.

‘Abdullah bin Buraidah narrated that his father said: "The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: ‘The covenant that distinguishes between us and them is prayer; so whoever leaves it, he has committed Kufr.’"

—Sunan Ibn Majah 1079

As for Fajr (and Isha), specifically, we should know:

Abu Hurairah reported: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, "No Salat is more burdensome to the hypocrites than the Fajr (dawn) prayer and the ‘Isha’ (night) prayer; and if they knew their merits, they would come to them even if they had to crawl to do so."

—Sahih al-Bukhari 657, Sahih Muslim 651b

A big problem people have with Fajr is sleep, of course, due to the timing. In case you’re not aware, the adhan for Fajr specifically mentions that prayer is better than sleep (the adhan for this is different from the other prayers due to this line).

It’s also helpful to remember that the fardh Salah can take very little time.

Number of Rak’ah	Salah	Time Spent
2	Fajr	<5 minutes
4	Dhuhr	5 minutes
4	‘Asr	5 minutes
3	Maghrib	<5 minutes
4	Isha	5 minutes
Total		~25 minutes

In total, Allah has only asked us to set aside less than 30 minutes a day from the 24 HOURS He’s given us. Subhanallah.

Any one of us can get up for 5 minutes in the morning. We drag ourselves out of bed for much less every single day, why not for our duty to Allah? Don’t we remember that:

A’ishah (radhiAllah anha) reported: The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "The two rak’ahs at dawn are better than this world and what it contains."

—Sahih Muslim 725a

And that’s the nawafil prayer, not the fardh. The fardh is even better than that.

It’s a big blessing that Allah has made you aware of this shortcoming of yours, because this is giving you a chance to repent and come closer to Allah, unlike the disbelievers and hypocrites, who are left to their desires until they lead them to Jahannum, aouthubillah.

My first suggestion would be to make sincere repentance for the prayers missed and equally sincere du’a that the prayer becomes easier for you and that you’re able to make the next one. Then, when you pray, make du’a for the next salah, and so on. I like to say in sujood: Rabbi-Ajal’ni muqeema salaati (My Lord, make me an establisher of prayer).

May Allah make it easy for you. Ameen.

Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Allah says: ‘I am just as My slave thinks I am, (i.e. I am able to do for him what he thinks I can do for him) and I am with him if He remembers Me. If he remembers Me in himself, I too, remember him in Myself; and if he remembers Me in a group of people, I remember him in a group that is better than they; and if he comes one span nearer to Me, I go one cubit nearer to him; and if he comes one cubit nearer to Me, I go a distance of two outstretched arms nearer to him; and if he comes to Me walking, I go to him running.‘"

—Sahih al-Bukhari 7405

Some people may get frustrated that I’m giving the above advice when you asked for accountability groups or a prayer partner. The reason for this is that the issue is with rectifying your heart and imaan—and what better way to do that than to go directly to your Lord?