Let’s be honest, we’ve all had times in our lives when we’ve struggled to wake up for Fajr. In fact, some of us are continually struggling with waking up early in the morning, even though it frustrates us or even ruins our mornings.
So then, how do you make sure that you wake up for Fajr early every morning without fail? The easiest way to wake up early before Fajr or to wake up on time, is to get enough sleep the night before. Although that’s the most effective way to ensure you don’t miss Salatul Fajr, it maybe over simplifying it. So in this article we will discuss 7 different ways that you can help yourself to make sure that you get up for Fajr consistently every day.
But first of all, it’s important to understand why you need to get up for Fajr and what the benefits are. These are the blessings that we MISS OUT on when we don’t get up for Fajr.
THE BENEFITS OF GETTING UP EARLY FOR FAJR
1. It’s very important to understand that your Fajr is connected to the purpose of your life. Allah the Almighty, informed us that the purpose of life is to worship Him and so every day, we begin our day by fulfilling the purpose of our lives.
Allah says in the Quran, surat Adh-Dhariyat:
“And I have not created the Jin and mankind, except to worship me.”
Now that’s the spiritual benefit of waking up and praying Fajr on time. However, there are lots and lots of reasons why waking up for Fajr would transform your life.
2. One of the benefits of waking up early is that you begin your day before everyone else. So it gives you a buffer before your actual day begins where you have 3 hours or 4 hours depending on what time you wake up, to do the things that you like and all that you find important in your life. These things that will help you to progress your life and this is more about productivity.
3. Another benefit from waking up early is that you gain from the most productive time of the day. Starting early in the day when your mind is the most vibrant, the most energetic. At this time you’re able to think with the kind of clarity that is difficult to gain throughout the day. At this time you haven’t polluted your mind with the news or your emails, or dare I say it, your social messages. So your mind is absolutely fresh and this is the best time to sit down and write your journal, plan your life or business or anything creative.
4. The greatest blessing of an early start is having that peaceful moment from the early hours of the morning to make the Dhikr, to remember Allah. I say this is the greatest blessing, because if you spend a portion of your morning, your most energised time in remembering your Lord, or being grateful to your Lord and thinking about all the blessings in your life, then you are setting yourself up to have a great day.
Ok let’s get into the different ways that you can wake up early in the morning.
7 WAYS TO WAKE UP EARLY FOR FAJR
1. DON’T SLEEP LATE
It’s the first thing I mention in this article because it’s the easiest thing to do. The Prophet of Allah (Peace and blessings be upon him) advised us not to sleep late after Salat Al-Esha if it means that you would wake up late for Fajr. And there’s a great wisdom in that advice.
We need to sleep and if we don’t get enough sleep, then we don’t function in the most optimum way. I speak from experience because for many years I worked hard at trying to reduce my sleep thinking that it would make me more productive. I worked at reducing my sleep to 4 hours and I can tell you from experience that it had the most dreadful affect on my health, both physical and mental. And I would not advise that for anyone.
So how can you help yourself to get enough sleep? First thing is to understand how to get optimum sleep so that you get enough to make sure that you are emotionally balanced, happy, energetic. If you don’t get enough sleep, you’re more likely to wake up tired and cranky. To understand sleep, it’s probably a good idea to research or read up on sleep cycles.
Sleep cycles differ for all of us. On average a sleep cycle is 90 to 100 minutes. If you sleep a whole cycle and wake up at the end of a cycle you feel fresh and re-energised. However if you wake up in the middle of a cycle you often feel tired and sluggish.
On average, if a person gets between 4 to 6 sleep cycles that is sufficient amount of sleep for most people. Now the sleep cycle is different for each one of us. For myself, I figured through trial and error that I need approximately 4 sleep cycles and I feel fresh when I wake up. However, if I get 5 sleep cycles I’m optimum throughout the day.
2. SLEEP WITH THE INTENTION TO WAKE UP AT FAJR.
If you go to sleep on time, meaning giving yourself enough time to have a good night sleep, then make the intention that you will wake up at the time of Fajr. Whether it be 4, 5 or 6 AM, make that intention. Obviously set your alarm or do as I do and set multiple alarms.
It’s important to set your intention for waking up at the time of Fajr because it sets your mind clock. Your body has biological clock and if you set your mind to waking up at a certain time, and you consistently do this over a period of time. You will find that you wake up at the right time every day, even without an alarm clock. But you won’t be able to do this unless you get enough sleep cycles in, a minimum of 4 sleep cycles. If you get enough sleep cycles in regularly your intention will becomes your alarm clock Insha’Allah.
You might be thinking this is impossible, but I urge you to try it. Get the right amount of sleep and set your intentions for waking up for Fajr and do this every night. Once you’ve done it for a period of time, you will find that you wake up automatically for Fajr Insha’Allah.
3. MAKE WUDU
Make Wudu before you go to sleep the night before and then as soon as you wake up in the morning, don’t think, jump straight out of bed and into the bathroom and make Wudu. Remember Wudu is an act of worship
This is an important ritual that if you implement into your life daily. It will automatically take away any feeling of sleep that you have left in your body. But let me be clear, don’t make it with warm water. No, make Wudu with cold to lukewarm water because it will break the sleep and completely freshen you up for the morning.
4. BE GRATEFUL FOR WAKING UP
As soon as you wake up thank Allah because this is the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). Say the Adhkar:
“Alhamdulilah hillathi ayhaana ba’da ma amaatana wa ilahi nushoor.”
All praise is due to Allah, the one that gave me life after death and to him is the final return.
This is so important because it is in complete alignment to the purpose of your life. You and I have been created to worship Allah and the greatest of the different types of worship is to be in the remembrance of Allah. More precisely to be grateful to Allah for all the blessings that you have.
Think about it like this, if you wake up every single morning, being grateful and happy about the things in your life, then you are setting yourself up to have a great day. And if you have lots of great days, you have a great life Insha’Allah.
5. DO SOMETHING YOU LOVE
Make the first thing that you do in the morning, something that you love doing. Whether it’s having that cup of coffee or doing exercise or journaling or whatever it is that makes you happy, schedule it in to be one of the things that you will do in the early hours of the morning. Remember if you reward yourself with something that you’re happy with, you will look forward to waking up in the morning.
6. AGREE WITH YOUR FAMILY THAT THEY WILL WAKE YOU UP
Have your family members become your alarm clock if you really need it. If you do the things I mentioned above insha’Allah, you will wake up by yourself without the need for any additional help. However, sometimes we have really late nights because of events or a busy schedule or for some reason that kept us up most of the night. And in these moments we need additional help. So recruit your family members to wake you up and to make sure that you get up for Fajr and have a great beginning of a great day.
There are lots of other things you could do to make sure that you wake yourself up early and lots of things you could avoid to make sure that it doesn’t affect your day in an adverse way.
7. ASK THE ONE WHO CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN FOR YOU
The worst days that I have lived in my life have been the days where I missed the time of Fajr and I woke up frustrated and angry at myself. So if you do miss your Salah. Don’t delay your pray any further, pray Fajr instantly as soon as you wake up. Be frustrated, but don’t get angry and start beating yourself up over it
Turn to Allah and ask for the help. And I’ll end on this because it is the most important thing that you could do to make sure that you wake up for Fajr. Make Dua every day that Allah swt makes it easy for you to wake up for Fajr and benefit from Fajr and the early hours of the morning. Because Allah in control of everything.
But one word of warning don’t leave off doing the first 6 things to help yourself. You need to take action and then make dua for Allah to bring the benefits of your actions to fruition. It’s no good making dua if you are doing everything to stop yourself from waking up.
Sounds crazy but if I go to sleep at 3am making dua Allah wakes me up 2 hours later for Fajr, likelihood is that I won’t wake up due to my negligence. Of course Allah may wake me but I’ll pray fajr with no energy and craving to get back to bed. Like I said sounds crazy but I’m sure you most people can relate to this. We’ve all done it at some point ?
FINALLY A BONUS TIP FOR YOU:
If you feel tired during the day because of the early mornings, do as the Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba did and have a power nap before Salah Al-Luhur. I take 15 to 18 minutes timed on my phone where I set an alarm. You may not actually sleep, but the shut eye that you get actually really re-energizes you. You’ll be amazed insha’Allah, give it a try.
