Outline
- Introduction
- 5 Ways to Avoid Skipping Salah
- How to Avoid Missing Your Daily Prayers
- What Should I Do When I Don’t Feel Like Praying?
- But Sometimes I Have Problem Focusing in My Prayers
Introduction
Alhamdulillah… infinite praise and thanks are due to the Almighty Allah, who prescribed upon us the five-times daily prayers. Complete peace and salutations are to our beloved Prophet, who perfected in teaching us all we need to be punctual in our daily prayers, Sayyidunā Muḥammad, his household, his companions, and all those who follow his guided path.
This article is one of GSalam.Net’s articles on prayers. It sheds light on some useful tips that will help you to avoid missing your daily prayers.
As a son of Adam, the more love you develop for Allah the Creator, through observation of acts of worship, the harder the Devil works to distract you from those acts of worship that keep you closer to Him and make Him love you. He (the devil) does so as a demonstration of his unhappiness with your submissiveness to Allah, because he failed to show submissiveness when he was commanded to do so.
Therefore, it’s important for us to seek as many helpful ways as possible, to remain on track with developing a true love of and for our Creator. Unarguably, maintaining steadfastness in our daily prayers is one of the most guaranteed means to attaining that Love.
5 Ways to Avoid Skipping Salah
In her article, 5 Ways to Avoid Skipping Salah, Amna Anwar, suggests five ways to avoid skipping your daily prayers. These suggestions are summarised in the following five points:
- Understand the importance of Salah
- Put on several reminders for each prayer
- Plan your day around the prayer times, not the other way around.
- Remind yourself, [that] 5 minutes won’t hurt!
- Make du‘a’ and ask Allah to make it easier for you
To read the elaboration of the summarised points above, please click here to check out the article.
If you have practiced those suggestions and they worked for you, then you can skip this article, and move on to another, or class is dismissed for you :).
If, however, you’ve tried them and you’re still struggling to overcome the bad habit of missing your daily prayers, then please continue reading to find the suggestions I’m presenting to help you remain steadfast in your daily prayers, without break or failure, by the will of Allah.
How to Avoid Missing Your Daily Prayers
At this point, the assumption is that you already know how to pray. You also know the obligatory status of the five-times daily prayers to the Muslim. However, one might have been tested with the bad habit of missing his daily prayers. To avoid that, make it a point to do all the following:
- Don’t miss your two raka’ahs of the Sunnah of Fajr. That’s the two raka’ahs you perform before the obligatory Ṣubḥ prayer. I mean, the one you perform between Adhān and Iqāmah for Ṣubḥ
- Don’t miss your Ḍuḥā prayer. The minimum raka’ahs for Ḍuḥā prayer is two raka’ahs. It won’t take more than 5 minutes from you, if done with calmness. But it will contribute significantly in developing steadfastness in your daily prayers.
- Don’t miss your Witr prayer. The minimum number of raka‘ahs for witr prayer is a single raka’ah. You won’t perform witr until you have performed your ‘Ishā’ Would you?
These suggestions may seem simple. And yes, they are simple. But it takes sincerity and determination to succeed in remaining disciplined with it.
One may be very punctual in his five-times daily prayers but misses some of the non-obligatory prayers mentioned above. That’s still fine. Because he has already achieved the target of not missing his daily prayers. Although it’s still better for him to observe supererogatory prayers.
On the other hand, one hardly misses his five-times daily prayers if he takes seriously, the non-obligatory prayers mentioned above.
To read more about the above-mentioned prayers, check them out in the following:
- Witr Prayer: Its Significance, When and How To Perform It
- The Significance of the Sunnah of Fajr Prayer
- Duha Prayer: Its Significance, When and How It’s Performed
But sometimes, I don’t feel like praying. What do I do?
What Should I Do When I Don’t Feel Like Praying?
There’re moments when you don’t feel motivated to pray. It’s human. Finding one’ self in moments like that is a problem. But the problem what you choose to do after that.
When this happens, you’ll have only two options, without a third one. It’s either you force yourself to do it, for one’s own good. Or you give up on yourself and follow your desire.
No one smiles when he is unmotivated but has to do something. But, usually, when one pushes himself, a situation like this end with sweet smiles. However, for anyone who gives in to his comfort and disregards his responsibility (in this case your prayer), it’s a matter of time before he’s slapped with a long-lasting sense of guilt.
We should constantly remember that the journey back to Allah is not all smooth sailing. While we must focus in our prayers, likewise in all other acts of worship when we’re motivated, there’re times that we have to observe the same acts of worship when we are not motivated. In fact, sometimes, the amount of time, in which we are rendered unmotivated can be more than our times of motivation and excitement.
The point is, we are to submit to His commands and decrees in our moments of motivation and our moments of demotivation. When we do it in our moments of motivation, we eye at his Paradise, and hence we’re hopeful. And when we do it in our moments of demotivation, we remember the torment of the hellfire, and hence, we’re fearful.
إِنَّ رَبَّكَ لَسَرِيعُ ٱلْعِقَابِ ۖ وَإِنَّهُۥ لَغَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ ﴿١٦٧﴾ـ
“Your Lord is swift in retribution; yet surely He is Most Forgiving and Merciful.” (Sūrah al-A’rāf, 7:167).
To read more on this, check out my article, Why Do I Find it Difficult to Pray.
But Sometimes I Have Problem Focusing in My Prayers
Success in maintaining consistency in daily prayers is one of the greatest spiritual achievements of the Muslim. However, one me may be consistent with his daily prayers but struggles to focus whenever he stands up, to pray.
For instance, sometimes, I will finish my prayer and remain to wonder what Sūrah I read in the first raka‘ah. Of course, I would know I read Sūrah Al-Fātiḥah. Not because I remember reading it. But rather because it’s automated enough to run in my lips, while my thoughts travel all over the world and my mind processes everything under the sun except my prayer. Yes, except the prayer I’m standing up to perform. Sad, isn’t it?
If you ever experienced that, or have a problem focusing in your prayers, and are looking for possible helpful tips to overcome that, please check out my article, How to Focus and Attain Khushū’ in Prayers.
Some of us may not have problems avoiding missing their prayers. But they struggle to avoid delaying their prayers without valid or pressing reasons. If you happen to be one of them, then click here to learn how to avoid delaying prayers.
Until the next post, I leave you in Allah’s protection.
Allah knows best.
Allahu Hafiz 🙂
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