5 Tips to Help you Wake up for Fajr.

How to Wake up for Fajr

In the fast paced world that we live in one of the challenges facing many Muslims is waking up for Fajr. Let's get to the root of the problem. Brother Nouman Ali Khan says"We live in a world where we wake our kids up for school but not for Fajr." This is essentially a big problem in many of our Muslim homes today. Our children grow up thinking Dunia is more Important than Akhira. When we wake them up for school but not for Fajr that is the impression we give them. To deal with this problem we must always put Islam in our homes before anything else. So many people grow up not praying Fajr and later on when they grow up they find it difficult to wake up. If this habit was instilled in us when we were young it may have been much easier. Habits are hard to let go off.

Another Fitna that has come in to the lives of many Muslims is the Internet. You see the internet is not bad, its the way you use it that is bad. Take for example a knife, if you use it in the kitchen well and good, but that same knife if you harm some one with it not so good. So the knife is not the problem its the way we use it. Same goes for the internet. If you are up all night on Facebook and other social media and then you sleep at 2am, you are a normal human being, how do you expect to wake up? 

The third problem when waking up for Fajr is Shaitaan. You see each night you sleep the shaitan ties three knots over your head.We will look at how to u untie these knots.

Now here are some practical tips to help you wake up for Fajr. I personally use most of them and I hope and pray to Allah (swt)  he makes it easy for you to wake up.

1.Sleep Early.

It will change your life! Sleeping on time and waking up on time has  numerous benefits.

Early to bed and early to rise are habits taught by the Messenger pbuh. Those who unnecessarily or habitually delay going to bed may not realise the harm to their mental, physical, spiritual & social well being.
Similarly those who get up very late each day, allowing laziness to overpower them would have their share of obstacles & negativeness as a result.
Once this becomes a habit, it can lead to the break up of marriages, feuds within the families, flaring of tempers, loss of income, failure at school or work, loss of concentration, a constant lathargic feeling and becoming an irritation to those we live with.
It can also cause deep unexplained discontentment, sadness or even put us into a depressive mode. We MUST fight laziness to succeed!

2. Have Sincere Intention

Every night make sure before you sleep, you have VERY sincere intention to wake up for Fajr. Make the intention when you go to sleep, that no matter what, whether its cold, whether I'm too sleepy or whatever else, I MUST WAKE UP. No matter what may come by I have to wake up! Personally this was a big game changer for me. Whenever I would sleep with this intention I found myself waking up easily. Because of this intention I have found myself waking up sometimes even after sleeping late.

3. The Method of your Alarm (Very Important!)

This is probably the most important trick that I use. My alarm is the Fajr Adhan. I set it to full volume before I sleep. I use a very soothing, pleasant Adhan it gets me up lightly. The other thing I do is I let the full adhan run, I don't stop the adhan or turn off the alarm, as it lasts 2-3 minutes in this time I usually do get up.

The other thing I do is my phone is out of reach of my Hand, its not near my bed. So even if I wanted to turn off the Adhan I wouldn't be able. I can't snooze. Snoozing your alarm is the worst thing you do, its like saying "Hey I hate waking up and I'm going to do it over and over again!"

The Final trick with the alarm is after 15minutes I hear the Iqama, so in case I didn't get up from the Adhan the Iqama get's me up.

4. Untie the knots

”During your sleep, Satan knots three knots at the back of the head of each of you, and he breathes the following words at each knot, ‘The night is, long, so keep on sleeping,’ If that personwakes up and celebrates the praises of Allah, then one knot is undone, and when he performs ablution the second knot is undone, and when he prays, all the knots are undone, and he gets up in the morning lively and in a good mood, otherwise he gets up dull and gloomy. ” (Bukhari)

It is not a surprise that Shaitan is trying to prevent us from the worship of Allah (swt) and prevent us from a productive morning. However, Alhamdulillah, we were given the prescription to combat his whispering.

5. Make lots of Dua

No matter how hard you try, without the help of Allah its impossible. I can't really emphasise how important this is. If we are able to internalize the importance of Fajr Salaat and the consequences of missing it, we will automatically find a means of waking up for prayer, just like we would have woken up if it had been the time of our final exam or our jobs. But how can we value something if we do not even know anything about it? We can start by seeking knowledge about its importance.
But at the same time, knowledge is fruitless without huda (guidance), so let us sincerely ask Allah (swt) to help us, guide us and increase our imaan (faith) and love for this beautiful deen.


Before ending, I would just like to say that I myself struggle lots with fajr salaat and still sometimes slip, so this is first and foremost a reminder to myself. I am in need of it as much as anyone else.

Well, that’s all I can think of. If you think of new ideas, or you have other ways to wake up for fajr and hence keep up your productivity boost, give me a shout in the comments section below!