Plan Your Life Around Your Prayer

Plan Your Life Around Your Prayer

Parents,

Remember, when teaching your children to pray, the golden rule is simple: Plan your life around your prayer, not the other way around.

If you yourself don’t do this, then obviously that’s a problem. You can’t expect them to understand the seriousness of prayer if you don’t treat it seriously. As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words so if you do any of the following, start making some changes now before they fall into the same bad habits as you:

1. Leave the house fully dressed and looking sharp, but forget to make wudu.

2. Make plans to be out all day or at critical times that interfere with prayer without thinking about how long you can maintain your wudu, where you will make wudu if you need to, where you will pray, on what you will pray, etc.

3. Skip a prayer because you’re out, don’t have wudu, and refuse to make it because you “hate using public restrooms” or because they don’t have a lota/bidet and you wouldn’t feel “clean enough” for wudu.

4. Skip a prayer because you’re out, don’t have wudu, and don’t want to mess up your make-up, your hair, or get your nice clothes wet.

5. Skip a prayer because you’re running late for something and tell yourself it’s too late to make wudu and pray so might as well do it later.

6. Skip a prayer because you don’t want to embarrass yourself at work or school with your “foot in the sink” making wudu.

7. Skip a prayer because you don’t want to ask your employer for a space to pray or you fear your coworkers catching you in the act.

8. Skip a prayer because you’re attending a movie, a concert, a wedding, a play, or some other event and don’t want to “interrupt” the event or inconvenience yourself to find a place to pray.

9. Schedule work meetings, school meetings, doctor’s appointments, conference calls, or other timely commitments around prayer time without thinking how they will affect your prayer.

10. Go shopping, run errands, or get on the road without praying when the prayer enters but still risk missing it anyway.

Remember, we’re all fighting the same battle with our nafs. It is lazy and defiant, and the proof of that is how it helps us justify the countless excuses and lies we tell ourselves so we’re not inconvenienced by having to make wudu or stop whatever we’re doing to fulfill our prayer.

The remedy to helping ourselves (and modeling the best behavior for our children) is to remember the golden rule for prayer.

Prayer is the very FIRST thing Allah ﷻ will ask us about on the Day of Judgement. It is the highest act of worship and it should be treated with the consideration and respect it deserves. Nothing we do is more important than prayer. Nothing. When you truly believe that with all of your heart, then you will look at your entire day and plan your prayers before you plan anything else.

May we be people who appreciate the gravity of the prayer, the beauty of the prayer, and the necessity of the prayer for our spiritual well-being and standing with Allah ﷻ; and may we never treat it carelessly, trivially, or neglectfully. Amin.