How to Never Miss a Prayer!

A`udhu billahi min ash-shaytan ar-rajim. Bismillah, ar-Rahman, ar-Rahim.

An obligatory act as a Muslim that we must ALL be doing. Five prayers a day. We are lucky as originally we were supposed to do 50 prayers a day but the Prophet PBUH managed to get it down to five for us alhamdulillah. Imagine if we were doing 50 a day! We would have no time for anything else. But alhamdulillah with 5 prayers a day we can still achieve all of our goals and more. I know it can be hard to fit them in sometimes as lots of us have busy lifestyles with work, family and scrolling through social media 

I wanted to make this blog for two reasons. One for those who find it hard to make time for prayer and miss their prayers. Two for those that make all their prayers but it becomes such a burden for them that they can’t go places at certain times. My husband and I have managed to figure out a way to carry on our lives as normal, with our spontaneous adventures, but never miss a prayer alhamulilllah. I want to share these tips here.

Firstly for those who find it hard to make time to do prayer. My first piece of advice is if you want to make any change in your life. Just do that one thing for 3 weeks. After 3 weeks it becomes a habit and makes life a WHOLE lot easier. It just becomes second nature. So make intention to do all your 5 prayers a day NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS. Just for three weeks. It’s a really easy challenge and one that could change your life. The best thing to do is download the Muslim pro app and make sure the azan notification is on. Then as soon as the azan goes off, make intention to prayer as soon as possible, so you don’t forget.

Now for those who feel like they can’t be spontaneous and live a fun life as they have the burden of prayers. Stop using your prayers as an excuse to go out and live! Allah SWT gave us permission to pray anywhere apart from two places. The bathroom and the grave. That still leaves a huge percentage of the earth for you to pray on. Here are some tips on what to look for when finding places to pray.

My husband and I have been blessed with the gift of praying in a huge variety of different places! The beach, gas stations, city centres and the Forrest. It’s a blessing to pray in all sorts of places as you feel more connected with Allah’s beautiful creations. In general we try not to pray in places where there are lot’s of people, out of respect to others but sometimes we have to. If you are praying in a place where there are people walking than it’s best just to put something in front of you so if someone walks in front, they won’t break your prayer. Also if you’re travelling don’t forget that you’re allowed to just do two rakat.

If we have a bit more free time to pick somewhere to pray when we are out and about we usually pick a service station. There are loads of them on the motorway and they always have little secluded areas of grass around the parking area that no one can see you on. If we are not near a motorway then we will go to a nearby park or Forrest area. Sometimes we just go down a secluded street. If we are in a shopping centre then, if they don’t have a prayer area there, we pray in a baby changing cubicle or changing room.

At work is different because we all have different types of jobs. Plus most places in the west don’t have a prayer area. But it’s ok. If you’re in an office then you can just use a spare room. For me I work on film sets so I work all over in lots of different locations. I normally, as soon as I arrive at work, figure out where i’m going to pray. I normally pray outside as i always find more secluded spots there but sometimes i’ll just pray in an empty room.

Don’t think that you can’t pray without a prayer mat because you absolutely can. Also don’t feel like you’re too good to put your head in some dirt every now and then as the Prophet PBUH even used to do this. Regarding wudu it’s best just to make sure you’ve got wudu whenever you leave the house and if you lose wudu whilst out then the it’s normally pretty easy to find somewhere to do wudu. Any public toilet or service station can be used. If you have a bottle of water you can use that. If you have none of these things than you can use dirt.

Allah has made it very easy for us to complete our prayers alhamdulillah. The only situation where I think it would be hard for you to make your prayers is if someone has locked you in a bathroom. But I don’t think that is happening any time soon. Really we have no excuse for not making our prayers. If you are missing your prayers than make sure you reevaluate your priorities to make sure they are in line with your beliefs. I hope Allah makes it easy for you. Ameen.