THE FIQH DEPARTMENT

In the Name of Allah, The Most Beneficent, The Most Merciful.
Although every Fiqh opinion is based on evidence, often times, the scholars differ in their views. This room for differences is a mercy from Allah, and as long as there is evidence to support an opinion, then we must respect scholars' views, even if we may not always agree.
The Prophet (SAW) said:
"Whoever performs Ijtihad and errs will receive one reward. Whoever performs Ijtihad and arrives at the correct answer gets double the reward"
(Bukhari) 
Waking Kids up for Fajr PDF Print E-mail
Fiqh: Islamic Jurisprudence - Salah
Written by Salah As-Sawy   

Question:

Assalam alaikum wa rahmatullah,

 

Al-hamdulillah, I have six children between the ages of 7 and 21, and al-hamdulillah, they all pray, but I suffer a great deal when I wake them up for the Fajr. I spend over an hour trying in every good way I can think of, but in the end, I have to shout at them to get up and pray. So, they only pray the Fajr for fear of me, not out of devotion to Allah. What should I do? Should I keep doing this? I don’t want them to hate the prayer.

 

Jazakum Allahu khairan.

Answer:

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful,

 

All praise is due to Allah, and may peace and blessing be upon the Messenger of Allah, upon his household, his companions and those who have followed him. To proceed:

 

May Allah reward you well for your concern about raising your children to remember Allah and to pray; however, it is necessary to have discussions with them, explaining the importance and merits of praying the Fajr prayer. You should tell them that whoever prays the Fajr will be under Allah’s Protection the whole day long. Tell them that, along with the Isha prayer, these are the heaviest two prayers for the hypocrites. Use a combination of warning and enticing, threatening and promising, cajoling and alarming, but do not make them hate worshipping their Lord. Make it a point to organize their day in a way that makes it easy for them to perform the Fajr prayer. Whoever goes to sleep only an hour before the Fajr, for instance, will have a difficult time getting up to pray, so explain to them the importance of going to bed early and how Allah (Glorious & Exalted) has made sleep for resting and has made the day for going about your business.

 

May Allah increase you in knowledge and help you apply it.

 

And Allah Almighty is the Most High, and He knows best.