It probably started with something beneficial.
A reminder about Allah. A short lecture clip. A Qur'an recitation.
You told yourself you were benefiting. Then you swiped.
Another reminder appeared. Then something funny. Then something emotional. Before long, you were watching things you would not even remember the next morning.
You finally look at the time.
12:30.
Then somehow it becomes 1:15. Then 2:03.
What began as looking for a reminder ended with you sleeping through the very Salah those reminders were supposed to bring you closer to.
Eventually you put the phone down and tell yourself: "I'll wake up for Fajr... In shaa Allah."
Then the alarm rings.
The same person who managed to stay awake scrolling for two hours suddenly cannot keep their eyes open long enough to get out of bed.
Allah ﷻ says:
إِنَّ الصَّلَاةَ كَانَتْ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ كِتَابًا مَّوْقُوتًا
"Indeed, Salah has been decreed upon the believers at specified times." (Surah an-Nisa' 4:103)
Maybe the question is not always: "Why do I struggle to wake up for Fajr?"
Sometimes you need to ask what you are doing in the hours before you sleep that is making Fajr unnecessarily difficult.
Because Fajr can be lost long before the alarm rings.
It can begin at midnight with "five more minutes" and another swipe, while the sleep your body needs is slowly being traded for videos you will barely remember tomorrow.
The Prophet ﷺ said:
"The most burdensome prayers for the hypocrites are 'Isha and Fajr. If they knew what was in them, they would come to them even if they had to crawl." (Sahih al-Bukhari 657; Sahih Muslim 651)
And 'Umar ibn al-Khattab رضي الله عنه wrote to his governors:
"The most important of your affairs to me is Salah. Whoever preserves it and guards it has preserved his religion, and whoever neglects it will be even more neglectful of everything else." (Al-Muwatta')
If an app repeatedly keeps you awake until you miss Fajr, deleting it is not extreme.
If taking your phone to bed means two hours disappear every night, leaving it outside the room is not extreme either.
And do not let the fact that your scrolling began with Islamic content fool you.
Beneficial content stops being beneficial when it becomes the excuse that keeps you awake until an obligation suffers.
Tonight, when you feel the urge for one more swipe, remember how these feeds work.
One video asks for thirty seconds.
Then another. And another.
Before you realise it, they have taken an hour or two.
Do not let them take your Fajr as well.
No video on that screen is worth waking up after sunrise and realising that Allah called you to Salah while your phone kept you awake.
Team AMAU
www.amauacademy.com
