Islam means submission to Allah and is built upon the 5 core values (commonly known as the 5 pillars). These pillars remain the foundation of Islam and they remind Muslims what it means to be a Muslim.

So let`s remind ourselves of the 5 pillars. The 5 pillars of Islam are:

• Shahaddah (Strictly believing in the Oneness of Allah and to not associate any partners with him)

• Salah ( your daily prayer - Fajr, Zuhr, Asr, Magrib and Isha)

• Sawm (fasting in the month of Ramadan)

• Zakat (annual 2.5% of your assets/income given to charity

• Hajj (only compulsory when you have the means to do so)

Allah (swt) in the Quran has told us many times to pray our salah. Below are some of the Quran ayats regarding salah.

“Maintain with care the [obligatory] prayers and [in particular] the middle prayer and stand before Allah, devoutly obedient.” (Quran, 2:238)

 “Indeed, those who believe and do righteous deeds and establish prayer and give zakah will have their reward with their Lord, and there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve” (Quran, 2:277)

“And when you have completed the prayer, remember Allah standing, sitting, or [lying] on your sides. But when you become secure, re-establish [regular] prayer. Indeed, prayer has been decreed upon the believers a decree of specified times” (Quran, 4:103)

“And to establish prayer and fear Him.” And it is He to whom you will be gathered”. (Quran, 6:72 )

So these are just some of the many ayats regarding the prayer from the quran. Going to back to the definition of Islam (Submission to Allah swt). If Allah ordained us to pray our daily 5, we have to obey without questioning why and do what Allah swt has commanded us. That is what you call submission, you submit your will to Allah.

Submitting your will essentially means not allowing your nafs (desires) or laziness prevent you from disobeying Allah swt.

Here our tips to encourage you to hit the daily 5 prayers.

1. Make the intention to pray. When you make an intention, you are more likely to follow through with the help of Allah (swt).

2. Make sure you have a special prayer outfit that you will wear just for praying, whether that’s an abaya or the prayer jilbab, just set one outfit that you will wear to pray in. Just like you would have a dedicated gym outfit to help you achieve your fitness goals. The same principle applies with a prayer outfit.. Having a dedicated outfit will encourage you to stay motivated, this is because it mentally prepares you and gets you in the frame of mind to pray. Do not forget to put a bit of fragrance on(only applies for when you praying at home), not only you will feel good about yourself but it is encouraged to look your best in front of your Creator.

( quick tip: If you are looking to start wearing an abaya, get used to wearing it by praying in it)

3. This tip is quite a personal tip as it works for me, but have a try perhaps it might work for you too. What I like to do is whenever it gets closer to the prayer time I like to light up my Bakhoor and it gives off the vibes that I am in a mosque. Again this trick mentally prepares you to pray because of the nostalgia it gives to me.

4. I hate to admit this, but let`s be real here. It may put you off to read all your sunnat and nafl prayer alongside your fard prayers. But if you do not know this, your prayer is still accepted if you only read the fardh prayers. For example: For Fajr there is 2 sunnat, 2 fardh and 2 nafl. It is still okay to pray just the 2 fardh because you have prayed your obligatory prayer. Time is precious to everyone especially in this day and age, so it is better for you to read your obligatory prayer rather miss it because reading all of rakats may take a chunk of your time to read.

5. If you ever feel lazy in praying remember this Hadith from the book of Sahih Muslim 82b, Book No.1 , Hadith number 154:

“It is narrated on the authority of Abu Zubair that he heard Jabir b. 'Abdullah saying. I heard the Messenger of Allah (may peace and blessings be upon him) observing this: The difference between us and them (Kuffar/Non-Muslims) is that of salaah so whoever abandons salaah certainly commits kufr”.

In simpler words, this means that only salah defines us a Muslim, so we have to guard our salah for our salah differentiates us from the non muslims. When I came across this hadith it shook me to the core, such small statement conveys the importance of salah with a powerful impact.

6. If tip number 5 was not enough to motivate you , then remember this last tip. Every Soul shall taste death, and when you depart from this world, your wealth, family, respect and honour will stay in this dunya, but what will follow you in the next life is the countless salah and charity you have done. Guarding your salah will help you answer the simplest yet difficult questions in your grave. Even if you know now the answer to the questions of the grave, that will not help because your speech will come from the heart rather than the mind. So if you do good deeds and pray your salah, the more your heart will be filled with imaan. Only this will help you answer the questions of the grave.

So there you have it, those are the tips to motivate you to pray your salah. I pray that Allah swt forgives our sin and keeps us steadfast in our deen. Ameen.

If you enjoyed reading this blog, do comment on a next topic we should blog about. You can also tell us your tips to encourage onself to read the prayers. This will be a sadaqah jariyah, (ongoing/everlasting benefit) on your part, as you will gain the benefits if someone acts upon your knowledge.

If you have any feedback regarding things for us to improve on we would love to hear it from you below!