15 Ways to Become a Fajr Person
Morning people, we are told, are born, not made. Fajr politely disagrees. Whether you pray it every day or are hoping to start, here is how to make the hour before sunrise the best part of your day, from the Sunnah and from the scientists who study sleep.
The Prophet ﷺ asked for a particular blessing on the start of the day: "O Allah, bless my people in their early mornings" (Sunan Abi Dawud 2606). Anyone who has watched the sky turn from ink to grey over a quiet city knows the feeling he was praying for. The trouble is getting up to see it.
The good news is that becoming a Fajr person is less about willpower than about set-up, and most of the work happens the night before. Here are fifteen ways to make it easier.
01. Win the night before
Fajr is won or lost around Isha. "Allah's Messenger ﷺ disliked to sleep before the Isha prayer and to talk after it" (Sahih al-Bukhari 568). Read it again with a phone in your hand: it is a fourteen-hundred-year-old case against the late-night scroll.
02. Eat like you mean to wake
A heavy biryani at eleven at night is a vote against Fajr. "It is sufficient for the son of Adam to eat what will support his back," the Prophet ﷺ said. "If this is not possible, then a third for food, a third for drink, and a third for his breath" (Jami' at-Tirmidhi 2380). A lighter, earlier dinner is the simplest alarm clock there is.
03. Keep the bedroom cool
"Your body needs to drop its core temperature by about two to three degrees Fahrenheit to initiate sleep and then to stay asleep," says the sleep scientist Matt Walker, "and it's the reason you will always find it easier to fall asleep in a room that's too cold than too hot." His suggestion: around 18°C. In Dhaka, that may mean the fan on and the curtains drawn early; in London, one fewer blanket.
04. Sleep in wudu, on your right side
The Prophet ﷺ taught a Companion: "Whenever you go to bed perform ablution like that for the prayer, lie on your right side," and close the day with a du'a of trust in Allah (Sahih al-Bukhari 247). Cool water and a fixed ritual tell the body, clearly and every night, that the day is over.
05. Evict the phone
The phone is the last thing most of us see at night and the first thing we reach for at dawn. Give it a charging spot outside the bedroom. It ends the late scroll, and it means you have to get up to silence the alarm.
06. Fix the wake time, not the bedtime
You cannot force sleep, but you can choose when to get up. "Go to bed at the same time, wake up at the same time, no matter whether it's the weekday or the weekend," Walker says. "Regularity is king, and it will anchor your sleep and improve the quantity and the quality of that sleep." Anchor the morning, and the night starts to follow.
07. Put the alarm by the prayer mat
An alarm beside the pillow is a snooze button with extra steps. Put it across the room, on the floor beside your prayer mat. By the time you have switched it off, you are already standing where you need to be.
Discover the Velvet Standard Prayer Mat here
08. Undo the three knots
The Prophet ﷺ described Shaytan tying three knots at the back of a sleeper's head, whispering over each: "The night is long, so stay asleep." Remembering Allah on waking undoes the first; wudu, the second; prayer, the third, and "one gets up energetic with a good heart in the morning" (Sahih al-Bukhari 1142). It is the oldest wake-up routine we know, and it takes five minutes.
09. First words, first thing
Before the phone, before the news, say what the Prophet ﷺ said on waking: Al-hamdu lillahil-ladhi ahyana ba'da ma amatana wa ilayhin-nushur, "All praise is due to Allah, who has given us life after causing us to die, and to Him is the resurrection" (Sahih al-Bukhari 6312). The day begins with gratitude instead of a notification.
10. Freshen up the Sunnah way
"Whenever the Prophet ﷺ got up at night, he used to clean his mouth with siwak" (Sahih al-Bukhari 245). Add a splash of cold water to the face and you will be more awake than any coffee could make you.
11. Stay seated until sunrise
After Fajr, the Prophet ﷺ "used to sit at the place where he observed the dawn prayer till the sun rose" (Sahih Muslim 670). Keep those twenty minutes for dhikr and the Qur'an: "Indeed, the recitation of dawn is ever witnessed" (Al-Isra 17:78). A tasbeeh in the hand makes the minutes pass gently.
Discover the Crystal Tasbeeh here
12. Step into the light
Once the sun is up, go outside, even for ten minutes, or take breakfast by the brightest window. "Viewing sunlight within the first hours of waking (as soon as you can, even if through cloud cover) increases early-day cortisol release," writes the neuroscientist Andrew Huberman, "and prepares the body for sleep later that night." Light in the morning makes the next Fajr easier.
13. Make breakfast worth waking for
Give yourself something to look forward to: warm tea, dates, a spoonful of honey. None of it is complicated, and all of it tastes better at a table the rest of the house has not reached yet.
Discover the Fajr Daily Reminder Mug and Blackseed Honey here
14. Take the midday nap
The Companions knew the value of a short midday rest, the qaylulah. Describing Fridays, Sahl recalled: "We never had an afternoon nap nor meals except after offering the Jumu'ah prayer" (Sahih al-Bukhari 939), which tells you the nap was part of every other day. Twenty minutes after Dhuhr repays the early start, so you are not tempted to stay up late to make up the day.
15. Change the story you tell yourself
"The reward of deeds depends upon the intentions" (Sahih al-Bukhari 1). Stop saying "I'm not a morning person." Start saying "I'm becoming a Fajr person," and make the intention before you sleep. Some mornings you will miss it. Make the intention again anyway.
Words by Rashid Shahriar, Founder & Head of Designs
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