As Salatu Kheyrun Mina Nawm!

Bismillahir rahmanir raheem

... so I had my thoughts on fajr as you might remember, or not, never mind if not. I was researching this matter a bit more, I just needed to know WHY it is so utmost important not to miss fajr. Ok, punishment. But hey - don't we all hear about punishment if we don't do that and this or if we do that and this in Islam?

Do we really take the thought of punishment serious or do most of us think "yeah right, the horse is dead - stop beating it".

Really - I believe that most people cannot really grasp the concept of divine punishment, except maybe those (for instance me) that had the fortune of a harsh and thoughtful past, had accidents, saw suffering, suffered themselves.

I myself don't think I would know what divine punishment includes, or even try to understand, and i'm not sure if i ever could, except in the next world, may Allah swt have mercy on me!

Isn't there anything else that gets people up for prayer?

Over the last months I have come across so many references in Quran and Hadith that talk about major divine events taking place in the night. Muhammad saw was taken to the furthest mosque in the night in Al Isra one of my favourite Surahs, he received the first revelation in the night with Surah al Alaq there are several other surahs (pl?) that describe night time events and the importance of it.

Likewise the ahadith just confirm the importance of the night, Muhammad saw himself was up a large part of the night and was reported to have little sleep.

While reaseching dhikr and duas I came across this hadith:

Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah's Apostle said, "When it is the last third of the night, our Lord, the Blessed, the Superior, descends every night to the heaven of the world and says, 'Is there anyone who invokes Me (demand anything from Me), that I may respond to his invocation; Is there anyone who asks Me for something that I may give (it to) him; Is there anyone who asks My forgiveness that I may forgive him?' " (Book #75, Hadith #333)

There is another hadith that i read and unfortunatly cannot find anywhere, astaghfirullah, but it more or less said that Allah subhaana wa ta'ala is on three occasions closest to this world, which is during Ramadan, Night of Qadr and during the last third of the night (if someone could get me the original text I would be most grateful).

This made me think... imagine there is a close family member, let's say your brother, sister or even a parent but living far away from you. You always keep sending emails or letters and call each other. Finally they can afford the trip to your country but they come up with silly excuses not to see you! How would you feel? Disappointed? For sure!

And how would you feel if you went through all that hassle and visit your homecountry and want to see that close friend/family member but they would prefer to sleep and snooze instead of welcoming you and catching up with you! That would make me mad! After all that effort a no show! I would really question the sincerity of that individual!

Hang on a moment.... Hello!!! Allah subhaana wa ta'ala is nearest in that time and you prefer to snooze!? This is the Allmighty, not your best pal. What does that say about you/me/us if we prefer to sleep instead of spending one-on-one time with our creator at the scheduled meeting? Do we really take all this serious? Do we indeed believe in Allah? Are we so self centered that we indeed appreciate our sleep more?

Considering this makes it super easy for me to get up. After all this is the time I have available! Time that Allah made available for me for this purpose, and I don't want to waste it with anything else.

I remember a sister in the masjid who told me that her (7 or 8 year old) daughter, who by the way won the Quran competition in the older kids category, mashallah, always gets up for fajr, even if it's at 4am. Subhaanallah, this kid is an inspiration for the adults she loves Allah so much that she is happy to get up early. (Happy to get up for fajr to meet Allah - let that thought roll through the mind for a moment, without letting it fall out of the ears...)

May Allah bless her and her family and always guide her on the straight path, ameen

Enough rambling for today, my fingers start aching...

I finish with this spacy video that I came across when googling dhikr, I kinda liked it as I start understanding the arabic letters (I shoulderpat myself, I know all 29 letters now)