Answer
Short Answer: Allah Almighty knows more about us than we know about ourselves. Islam is a complete religion. It makes us healthy and whole. By living as a Muslim should live it brings us happiness in this world and the next, inshallah.
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Salam Dear Brother,
Thank you for your question and for contacting Ask About Islam.
As Muslims we have to balance the needs of this world with the needs of our faith.
As Muslims we declare at least five times a day that there is nothing worthy of worship, but the One God in heaven (Allah) and that Muhammad is His Messenger.
Those words are easy to say, but we need constantly to ask ourselves if we really mean them.
In my life, is there really nothing at all as important to me as Allah?
In truth, all of us fall far short here and there in many things we put ahead of Allah. For some it is money or a good reputation or the best job. For others it could be football or drink or sex.
If we really want to be Muslims we need to make some fundamental choices.
The choice for you is to ask yourself if you really do want to pray Fajr on time every day, or is it just a nice idea that has to give way before other considerations?
Allah Almighty knows more about us than we know about ourselves.
He has told us to pray five times each day. This is not just an arbitrary rule – to make our lives difficult. Indeed, there is nothing magical about the number five.
Some Muslims think that to gather all the prayers together at the end of the day is enough to fill the requirement to pray. But that is not so.
Allah asks us to pray before dawn, when the sun has not even come up. He asks us to pray at midday, when the sun is at its highest.
He asks us to pray in the middle of our work in the afternoon, when the sun goes down and, finally, at night.
Aside from those times, we are asleep. In other words, the Five Prayers give a wholeness to our day and make it holy.
You are right that doctors and even psychologists tell us how many hours we need to sleep, depending on our age.
Are you really seriously suggesting, though, that doctors know better than Allah Almighty, He Who made the heavens and the earth and everything in between?
Allah truly knows what is best for us and, based on that knowledge, He has told us to pray Five times at specific times of the day.
Trying to juggle the demands of a worldly lifestyle and then slotting in what our faith requires will never work.
We need to re-order our lifestyle first, basing it on our true priorities, and then it will make sense.
Islam is a complete religion. It makes us healthy and whole. By living as a Muslim should live it brings us happiness in this world and the next, inshallah.
I urge you to ask yourself what is really important to you, then to act upon it. You might then get a good alarm clock – or even two or three!
I hope this helps answer your question.
Salam and please keep in touch.
(From Ask About Islam archives)
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