Pray Together, Stay Together

Salaam Minara Family,

Thank you to the lovely parent who shared their feedback on last week’s content. The team was pleasantly surprised to learn that your young child enjoyed the tips too! May their bond with Allah grow from strength to strength.

It got us thinking about how parents of little ‘uns encourage prayer for the young people in their lives. It can’t be easy though the rewards great Allah-u-Akbar. Your salah is a beacon not only for you but your children too.

We hope you find the following tips of use.

“Allah is waiting for me… can’t be late!”

Show the cubs how you prioritize your salah. Introduce them to the idea of salah being at a fixed time by reminding them lovingly that you have an ‘appointment’ that cannot be missed or rescheduled.

Let them see you pray. Normalise them with the act [and by extension, the actions] of prayer. Familiarity will help children [hence its emphasis in education]: see prayer as a safe space, form positive associations with salah; create confidence and competency within themselves when they are old enough to pray and most importantly, feel love for an act they never saw their parents not perform. 💘

Prayer party! This is a trend Minara is not mad about! When children reach the age of 7 which is the advised age of beginning salah, celebrate this coming of age to inspire the importance and honour of being welcomed into the salah community. Give them the gift of salah, lightly echoing Allah’s giving of this gift to us. 🎁

We know how daunting it may be the thought of never missing a prayer. Take away this intimidation for children by ‘gifting’ them a prayer every couple of months. For example, your child started reading the Dhuhr prayer. After some time, you could gift them ‘Asr’, almost like a graduation gift. This will frame their prayer mentality positively from the onset and create excitement and anticipation around each salah in sha Allah.

Community building 👨🏾‍👩🏾‍👧🏽‍👦🏾 Give your little ‘un a role in the prayer when they reach a good age. They could call the adhan for example, or remind the family to make wudhu. Perhaps they could be tasked with contributing to the du’a at the end of the prayer! This will make them feel so special and sow the seeds of love and significance around salah. Could one salah a week [or day!] be designated with family or in the masjid? This would perpetuate their inclusion and identity within the Muslim community.

Families that pray together stay together!

We’re a good two weeks into Minara’s Rise and Shine Fajr challenge.

Two biggest takeaways for me thus far:

1. If I sleep late, the greater my Fajr resistance. Not so much on a working day, but on the weekend where I know I don’t really have to be physically present anywhere aside from bed. Oh-oh 🤭. On those days, I guilt-trip myself out of bed and honestly, it's just that first tip-toe out of bed that's the hardest. Once foot meets floor, we’re good to go!

2. When a Fajr is missed, my day just doesn’t go as well. This is the absolute truth for me. Late for something; forgotten something; taking more time in planning for work; feeling tired quicker; or just a little niggling sense of something lost in the day but unable to quite put my finger on it. Encouraging myself to use the reflective lens on my thinking button, I consider how all of this is reversed when I do read my Fajr: sense of satisfaction; completing tasks quickly; having more energy etc. etc. Reflective, open dialogue between me and myself really really helps!

If you’ve been partaking, how’s it going?! Haven’t officially joined the challenge but waking up for Fajr anyway? Perhaps you have reflections you’d like to share? [Hit the reply button at the top of this email ✉️].

In light of today’s newsletter

Children are more than imitators. But this is how they start right? Let them experience your prayer highs and lows so that they can build their own cache of prayer insight and love salah early on just like their grown-ups are trying to do.

And for the lovely reader who inspired us with their feedback, this one’s for you 🙂.

Wishing you all the prayer-filled best,

The Minara Team