I really dislike waking early *shock horror*
Ok. Perhaps that wasn't as outrageous as I made it out to be, but there's a moral to the story, I promise.
Praying fajr has always been a somewhat difficult task. The almost-painful daily ritual of hearing the iPhone squawk its morning wake-up call, getting out of a warm and oh-so-comfy bed, splashing water reminiscent of an ice bath onto objecting extremities and then hoping to fall back to sleep after the whole process is done and dusted isn't exactly my idea of a comfortable start to the morning. Of course, the spiritual uplift of being close to God when the rest of humanity is still half-way through their REM cycles is worth it, but it doesnt change the fact that waking up at the roosters cry is a rather arduous task.
Waking up for suhoor on the other hand...
The closest analogy I can come up with is that bolt of adrenalin you'd get as a kid when you heard the ice-cream van coming down your street and suddenly, the exhaustion that came as a result of having to do your home-work ( hey, its tough being a 6-year old!) vanished in an instant.
So now, the promise of Vegemite on toast with a side of chocolate milk is the grown-up version of soft serve. And man does it get me moving.
It struck me recently that it was easier to get me up for a Milo then it was to wake up for a meeting with the One who created the Milo in the first place. That's a sad realisation and one which I felt was worth sharing.
As humans, we tend to forget the most important things in life. It makes sense given that the word insaan ( human) is derived from the Arabic word to forget. We find it easier to wake up for suhoor than for Fajr. To go to a friends place for ifatr than to the mosque for taraweeh. We'd prefer to watch a Masterchef invention test than to read a surah of Quran. Our lifestyle makes it very easy for us to forget that our first and foremost priority is to seek the pleasure of God.
And I use the generic term because I refer not only to Muslims, but to humanity generally. We've lost that connection to the Divine and instead fill our plates with pointless banter, empty purchases and a rose-tinted outlook on the state of the world. As a race, we've really failed. Our quest for ease and comfort has led us to destruction. We justify global warming as being a necessary consequence of economic development then try to stick a band-aid over it. We live with the fact that 80% of the worlds population barely has enough to eat so that we can build big, pretty houses with central heating. Our priorities in life have been really skewed and its not wonder our relationship with God is suffering.
Its time to start living simple. Even if you do have that big house and the Merc, go to the masjid for Fajr every morning and read Quran for 10 minutes after prayer. Stay up till you have to go to work and spend the time working on beneficial things which will help humanity out of the state its in. And do it consistently. Because if there's one thing were lacking, its consistency.
Ramadan is honestly the best time to start. You're already in hardship-mode so adding a few daily actions to the pot will help challenge you further and reap the rewards of this Month. And remember, a little bit can go a very long way if you stick with it.
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