In the process of searching for the best resources on salah available right now, we’ve come across some great pieces that could jumpstart your journey to a richer prayer life. We’ve organized the links we’ve found to help you zoom in on the area of salah you want to start with.
(Re)Starting your Salah Habit.
People fall out of the habit of praying all five prayers commonly. If you’ve completely stopped praying or never have before, we recommend you regain your spiritual footing here and look for inspiration on why this is a worthwhile endeavor here and here. Even a non-Muslim can vouch for the benefits of salah!
Ready to get back on the wagon?
Establishing a habit of praying 5 times a day everyday is hard! Some have been lucky enough to have family who helped instill in them the habit, others have had to struggle as adults to figure out a way to build the habit. For some general tips on how to start building the habit of prayer from scratch check out this link as well as this one. If you need advice on how to push past more emotional blocks to salah, read this.
I pray … but I’m always running late.
Even if you’ve successfully established a habit of prayer, that doesn’t mean you’re performing at the optimum level you could be. If you find yourself always missing fajr prayer, or constantly procrastinating salah once the time comes in you need to examine more closely how committed you are to meeting Allah and how strong your faith in Him is. Looking to make sure you catch every fajr salah? Here’s one man’s method of making sure to get it in every morning, plus extra! Have an overarching procrastination problem? Check this link out.
Salah isn’t really about clocking in though …
Even though there’s a lot of importance in establishing and maintaining a habit of salah, that really isn’t the goal of prayer. You may be performing all the actions of prayer and in the right way, but still gain no spiritual benefit from praying. Is your mind constantly buzzing while praying? Do you jump after prayer to finish that task you were thinking about all through sujud? If you’re looking to develop your mindfulness and really focus on the meanings behind the motions of prayer consider taking this or this online class, or listening to a podcast here.
Do you walk out of your salah eager to come meet Allah in the next one?
You may have thought that mindfulness and focus were the optimum signs of a successful salah experience. But mindfulness is just the means. The goal is to connect to Allah swt; to feel yourself in the presence of your Maker. Being able to focus in your salah is one thing, tasting and enjoying your prayer so much that you can’t wait to meet Allah again, is another. There’s a great article series that hopes to convey the many layers of enjoyment that can be grasped in salah. If you can’t read the whole series, we recommend at least read this article.
And hopefully we can offer something too.
Honestly though, there is a lot more than can be offered to help improve the Muslim’s prayer experience. That’s the goal of this site: to create content, develop resources, and provide support in helping you transition from one level of prayer experience to another until prayer becomes a transformative addicting experience for you. May Allah bless us and allow us to fulfill that goal and May Allah grant us prayer that is a solace to be yearned for. Ameen.