Balance: Salah and Worldly Activities

Salah is the most important building block of Islam and is considered the most favorite form of ibadah. Allah, The Creator has Himself prescribed it as obligatory for all Muslims.

Sometimes in our busy schedules, we miss fulfilling this mandatory obligation. So, just like you organize many other things in your life, what could be more beautiful than to organize and track your Salah throughout the day or week? This can greatly help you to keep yourself accountable for your salah.

If you are a late Salah starter, a teenager, or someone who wants to improve his connection with Allah, here are some steps you can follow to establish regular Salah and use Joy Within Islamic Planner as a tool.

1. Make an Intention
The first step towards becoming regular in this religious obligation is to have a strong intention to begin.
"Actions are according to intentions, and everyone will get what was intended. Whoever migrates with an intention for Allah and His messenger, the migration will be for the sake of Allah and his Messenger. And whoever migrates for worldly gain or to marry a woman, then his migration will be for the sake of whatever he migrated for."
Related by Bukhari & Muslim

You need to make intention from the heart that you will offer your prayers with punctuality and dedication and actively making dua to seek the help of Allah swt to help you with performing salah.

2. Plan Your Activities Around Salah
For this purpose, you can use a Joy Within Islamic Planner and plan your worldly activities around the five daily Salah commanded by Allah swt for us. For that particular reason or planner starts from 5 am and ends at 10 pm so the Fajar and Isha timing can fit in.
Isn't it beautiful that we get to have a meeting with our creator 5 times every day and communicate our worries, happiness, anxiety, and all sorts of feelings?

3. Track Your Salah
According to research if a person tracks their habits and goals it tends to help them in the long run and become consistent. With the help of joy within the salah tracker, you can record your performance daily. You should mark every Salah that you perform and have clear visibility of how many you may have missed. This will give you a chance to look at your commitment level and motivate you even further to do better.

4. Analyze your performance
At the end of the day, you should look at the Salah tracker and analyze your performance. In addition to the daily analysis, there is a section at the end of each month called monthly reflection, a tool curated especially for you to analyze your monthly performance. After analyzing and scoring, it will provide reassurance and encourage you to keep on praying with consistency.

You should keep praying for Allah’s blessings and try your best to perform regular Salah 5 times a day. Attempting to pray 5 times daily is a gradual process so take little steps to reach your goal.