Tips to stick to your athkar ( morning/ evening remembrance )
This post was recommended by my amazing sis @doulunay Allahuma barik laha 💛
We all know the importance and the benefits of saying your daily athkar especially in the morning (after fajr or upon waking up), in the evening (after asr) and when going to bed. For one, it brings you closer to Allah set. In fact, by uttering those phrases daily you reaffirm your tawhid and keep close to Allah. They always remind a believer to accept his own weakness and remain in awe of His Lord – whom he always praises and seeks assistance from for every need. Alhamdulillah. Besides, it has been agreed upon among the ulama'a and scholars that daily remembrance and duaa protects the person from su' ,illness, sadness and all evil.
Ustadha Yasmine Mogahed even goes to say that your athkar can help you calm your anxiety given that:
" الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَتَطْمَئِنُّ قُلوبُهم بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ أَلَا بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ
Allatheena amanoo watatmainnu quloobuhum bithikri Allahi ala bithikri Allahi tatmainnu alquloobu
Those who believed, and whose hearts find rest in the remembrance of Allah. Verily, in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest.
So, the question is, in the middle of all this busy life full with distractions and fake attractions, how do we stick to our athkar? How do we make it a habit to say our morning/ evening remembrance?
These next few tips that I am sharing with you are from my personal experience, so please tell me what do you think and if you have anything to add, please do!
1) Go Small but keep going:
This one tip I learned from a lecture of Ustadha Yasmine Mogahed. She said that Allah swt loves consistency. It is okay to just start small, you don't have to read or say the whole list of athkar every morning and every evening, you can choose even just one or two utterances, but you have to stick to them daily. And it's actually a great hack. Some of us look for perfection. SubhanAllah, they will say I should recite the full list of athkar but today I don't have the time to do that so there is no point, maybe tomorrow, maybe after tomorrow, maybe next week. However, even if you recite one or two utterances every single day, that's good enough.
My personal go-to utterances when I don't "have the time" to go thru the whole list are :
- بسم الله الذي لا يضر مع اسمه شيء في الأرض و لا في السماء و هو السميع العليم ×3
In the Name of Allah with Whose Name there is protection against every kind of harm in the earth or in the heaven, and He is the All-Hearing and All- Knowing (x3)
- حسبي الله لا إله إلا هو عليه توكلت و هو رب العرش العظيم × 7
Allah is sufficient for me, there is no god but He; on Him do I rely, and He is the Lord of mighty power (×7)
I can't leave the house without them.
2) Use visuals:
If you are a person who relies on their visual memory and need to see things in front of you to remember them, then here's a hack for you: get a paper (preferably colored), write down the utterances and duaa you want to remember and put it on a wall in your bedroom or somewhere you can see it so often during the day. I have only managed to say the " upon waking up " duaa by writing down on a big paper and hanging it facing my bed in a way that I see it as soon as I open my eyes in the morning. And it works 👌🏼.
3) Use audios:
So it happens to be busy and running late or running errands in the morning that you can't get your phone out to google or read from an app your morning or daily remembrance. In this case and on busy mornings what I do is I play the audio on my phone, put my earphones on and go on about my day, whether I'm traveling or using transportation or walking down the street, the recitation is playing in my ears and I get to repeat along with the qari'. There are plenty of morning athkar recitations on youtube, you can download the one to your liking, with your favorite sheikh or qari', convert it to any audio version and save it on your phone. They usually don't exceed 20 or 25mins and they are very relaxing and pleasant to hear, Alhamdulillah.
4) Use technology:
This one is the easiest. I think most of us if not all of us have a Muslim/ Salah/ Azan/ Quran app on our phones. There is a hundred of them on the play/ istore. Just choose the one that is most convenient for you, easiest or most user-friendly. Some apps offer to set notifications and reminders to the morning/evening remembrance, you can even select your favorite utterances and not all of them, set the time, and everyday it will remind you to recite them.
In this respect, what is your favorite Muslim app to use?
I hope this post brings you some benefits and helps you in any way. Thank you so much for reading through, and please leave some feedback 🤍
Assalamu Alaikom.
- bintafriqiya.