Assalamu alaikum Sammi, I’ve never come across anything that said we have to stay up after Fajr. So don’t beat yourself up, we still have to function in the World.

wow that’s really profound. thanks for sharing!

Fajr was/is harder, since you’re not really conscious when you’re trying to make the waking up decision. None of the more ‘engineered’ methods above really worked with me. Exams were ok, since it’s not every day. And I would look for any opportunity to change jobs if I had to be functional that early, so again I would consider it a temporary necessity. But fajr is basically every day no matter what. It’s got to be sustainable since you can’t tell yourself, it’s just temporary.

I want to share how Allah helped me with it and it really does relate to this part in the article: “The reason why is because when something has value and importance to us, no matter what our condition is, no matter what the situation is, we will find a way to do it.” He showed me a way to appreciate it in a way that resonated with me; indeed He understands His own creatures the best.

I am currently having to be patient with something in my life (more than one thing actually), trusting Allah that He has it all planned for the best. I’m getting slowly better at this. But every now and then I feel doubtful and the most recent time I became overwhelmed was just a few days ago, and I made du’a, saying that I know He’s got it under control, and I know the night will pass and that I will like the outcome at the end, but I don’t know how long it will take until the morning replaces the night, and because I feel discouraged I hope He would comfort me by allowing me to see the dawn slowly breaking, so that I can see His plan moving along.

Then it struck me, I’m asking to see the metaphorical dawn breaking, but I can’t drag myself up to watch the literal dawn breaking. Alhamdulillah since then I’m doing much better, because of my hope that I will be comforted with signs of things getting better (the ‘dawn’ breaking) if I would show commitment to be awake enough to see it. After all, there’s no point making signs for someone who isn’t looking. I hope I can now keep this up. It’s strange how one weakness of mine ended up mitigating another. But anyway, we can always ask Allah for help, and somehow He will know how best to help each one of us.