How to instill the love of tahajjud in our kids

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It’s funny that I’m writing this article about tahajjud for kids because I am in need of training to wake up for tahajjud myself. May Allah rectify our affairs.

But here it goes.

The 3 Ps of Ramadan

I’m sharing with you this because a few days ago, a dear sister invited me to her special Ramadan program. I said yes and found myself awake at 3 am in the morning, online with the kids, doing crafts with them.

The program is called the 3 Ps of Ramadan- Play, pray, please. It was one of a kind, something that I have never thought about before.

So what is the program all about?

The mommies wake their children up in the middle of the night close to 3 am and they go online (on Zoom) together with their friends to do fun activities together and then they go offline to pray for tahajjud on their own before their pre-dawn meal.

I was invited to do some storytelling and craft activities with them. I shared with them the laylatul Qadr book since it was going to be the last 10 days of Ramadan soon.

This was the book that I read to them!

You can download this ebook from my Free Library.

Growing and learning together

The program was to instil the love of waking up for tahajjud in children. In all honesty, I was struggling myself. So how can I possibly ‘teach’ the kids something I’m not doing myself?

But after joining the session, I realized that it wasn’t a valid excuse. That while we are struggling to do something, it should not stop us from trying.

Isn’t that what parenthood is all about? We are never going to be perfect examples for our kids and we probably have a lot of shortcomings.

Being a good parent means that we grow and learn together with our kids on the things that we are lacking ourselves. Even if that means forcing ourselves to wake up in the middle of the night together with our children.

By the way, just fyi, my 2 year old didn’t join. It was just me doing some activities with a bunch of other kids ranging from 7 to 12 year olds with their mommies in the background.

Instilling the love of tahajjud

After joining them for a session, here are some things that I learn on how to train our kids (and probably ourselves too) to wake up for tahajjud.

Explaining the greatness of Tahajjud

Equipping our kids with knowledge and telling them about the virtues of waking up for tahajjud will be the one that will truly make them love waking up for tahajjud.

But  insyaAllah we all know how amazing tahajjud is but most of us struggle to wake up for it anyways.

So that is why we need a little push.

Have something for them to look forward to

This was the first part of the program where play encourages them to wake up even if it means that they have to drag themselves out of bed.

Snacks- In order to encourage them to wake up, they prepared some of their favourite snacks with their mommies before they go to bed. So that they can eat their favourite snack when they wake up. I thought it was a brilliant idea.

Fun activities- Apart from that, they were told that there was going to be a story-telling session with a mystery guest (i.e me) and book making.

We made a do’a book

The other two nights they made door hangers and a mosaic with a new moon template cut-out.

Get support

I was told that the kids woke each other up. And I’m sure seeing their friends on Zoom in the odd hour plays a huge role too. SubhanAllah, that’s the importance of having a good circle of friends!

Imagine the memories they will have of waking up for tahajjud with their friends and doing crafts together when they get older.

Experience

Finally, making our kids or even ourselves love tahajjud is all about experiencing it’s sweetness. Waking up in the wee hours of the morning, standing in prayer, making do’a to Allah will surely leave our hearts yearning for more.

And so that is what I learn and I hope you learn a thing or two from my sharing too insya’Allah.

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