🔨 #DropTheHammer (& pray on time)

Assalamu'alaikum,

One of our pious predecessors was a blacksmith, dedicated and proficient in his craft. His hammer was his trusted companion, forging metal into purpose.

Yet, he exhibited a peculiar habit; whenever he heard the call to prayer (athan), even if his hammer were midway in the air, he would instantly set it aside, letting go of that last strike, to prepare for his prayer.

When I heard this story, I wondered what the 'hammer' symbolizes today; is it that critical meeting we have with our boss? or that important Zoom call we don't want to miss? or that all-too-important report you're so engrossed in because you have a deadline to meet?

How often have these 'hammers' delayed our prayers or caused us to miss them entirely?

What if, like the righteous blacksmith, we too choose to 'drop the hammer' at the call of the athan? What if we…

• 🔨 #DropTheHammer and end that meeting when the athan resounds?

• 🔨 #DropTheHammer and pause the stream of emails or the pending Slack/Team messages?

• 🔨 #DropTheHammer and halt mid-sentence in that report, even before hitting 'send'?

You might think that I'm asking you to do the impossible or that I'm making things more complicated than they need to be. After all, what's wrong with working up to the last minute before heading off to prayer?

I wrote an article about how being chronically late for Salah affects productivity. I highly recommend that you read it. In that article, I mentioned the following quote by Al-Hasan Al-Basri (may Allāh be pleased with him):

“When salah is the least of your concerns, then what is your most important concern? As much as you fix your salah, your life will be fixed. Did you not know that salah was equated with Success: ‘Come to Prayer, Come to Success.’ How can you ask Allah for success when you are not responding to His right upon you?”

Let's #DropTheHammer and reaffirm that Allah is our utmost priority, and nothing, absolutely nothing, takes precedence over His call.

…La ilaha illa Allah..

Some practical steps to make it easier for you to #DropTheHammer and go pray on time:

1. Schedule your calls to give you ample time to go and pray, and avoid scheduling meetings/calls close to prayer times.

2. When the athan goes off, and you're in the middle of something, tell yourself to #DropTheHammer and stop. Initially, you'll find it hard since your brain wants you to continue and finish the task. But there's something powerful and spiritually uplifting when you stop, pray, and then come after Salah to complete what you were doing.

3. There may be situations where you cannot 'drop the hammer' due to the task's urgency or its impact on so many people if you stop working suddenly; try to make those situations rare and not the norm.

Being chronically late for Salah and procrastinating to pray on time has a severe spiritual impact on our lives and leads to a loss of Barakah in one's time. Let's prioritize Salah and make it our no.1 concern.

Sincerely,

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