Here are some tips for you, and a reminder for me as I very much need it. These are things I personally experienced in my life, that changed my life, and they are the things that the Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) and/or Sahaba used to do:
1- Praying the 5 prayers on time. This is THE thing MOST LOVED by Allah. Think of it this way: let's say you ask your child to clean their room, and then they went and cleaned the bathroom: of course you are grateful for them cleaning the bathroom, but you would still be upset that they didn't do what you specifically told them to do. And unfortunately, this is what we are doing everyday - we are doing so many good things in our day taking care of our children and house and jobs etc but we are not doing the main things that Allah asked from us, and He is our Creator. We need to thank and praise our Creator, by praying, because He is the manager of all our affairs. And do you know that when you do these 5 prayers, Allah will take care of your children, your housework, your job, and friends etc. Their hearts are in Allah's hands! Put these as your priority in the day, and arrange your work around them, and see how productive you will be, inshaAllah. With Allah's love anything and everything is possible, as He can give us a special strength, like he gave to Musa (alaihi salam)'s mother when she had to put him in the river. What I do is I write down in my planner the prayer times, every month or two because the times keep changing. Then for each prayer I decide when i'm going to pray it - before lunch, after lunch, before I start cooking, before I sleep...etc. Attach it to something you already do. For Fajr, I usually choose to set my alarm a half hour before sunrise. When you write it down and plan it out, it helps you remember inshaAllah. The du'a for this is the dua of Ibrahim (Alaihi salam): Rabbi ijAAalnee muqeemas salati wamin zurriyyatee rabbana wtaqabbal duAAi رَبِّ اجعَلنى مُقيمَ الصَّلوٰةِ وَمِن ذُرِّيَّتى ۚ رَبَّنا وَتَقَبَّل دُعاءِ 'O my Lord ! make me one who establishes regular prayer and (also) from my offspring ,our Lord ! and accept my invocation.'
2- Thikr after salat. Saying SubhanAllah 33x, Alhamdulillah 33x, Allahu Akbar 34 times. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when his daughter Fatima (may Allah be pleased with her) asked for a maid to help her, he told her to recite these. That's because when you recite these, Allah will send angels or people your way to help you or give you extra strength to do all you need to do, subhanAllah. Try to attach this to something you already do everyday. I try to do it after prayer, but you could also make it a habit to say them while you're driving etc. The du'a for this is اللَّهُمَّ أَعِنِّيْ عَلَى ذِكْرِكَ وَشُكْرِكَ وَحُسْنِ عِبَادَتِكَ Allahumma a’inni ‘ala dhikrika wa shukrika wa husni ‘ibadatika 'O Allah! Assist me in remembering You, in thanking You, and in worshipping You in the best of manners.'
3- Dedicate a certain time in the day to reading Qur'an. For me it's after Fajr, and most days I end up only doing 1 or 2 pages, but some days I reach my goal of 3 pages. It's not much but with little ones it's what I can manage for now. Allah loves any deed that is done consistently, no matter how small. But even if one day you couldn't read any Qur'an, at least touch the Qur'an, and maybe open it and just look at it for a second. When you touch the Qur'an you get strength in your hands. When you look at the Qur'an you get strength in your eyes. When you read Qur'an you get strength in your speech. When you listen to Qur'an you get strength in your hearing. Allah tells us that he sent the Qur'an as a light for us (4:174). If a person receives his share of this light, it will be apparent in his speech, sight, hearing and the actions of his heart and hand, as supplicated by the Messenger of Allaah (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) saying: "O Allaah! Make light in my heart, light in my seeing, light in my hearing, light on my right, light on my left, light above me, light underneath me, light in front of me, light from behind my back; and Make light for me." [Al-Bukhaari and Muslim]Another du'a for the Qur'an and it's also the du'a for sadness: 'O Allah! Make the Quran the delight of our hearts and the light of our breasts and the remover of our pain, sorrow and discomfort.' Reading Qur'an is like air for our soul. It's a love letter from Allah to us and it contains divine wisdom for every area of our life.
4- Salawaat on the Prophet. Saying Allahumma Salli ala Mohamad, as many times as you can. Once you get your daily thikr going, add this on. Whoever does salawat on the Prophet, Allah will give them all they need and more without them even asking for it, subhanAllah. When you say one salawat, Allah sends YOU 10, removes 10 sins, and raises you 10 degrees! And it directly reaches the Prophet subhanAllah "Allāh has angels who go around on earth, conveying to me the salaam of my ummah."
5- Istighfar, saying Astaghfirullah, as many times as you can. This is like vitamins for the soul. We are all sinning all the time, and even when you are not sinning, if you are not acknowledging your blessings well that is a sin too. and we all know that if we tried to say alhamdulillah for every blessing we had we would never be able to. Every breath we take is a blessing! Every day that we are healthy is a blessing, etc. Yet we don't even think of that. When we say astaghfirAllah, we free our soul of that hard covering that comes over our heart and keeps us far from Allah. Add this on to the thikr and salawat once you get those going. Step by step... it will take time but it's not hard and it's worth it. Ibn `Abbas (May Allah be pleased with them) said: The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, "If anyone constantly seeks pardon (from Allah), Allah will appoint for him a way out of every distress and a relief from every anxiety, and will provide sustenance for him from where he expects not.'' Istighfar opens the door to: knowledge ('The Knowledge of Allah is a Light And the Light of Allah is not given to a sinner'), financial wealth or barakah in your money, dua's being answered, illnesses being cured, barakah in children.
With each of these things - do an experiment, try it one day and see how your day goes. Then when it happens that for some reason you didn't do it that day, examine and reflect on your day and see the difference! Also, for each of these things, listen to a lecture or read a detailed article about it, to help motivate you.
6- Knowledge. The last tip I have is in listening to Islamic lectures - this is a wonderful thing to do while cooking! I have come to look forward to cooking because of this. It's my only chance to listen to my favorite scholars mashaAllah: Imam Suhaib Webb, Imam Siraj Wahhaj, Shaykh Yasir Qadhi, Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan, and Ustadh Wisam Sharief, may Allah reward them and lengthen their life. And alhamdulillah for my iPhone with youtube - which allows me to do this! If you don't have one, well if there's a will there's a way - i'm sure you could find another way inshaAllah.
7- Find good friends to support you and motivate you. Seek out a halaqa in your community. I found a lot of benefit in it: knowledge that motivates you to do more, meeting good friends who love Allah and encourage you to be better, and being in the masjid and getting the reward of being mentioned by the angels. When you are sick there is someone to ask about you. Sometimes you get a visitor to the halaqa that tells you their story and it inspires you. Sometimes one of the ladies brings fruit from her tree or a special dessert to share. Last week, one of the ladies even gave me a box of toy cars for the twins that her son outgrew! Alhamdulillah! We need to constantly feed our mind good things and at the same time get support from friends.
8- Make du'a. Here are some other nice du'as to learn that could open many doors for you and help you:
Du'a for sadness and laziness: "Allaahumma inni a‘oothu bika min al-hammi wa al-huzni wa al-‘ajzi wa al-kasal, wa al-bukhli wa al-jubn wa dhalaa ad-dayni wa ghalabati ar-rijaal" 'O Allaah I seek refuge with You from distress and grief, from disability and laziness, from miserliness and cowardice, and from the burdens of debt and coercion of men.'
Du'a for knowledge: اَللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ عِلْمًا نَافِعًا , وَ رِزْقًا طَيَّبًا , وَ عَمَلاً مُتَقَبَّلاًAllahumma inni as'aluka 'Ilman naafi'an, wa rizqan tayyiban, wa 'amalan mutaqabbalanO Allah! I ask You for knowledge that is of benefit, a good provision and deeds that will be accepted.
Du'a for useful knowledge: أللِّهُم النّفَعنِي بِمَا عَلَّمتَنِي وَ عَلِّمنِيِ مَا يَنفَعنِيAllahumma infa'nii bimaa 'allamtanii wa'allimnii maa yanfa' uniiO Allah! Make useful for me what You taught me and teach me knowledge that will be useful to me.
“Rabbi ishrah li sadri, wa yassir li amri, wa ahlul uqdatan min lisani, yafqahu qawli.” 'My Lord, expand for me my breast [with assurance] and ease for me my task. And untie the knot from my tongue that they may understand my speech'. This is the du'a that gave Sayyidina Musa strength to speak to Pharaoh!
I ask Allah to increase us all in beneficial knowledge, ease our tasks, purify our intentions and hearts and tongues, help us to read His book and apply its teachings in our life, help us concentrate in our prayers, help us to remember Him, help us fulfill our obligations to Him, help us fulfill our rights on our parents and families, help us to love for our sisters and brothers what we would love for ourself, give us a good end, reward us with Jannatul Firdous, and free the Syrian people from oppression.
JZLH for those simple reminders, Mashallah
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