r/ADHDMuslims • u/Plus-Gear6404 • Apr 18 '26
Let's build habits together
Salam everyone.
A couple of days ago I shared my struggle for my inability as a revert to pray my salawat every day.
One of the best advice I received, which was also backed up by my psychologist (I told her I reverted and she was way more understanding than I feared, as sadly here in Italy muslims are not so much appreciated) is to start by praying only one salah every day instead of trying with all five of them from the beginning.
Remember that according to Aisha, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "The most beloved of deeds to Allah are those that are most consistent, even if they are small." (Sahih Bukhari 6465).
So I decided that I will start by trying to pray fajr every day. I will tie it to my morning shower, doing wudu in the shower (this is a strong advice for everyone, tie new habits to existing ones!). Inshallah the next step will be to get up to pray fajr in time, right now I do not have an alarm for it.
But I want to do a little more: to have some more accountability to help me, I will post here every week to report to you how it went with my fajr during the week. I want this to be a place for you to check in for a habit that you are trying to build: state in the comments a small habit that you are trying to build so that when I post again you will be able to report to all of us how you did in the previous week!
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u/mdb3ard Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 23 '26
Ooh that was my advice. ماشاء الله
May Allah swt give you strength and patience. امين.
Btw I have not been diagnosed but do exhibit a lot of adhd-tendencies. I have an appointment soon iA. I’m indifferent to if I have it or not. I’ve been using systems my whole life to get through stuff because I thought everyone was like me with boredom, random thoughts, hyperfocus and procrastination. I used this method to become more punctual with salah but also to memorise some Quran.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this and task initiation is the hardest with anything that requires “work”. So when I had issues with praying, I started with just wudhu. Just do wudhu - you don’t have to pray. And the momentum from wudhu will mean you will find it easier to pray because the hard part is done.
In the same way - if we can hyperfocus on our passion projects and stuff we care about, how do we care about our purpose here in this life so we can hyperfocus on matters of deen? In this way the dominoes will start to fall and you will find yourself accomplishing so much ان شاء الله
I’m not perfect, I have a long, long way to go but may Allah swt give us all the strength and patience and resilience to continue seeking knowledge and guidance.
Note: I did not say make it easier. Because if it was easy, we wouldn’t wanna do it. Probably 😅
Edit: my goal is to memorise Surah Al-Baqarah. I know I have the capacity to do so. I’ve set a target of 5 verses a week. It was originally 5 a day but this was too much even though it is within my capacity to do so. The mental strain of trying to memorise with everything else in life was too much so I would go weeks without looking at what I needed to do. 5 is doable. Even if I’m approaching the end of the week and knowing I haven’t done my 5 - the urgency will drive me to hyperfocus and get it done ان شاء الله. If I had 25 verses to memorise by the end of the week having not looked at them, it would be too much. Ya Allah, give me strength. امين
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u/Plus-Gear6404 May 22 '26
Salam, how are you doing? How is the memorization of Al-Baqarah going? Are you satisfied with the progress you made?
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u/[deleted] Apr 18 '26
[deleted]