Chain Reaction

I have been asked about this matter for a while, since the post about, Be Your Own Change, Questions from Readers, and Inspiring Man, about my praying group. How to take people to prayer. I’ve been giving some clue about tahajjud flash group, but you need details! And then few people, well not few, many people from my facebook gave me their phone numbers to be in the group (hmmm, if I am being naughty I will flash their cell-phone out of nothing at all LOL). It’s not at all difficult but there are some conditions. I will explain, biiznillahi taala.

First of all, Prayer Flash Group is a group of people who supports each other to pray. Here, in my place you can easily find Fajr at Masjid Movement (started by Abu Sangkan, may Allah be pleased with his initiative), Dhuha Prayer Flash (I joined this, this is started by Arifin Ilham, may Allah be pleased with his initiative), and I personally started Tahajjud Flash few years ago. But when you can’t find any group, start your own, it is even better when we started it, because it creates sense of responsibility and this unique feeling of satisfaction. Alhamdulillah. We always complain on how our brothers and sisters don’t take prayer seriously, now it’s time to change it. And as Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world“.

How to do? I’m sure we all have friends who are always get excited for Islamic things. So, get together with them, tell them about this. Make an agreement that you will take turns in waking each other up on the time you all agreed (for me, 3 am). Create some targets, first month, make agreement like 2 or 3 tahajjud nights per week (seriously, this is not difficult at all), and create higher targets to 4 or 5 or 6 until everyday! We need sometime alone, late night is perfect, and to know that our brothers and sisters in other places are doing the same thing is different, feels like we’re struggling together to be better.

Between people in the group, flash their cell-phones, if it’s five of you, flash the other four, until they flash you back, flash them but only 3 missed calls. Don;t do more that, probably they are sick or too tired, they need their rest. Take turns in doing this. The one who gets the turn to flash first, can wake him/herself up by alarm. On the way, advertise this movement, and people will get interested, inshaAllah.. for that, we need few conditions.

1. Same time zone.

I would love to take all of my friends into this movement, but we live in different time-zone and if I do everything I will not sleep at all. So, take initiative, guys. Move!

2. Group Quota

To wake too much people at 3 am is stressful, and you have to wait until they give flash back, at one point you will be bored. Each group should only have 6 members, maximum. As the leader on the group, you will see some members who is always punctual and always excited, never complain. After a while, give them responsibility to handle their own group, you know like MLM, member get member kind of thing. This is very very simple. Wake up, flash, pray. Everybody can do it, inshaAllah.

3. Adjust Goals

Adjust the new members ability, take notes, which of them only needs 3 flashes per week, etc, but when your targets are higher don’t reduce it. Discuss, when do they want to upgrade their goals.

3. Positive Sharing

Cell-phone usage is extremely cheap these days. So, text each other, share your positive experience only to the members of your groups. What happens inside the group stays in the group. Don’t share any negativity, like I was on the way to do wudhu, and then a cockroach play with my thumb, nope… don’t share that. Group texts also can be upgraded with sharing verses, hadith, dua, etc. Give each other support, don’t hesitate to congratulate them for their 1st tahajjud, tell them you are proud of them, etc. Remember, we are dealing with people, they are not machines, they have feelings.

4. Members Identity

Only share your cell-phone numbers to the people on your group. And also, be sure that they are women or men. If they are married, ask them to take their spouses with them. Make sure that this will not disturb their relationship. Make sure even if the name sounds womanly, they are truly woman. I got into trouble with this once. I thought this number belongs to a woman, it turns out it was a man, and his wife attacked me thinking I was going to take her husband (is she mad? I didn’t even know how your precious husband look like!! LOL ). Astaghfirullah.

5. Nature Selection

Some people will only get excited for some weeks, and they disappear. Just don’t give up, they probably sick or something, right? Not before that person move to another time-zone, change their numbers, and have plastic surgery to be unrecognizable 😀 , don’t give up. We are sometimes so persistent to take people to go camping or shopping, but not to pray? Priorities, people!! That’s why giving support is extremely important, discussing goals, positive sharings. We are taking them towards something they love most, this religion. Deep inside everyone’s heart, there is something screaming to want to be a better muslim.
But if they really don’t want to, find others, let’s not waste our time waking hibernated bear and throwing chances to grab other’s hands. Just keep the sharing and support, one day inshaAllah, they will come back.

6. Advertise

When some members already can handle their own group, stop the flash, keep the sharing, but find other people to join. This movement is so big now, but let Allah subhana wa taala be the judge of our action and help us to be sincere with it. Make advertisement on your facebook status, take some people from work, etc. Be creative!

7. Train Your Body-Clock

This is for the sisters, even when you’re in monthly period, don’t turn off your cell-phone and sleep. Keep on flashing 😀 This is good to train our body clock to adjust itself to our schedule. After flashing, we can read some books, and go back to sleep.

8. Upgrade Yourself

Prayer Flash is not the end, it’s only a process, the journey to built up our spirit to be in love with this beautiful religion, to be attached to Islam in our lives, inshaAllah. There many more goals that we personally need to accomplish. Find more knowledge, train our punctuality on prayer, fix our tajweed, add up memorization, do more dhikr, etc.

Prayer Flash is not only for tahajjud, but also for Dhuha (this is easier), and Fajr. I suggest you to start with Fajr first. Start with obligatory things, then move to Dhuha and then tahajjud. Is it clear or you need more details? I’m sure this is clear already, yes? Yes? Yes? Ah come on, people, please say YES! 😀