how i made my two-hour tahajjud easy: waking up and staying awake. Pt. 1

So, I have been doing a two-hour tahajjud for 5 months now, and I thought sharing what has made it easy for me is an opportunity to do more ibadah, and of course, when you share this piece with your family and friends, you too would be getting as much reward as I would. InshaAllah! 👊🏿 

Now, let’s get to it. If you think that this may not be able to help you, that there’s no way you’d be committed to a two-hour taHajjud, you are me my entire 34 years on this planet. Like, I’d read everything I could lay my hands on about the virtues of taHajjud, and yet, I couldn’t sustain it. At some point, I decided to start small, you know, and be consistent at it, as the prophet pbuh would have wanted me to, it didn’t work. 

I came up with one rationale or the other, I still live with my parents, InshaAllah, when I am alone, easy, I would be able to do it without waking anyone up, you know. Got to the university, alone, it didn’t work. I have so much books to read, when I’m done studying, I would definitely be able to. Finished, got married, had kid number 1, number 2 and 3, of course, after every child, ain’t no way this guy is waking up for taHajjud, one slept when they are asleep or else! 🙄

And now, I figured, there will never be a perfect time to start taHajjud, if I want to do it, I will just have to do it. So, here, in this piece, and in subsequent pieces on this subject, I’ll be sharing the things I have put in place that has made me able to sustain it for 5 months, and InshaAllah continue forever. Amin. 🤲🏿 I figured with Ramadan in less than a month, and the whole covid scare, this might be a good time for people to learn what they can put in place at their homes that will make them able to do taHajjud by themselves without having to expose themselves or others to the virus. 🤞🏿

Instead of just rushing in, I decided to do what I normally do when I have to solve a problem, or figure out a task; I decided to break down the taHajjud process into parts, and see what I can put into place now, something small, that will gear me into it.

First thing I looked into was how long the Quran is, 604 pages, so that’s basically , 600 pages. Cool. Then I figured out how long it takes me to finish a page of the Quran, 3 minutes, you should figure out how long it will it take you too; you know what, I’ll help with that, here, here’s a page of the Quran, time your self, and see what you come up with. Below is Q28 Vs 60 to 70:

Don’t worry if it takes you longer, some pages takes longer too, especially when one is standing, in the MIDDLE of the night. But, it’s just a number we can work with. The next thing I had to figure out was that I needed a lectern that I can place the Quran on when I recite it, because I wear glasses, going to ruku or sujud with the Quran in my hands, and trying to remove my glasses will be so much hassle. So, I got a lectern. The rug I use to pray was too small, being 6’2, I would have to be stepping away from it if I wanted to sujud, so I got a long yoga mat, and of course, it had no distracting geometric shapes that the usual musola does have on it. 😉 Ha, ablution, ablution in the west, I figured out that I could go to the gardening section of Walmart, Home Depot and the likes to get a kettle like we use in Africa and the Middle East (it took almost a decade to figure out that I could do this btw, for those years, I would have to do ablutions in the bathtub or sinks 🤦🏿‍♂️). Had to figure out how to wake up, and stay awake, and the list goes on; and these, ladies and gentlemen, are the topics we’ll be discussing in this piece, and in subsequent works InshaAllah. 

So, don’t worry, don’t start anything yet, all through the time I was getting stuff together, I wasn’t testing the waters either, because I knew that this time, the moment I start, I MUST not stop. So, take your time, read this work, get all what I advise you to get, and when all is ready, you’ll be ready, trust me, you will. Allah eases our affairs, and since getting those things is a show of conviction, Allah will ease the execution. InshaAllah! 🤲🏿

What I have come to realize is that just as with everything one is trying to learn, it’s hard at first, but if one keeps at it, it becomes so easy, it becomes one’s second nature, so that one can be doing it, and not even know that one is doing it, it’ll take no effort at all. 

You don’t believe me? Think driving! Ha! Do you remember how hard driving was at first? To turn the steering, in fact, not turning the steering was a problem, and then you had to pull the gears, push the brakes, accelerators in a measured manner, oh, the hassle. One has to be one with the car to make it super fluid, and now, when you drive from place A to place G, you startle your self from a thought at place D, and you don’t know how you got there. Place B to D was a blur. You drove, you stopped at the lights and all, and yet, nothing; that’s the benefit of keeping at it, and not giving up, one becomes a master at it. 💪🏿

This, has science to it. Science! 🔊 

The short of it is that the brain weighs less than two percent of the body, but uses more than twenty percent of the body’s energy because of the many many many stuff it has to do. So what it does is that it wraps what they call myelin around a memory that one does every time because it believes we need it, so that the next time the body wants to access that memory, it won’t have to expend as much energy. Say, for instance, it uses 10$ worth of energy when you drive, and every time you drive, it’s spending 10$, but wha t the brain has figured out is that if it wraps myelin around that memory, it can be spending less than 1$ whenever you want to access the memory. And now, it can use the remaining 9$ to work on other memory that you access often. 🧐 

And that’s the trick with ‘practice makes perfect’, the myelin is like the rubber material around one’s phone charger or any coated wire, that makes sure that the wire in it conducts properly. The stronger the myelin, the stronger the conduction, and in our case, the more we do a task, the more myelin will be wrapped around it, and the less we do a task, the brain starts cutting back on the myelin supply to that memory, and repurposes it to some other task. Oh, boy, when I realized this, it changed everything. Whenever I felt lazy, and thought to reduce my recitation one night, I’d remember that the memo I will be sending to my brain won’t be a good one, so even if I’m not going to increase it, I’m definitely not going to reduce it, until a time that the two hours becomes so easy, it ends quicker than it used to, and that’s beginning to happen with my taHajjud. AlhamdulliLlah. If you want to listen more science 🔊 of this, you can watch this 👉🏿 https://bit.ly/3pF5anJ

You see, the ‘two-hour’ title came to me at the start because I figured if I take 3 minutes per page, and I read 20 pages a night, that’s an hour, but in practice, if you add the ablution, ruku and sujud and all, I set out 2 hour for it. But now, I’m able to finish in an hour 30 minutes, and sometimes, an hour 45 minutes, not that I’m timing myself, it’s just that the task is getting into its automaticity, which is where we want to get to. It’s like the piano virtuoso, that can play with his eyes closed, he got there by diligently practicing every single day. And now, he plays perfectly, faster, and with much dexterity and style. That’s what we want to get to, InshaAllah. May Allah make it easy for us, and be pleased with our endeavors. Amin. 🤲🏿

The moment I realized that it’ll take an hour to finish 20 pages (which is basically a page short of a juz), that was the moment ease came into the equation. I knew that the time I spend ‘standing in line’ in my daily life if you put together can basically rival one hour, and isn’t Allah more worthy of my hour stand than any other thing I could be dabbling into? 🤔 

Anyway, the first task I want us to take a look at is Waking Up, and staying Awake. 

First thing I did was divide the night into parts, this can vary from time to time and place to place, I was just trying to see what time to wake up if I need to wake up 2 hours before fajr. I earmarked 8 hours before fajr time, and that helped me with the time I have to go to bed. Don’t worry about falling asleep, if you stick to the routine, you’ll fall asleep as soon as you see a bed. 😂 True story. 

Let’s use my initial timing 5 months ago because things have changed now, and I will definitely be getting less sleep this coming ramadan since ishai will be around 9pm, and fajr will be around 530am, if I want to earmark 3 hours for my goal, the math is scary; no pressure though, we’ll deal with it when we get there. Oh, and my goal is to do 40 pages every night so that I can finish the Quran twice this Ramadan. InshaAllah! 🤲🏿

Fajr was around 6 am, and that meant that if I go to bed at 10pm, I would still be able to get 6 hours of sleep before waking up for taHajjud, so I decided to go to bed at 9pm, that way, I’m able to get 7 good hours of sleep. As for actually waking up, I’d set my alarm to ring every 5 minutes from 3:30am to 4am, and I’d try as much as possible to wake on the first ring. 

Now that I’m awake, the next task begins, because immediately, the body wants to go back to sleep. When I first started, I’d drink a bottle of an energy drink that has vitamin B12 in it to keep me wide awake. But I soon noticed that I will have to pee, a lot, during the course of the night, and so I reduced it to a cup, and eventually, found that a quarter cup of the energy drink was enough to keep me awake, and so I’m able to use that same bottle for 8 days, and if I had written this piece two months ago which was when I decided to document this, I would have told you to start with a quarter cup of an energy drink that has vitamin B12 in it, and see what it does for you, but Allah, in Gẹs infinite mercies caused me to keep experimenting, so that now, I don’t drink the energy drink anymore. 🕺🏿

I decided to isolate the vitamin I wanted from the drink, vitamin B12, and so I’d take a supplement, which is a very small tablet, and that would do the trick, but I noticed that I’d get headaches and muscle cramps during the day, especially on days that I’m fasting, and so I found out that those are some of its side effects, since they use potassium to carry out their function, they can use up one’s potassium reserve very quickly, but instead of taking two pills (vitamin B12 and Potassium supplements), I figured I’d look into the multivitamin aisle and see if I can get a pill that has both. Oh well, I found that they came with not just B12 and potassium but with a lot more vitamins that are good for the body, and that’s how I joined the daily multivitamin band. 🤦🏿‍♂️

Before I go into the one I eventually started taking, let me say a thing or two about vitamin B12, a vitamin you should totally look up after reading this if you are still curious about it:

Vitamin B12 boosts your energy, improves memory, and helps prevent heart diseases amongst a plethora of other benefits it has. It’s the only vitamin that can’t be found in fruits and vegetables (vegans have to take it in supplement form), other than some very small amount in ginger and garlic (science 🔊); humans primarily get it from eating meat, and the animals get it from the soil while eating grass. And these days, because pesticides, antibiotics and chlorine kill the bacteria that produce this vitamin 🙄, even farm animals have to be given vitamin B12 supplements; you know, civilization and all. 🤦🏿‍♂️ 

Anyway, research has found that those that eat meat and those that don’t eat meat lack the requisite amount of vitamin B12 needed for their daily functions anyway, hence, why I sought the energy drinks initially, and that led me to now taking the daily multivitamin I mentioned above. The best way for humans to get enough vitamin B12 is simply to take supplements because as we see, one doesn’t get enough from meat (the animals are ‘middlemen’ anyway 🙄), and now, they are also being given B12 supplements too – so, but if one starts taking vitamin B12 supplement, one knows for sure, that they are getting the optimum amount of the energy boosting supplement. 👍🏿 Good deal!

So, to the multivitamin I settled on, after looking at a couple, and since it does the trick, I ain’t looking elsewhere. I was able to lay my hands on Centrum Silver (men 50+) Multivitamin supplement, even though I’m 34, the fact that it has other vitamins plus a huge dose of B12 has really changed my taHajjud effort. AlhamdulliLlah. 😁 I mean, check this out, Vitamin A 1,050 mcg (29% as Beta-Carotene) 117%, Vitamin B6 6 mg 353%, Vitamin B12 100 mcg 4,167%, Vitamin C 120 mg 133%, Vitamin D3 25 mcg (1,000 IU) 125%, Vitamin E 27 ma 180%, Vitamin K 60 mcg 50% to mention a few of its content. There’s no way I would have gotten all of these without taking the multivitamin. 

And the way I use it is to take one tablet with sahur, of course, after I must have done taHajjud, and I find that I’m able to wake up at 1.30am the next morning easily, and stay awake too, without needing to pee while I’m doing the taHajjud, which lasts one to two hours. It’s really amazing. 👍🏿 I know, that means I’m done at about 3.30am ish, right? I use what’s left for work; I’m basically prepping my brain up for Ramadan that I will need 3 hours for my goal instead of 2 hours that I need now. 💪🏿😁

Did I mention that the energy drink I used to drink for taHajjud has 490% vitamin B12 in it, while the centrum for men 50+ has 4,167%? 😲 Told you it changed everything. That’s more than times 8 of what I used to take and I only used to take a quarter cup after I wake up; just before taHajjud, and it kept me awake, but it’s just the pee issue, but what it led me to was even better, way better. Y’all think this pee issue isn’t an issue uhn? 

Once, I had to pray my one rakah Witri before Shafi’, didn’t plan it to go that way, but I had to pee so bad, I finished that rakah, my first rakah of taHajjud that night, and went to pee. 🤦🏿‍♂️ The struggle is REAL. 😅 By the way, I only pray 3 rakah in my taHajjud, I find that I’m able to recite more of Allah’s words that way, instead of doing 5, 7, or 11 rakah that I would have to ruku and sujud in which will inevitably eat into the time I would have been using to recite. Also, at the end of every 2 rakah will be an opportunity for shayton to start whispering not to exert myself anymore and all. So, I just push my self to withstand the stand, aren’t we seekers of siratal mustaqim anyway, mustaqim being from qawam, qawam which means upright, to stand upright. 😁 See what I did there? 🤦🏿‍♂️ 

Anyway, back to the multivitamin, the women’s version of the multivitamin has 2,083% of vitamin B12, and it has Iron too, while the men’s doesn’t have Iron, you know, women need their Iron. Women know what I’m talking about. 👍🏿 I thank Allah for guiding me to it, and thus, the responsibility I have to share my findings with you guys. This multivitamin, by Allah’s will, that I now take has enabled me, who 4 months ago wasn’t a taHajjud-ian, into not missing a night at all. AlhamdulliLlah. And incidentally, I’ve been able to add Fasting to the mix, because I have to eat to use the multivitamin, so breakfast becomes sahur, and I’m able to go all day till iftar without eating, so I stumbled upon fasting along the way (technically, I have always fasted, but it definitely reinforced it). I don’t fast on Fridays sometimes, because it’s the eid of the week, right? But sometimes, I add it anyway. But I definitely don’t fast weekends so that I can eat with the family during the day and all. AlhamdulliLlah.

Supplement Facts:

Now, if somehow, you aren’t able to get a daily multivitamin (which I recommend), or an energy drink with ample Vitamin B12 in it, or you just don’t want to take either, another exercise I find that wakes me up is doing 10 to 15 minutes of chores around the house, ironing cloths for work, washing cloths, folding cloths, or just workouts, I find that ironing cloths will wake anyone up, because you don’t want to burn yourself. Hehe!

All that written, it’s a battle, like real battle, don’t let the negative whispers in your head win. Allah already recorded that one Shayton’s defense against us on the day of judgement will be to say that the only thing he did was advise, he didn’t make anyone do anything. 🤦🏿‍♂️ Dude be lying! See it as a challenge, every night will have its own challenges. Know that every night you do it, the myelin in your brain will grow stronger, and the task will become easier and easier. Like driving a car, playing a piano, riding a horse, doing some pull-ups – those stuffs are HARD at first, impossible in fact, but if one keeps at it, it’ll be like it was never difficult. 💪🏿👍🏿👊🏿

May Allah ease your affairs, and make this journey you are about to embark on rewarding. Amin. 🤲🏿 This piece continues with ‘ablution and adab’. 👍🏿