FajrUp – Helping you wake up for Fajr prayer

The journey began nearly 2 years ago in a café in London. I was doing in one of those inventories that everyone seems to do once a while – exploring where I was in life. This was right after I had completed my Master’s degree.

Whilst sitting down, sipping on a latte, I began thinking about my years as an undergrad, and the network of friends I had that used to support each other in both studies and religion. The support regarding religion was particularly important as we would all meet up for our prayers.

As a student in London, I realised quite early on that we were effectively project managing our lives: rent; the places we needed to be; study time; essay time; family time; friends; work; and of course our daily religious duties. This network we had helped, as it provided a support for both our studies and our prayers. We prayed most of the daily prayers together (Duhr, Asr, Maghreb and often Isha), but the prayer that we would not pray together was always Fajr – coincidentally the prayer that many people struggle with. As such, in order to mitigate this issue, we set up a call network, where we would all call each other (with the caller decided via a rota) and wake each other up for the Fajr Salah. This worked, and not only did we consistently pray Fajr, but we also were now seeking the reward of being inviters to prayer, the beneficiaries of facilitating a conversation with Allah (SWT).

At that point, still in that café, I considered putting the band back together again, as not only did I feel it would it boost our individual imaan, but it would also forge a closer relationship with those involved in this new call network. As I began looking through my phone, I was looking for contacts to potentially add to this new network, and I came across some apps I had on my phone that facilitated telephone communication. I then thought maybe I could also call relatives across the world who may also be interested in taking part, and my friends could do the same, all I would need to know would be the Fajr times in their locations, but unfortunately my friends don’t know my relatives and I don’t know theirs.

That’s when it hit me: what if this network was not just about connecting people you knew, but also about connecting with Muslims from around the world that you did not know – Muslims that may be interested in gaining the reward of connecting people with Allah. What if this network was available via an app? The convenience of gaining reward via a device in your pocket constantly could be a good draw. I felt that with a universal Islamic message of ‘Asalama Alaikum’, and ‘Asalatu Khaurul min al nawm’, one could carefully navigate any language barrier.

After about a week of researching the technical dimensions/elements that would be required, I contacted a friend regarding what I was referring to at the time as the FajrUp concept, and he loved the idea! Less than 24hours later he was at my front door, we registered the company, and FajrUp Ltd was born. We contacted a developer. discussed the concept, the technical dimensions that would need to be addressed, and we got to work.

Over a year since launching (and with minimal advertising), we have achieved nearly 38,000 downloads. We have thousands of consistent users waking each other up internationally. We’ve also been featured in several online Muslim publications and television shows, invited to showcase our app and the concept in Dubai, and the UAE.

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But our mission is far from over.

FajrUp is a social platform that wants to connect millions of people across the world while transcending cultures, time-zones, geography and language. The Muslim community is a diverse grouping, which transcends culture, race, language, etc., that despite its differences is united by shared values, one of which this medium brings to the fore; The Call to Prayer!

Rather than advocating for an Islamic app, FajrUp represents, in my opinion, an Islamic solution that revolves around an Ummah that is globally connected through a spiritual endeavour and now an app.

The value of FajrUp is predicated on the lifestyle choice(s) of the Muslim consumer and attempts to:

• Establish a connection between over a billion people across time and space
• Take advantage of the continuous proliferation of smart devices that are becoming more accessible to our target demographic. We are now witnessing a rising global population that is more familiar with the use of smartphones/pads.
• ‘Fit’ into a lifestyle that is already established. A target audience for the platform does not need to be created and FajrUp‘s effortless assimilation into the day to day lives by its users has been central to its early success and will be the cornerstone of its future.

It is essentially:

• A digital mobile application designed to wake up the Muslim for their Fajr Salah via a 15 second VoIP call. The application sets automatically to your local Fajr time via GPS, making it hassle free and accurate.
• Users can select to be woken up, making them – a ‘FajrUppie’, or select to be the person waking someone up – a ‘FajrUpper’ or both.
• All a user would have to do is select ‘FajrUp Me’ or select ‘FajrUp Someone’, to be listed as a person to be woken or to view those wanting to be woken for their Fajr Salah. The application includes other features such as a digital compass (for the Qibla leading to Mecca), the obligatory prayers and a calendar highlighting the Muslim holidays and notable days.
• As an example, one could be in London, UK, and wake up fellow Muslims across the Indian subcontinent for Fajr around 21:00 GMT and then follow the sun, the Adhan, ibadah, as it moves westward waking people for the Salah. Via a smartphone, one becomes an international call to prayer.

We have a few interesting updates in mind, as the goal is not just to stop at a few million, but to ultimately connect the whole Ummah.

You can download FajrUp on both Android and Apple. Find out more about the app on their official website.