Should I Wake Up My 10 Year Old for Fajr Prayer, If They Are Sick or Tired Due to Sleeping Late?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question

When my children are 10, should I wake them up for Fajr even though they are sick or have slept late due to some guests having come home or some other similar reason? And should I discipline them even when they miss Fajr due to such reasons? And am I sinful every time I do not instruct them to pray?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

In short, yes. In general, you should wake your children up for the Fajr prayer. However, since they are not morally responsible (which occurs at the onset of puberty), if they are very sick, you are not sinful for not waking them up. [Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]

The purpose of expecting a 10 year to fulfill their religious responsibilities is for them to become habituated to performing these obligations. In line with this purpose, the basis is that you will wake them up. [Ibid.]

If something arises that would put your 10 year old in undue difficulty, you may choose leniency, and that is within your discretion.

Precedence

There is even precedence for the above with regard to adults. For example, if one sees a Muslim eating during the day of Ramadan, one is obligated to advise them that they should be fasting (perhaps they forgot).

However, if the person is old or weak, one is permitted to abstain from advising them. The underlying reason is that fasting may be hard on that person, and if they forgot that they are fasting, they are not accountable for eating. [Ibid.]

Hope this helps
Allah knows best
[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch teaches Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he completed four years at the Darul Uloom Seminary in New York, where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences.

He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he studied for three years in Dar al-Mustafa under some of the most outstanding scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib.

In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Quran and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Quranic exegesis, Islamic history, and several texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.