I went to bed at around 11:00ish and set my alarm clock to 4:00 in the morning to prepare myself for fajr. Now I usually go to bed anywhere from 10:30 to 11 at night and still ALWAYs manage to wake up because my alarm clock works, I do not know what happened last night but can someone tell me if when I got up to the rising sun that my salat was still acceptable even though I accendentally missed it. Thanks in advance.
Asalaamu Alaikum, if a person is late for any prayer particularly Fajr then they should pray it as soon as they can even if they can see the light outside. As long as one makes utmost effort to pray every prayer on time particularly fajr then that is what counts but one should be careful to ensure one does everything possible to be able to pray every prayer at its appointed time and not delay it for no valid reason.
Sometimes a person may wake up late for fajr even though one tried their best to wake up on time and for that one should ask Allah to pardon them and they will find Allah most merciful. But there are always steps we can take to ensure we never pray Fajr late nor miss it.
Here are some tips for praying Fajr prayer on time:
1. Try to sleep as early as possible if you do not need to do anything imortant after Isha Salaah because the earlier you sleep the easier it will be to wake up for Fajr
2. Try not to have any heavy meals in the evening as this will make it harder for you to wake up for Fajr
3. Try to encourage your family to also wake up for Fajr and tell them of the importance of Salaah as well as the fact that it is the purpose of our creation. If your family wakes up for Fajr then it will also be easier for you as they would also wake you up. If one or two of your family members do wake up for Fajr then tell them to also wake you up.
4. Make firm intention in your heart that you will wake up for Fajr no matter what and ask of Allah in your dua to make it easy for you to wake up for Fajr prayer.
5. Put on two or even three alarms and put them on 5 minutes apart and put them in places in your room where you know it will be a struggle getting to them. This way you will have to be wide awake to get to the alarms. As there will be three of them this will prevent you going back to bed again.
6. Most importantly when you awaken for Fajr then do NOT say to yourself i'll lay for a bit and then get up. This is the biggest trick of shaythan to make us fall asleep and miss Fajr prayer. As soon as the eyes are open then go straight to the bathroom.
May Allah enable us to pray every prayer on its appointed time and no later. Ameen
And Allah knows best in all matters