Jazm is a free macOS menu bar app that helps you stop missing prayers because you're absorbed in work. At each of the five daily prayer times, it shows a warning banner and then a short countdown, and then it locks your Mac. That puts the screen out of the way so you can go pray, ideally in jamaat at the masjid. When you unlock, Jazm asks whether you've prayed. It's free for the Ummah.
For the last three weeks I have prayed in the first row, just behind the imam.
Before that I prayed alone at my desk, twenty minutes late, most days.
It was never that I forgot. I would hear the adhan, mean it, and tell myself I would go right after this one thing that needed two more minutes. The work kept going. So did the jamaat, without me.
The masjid is a three minute walk. The excuse was always two minutes.
So I built Jazm. A Mac app that locks your screen at prayer time. Not a notification you can dismiss. The screen goes away, there is nothing left holding you, and you get up and go.
It worked from day one. I have not missed a jamaat since. My neighbour stands next to me now.
One honest thing. Jazm will not lock you during a call, ever. That cost me a jamaat once and I still will not change it. An app that takes your screen has to be trustworthy before it is strict. What I added instead was a quiet heads up two minutes before, and Esc for five more minutes when you are genuinely mid sentence.
It is free and it stays free. It is not perfect. It is good enough to get you to the masjid on time, and that was the whole point.
I always wanted to build something for the ummah. This is what I had to give.
If you work on a Mac and you keep telling yourself two more minutes, try it for one day.
What is the one thing that always steals your prayer time?