Your excuses are now gone
for not praying at dawn.
Real proof you're awake, or the alarm comes back. If you sleep through the adhan, Mashhud rings for Fajr — also rings for sunnah naps — and won't go quiet until its camera sees the water running over your hands. By then, wudu is half done.
One payment, yours for life · no snooze button at dawnkeep ringing until the wash is witnessed.
إِنَّ قُرْآنَ الْفَجْرِ كَانَ مَشْهُودًا
"Indeed, the recitation of dawn is ever witnessed." — al-Isrā 17:78. The angels of the night and of the day are both present at Fajr. Mashhud means witnessed — the app stands in that same relation to you: it witnesses that you got up, in the dark, before dawn.
Discipline isn't the issue.
The stage of sleep is.
Your brain wakes up in stages. The decision-making part comes online last — minutes after your eyes open. More +
Brainstem first, prefrontal cortex last — and that's the part that holds intentions and keeps promises. Ring mid-deep-sleep and the gap stretches longer still: for those minutes there's no planner in your head, only reflexes.
At Fajr, your willpower is still asleep. Whatever hour Fajr lands, you're negotiating with the sleepiest version of you. It always votes pillow. More +
Snooze is built for exactly that version — one thumb, zero consciousness. So Mashhud never asks your willpower anything. It asks you to stand at the basin and wash: something no sleeping body can do.
Grogginess can beat 24 hours awake. Waking mid-cycle can impair you more than a full day without sleep. Measured — not a metaphor. More +
Tassi & Muzet (Sleep Medicine Reviews, 2000) mapped the state. Wertz et al. (JAMA, 2006) measured worse-than-sleep-deprivation impairment in the first minutes after waking. Hilditch & McHill (2019) tied its severity to the sleep stage you're pulled from.
Same Fajr alarm, two different nights — the only difference is where the cycle stands when it rings. Mashhud's setup walks you back from Fajr in whole cycles, so the ring lands shallow.
Land in deep sleep and the deciding part of your brain stays offline for minutes — impairment worse than 24 hours awake. The clock doesn't decide that. The cycle does.
Nine minutes isn't a cycle — it slides you back toward deep sleep, so the next ring lands somewhere worse. And it asks the sleepiest version of you to decide. One thumb, zero consciousness.
Cold water on the face is a hard arousal signal your body can't ignore — and your wudu is already underway. You were headed to the tap anyway.
One night, three moves.
It rings when you said — not when it's easy.
Fajr and sunrise are computed for your city, on your phone. You choose the moment: anywhere from 60 minutes before Fajr to 20 minutes before sunrise — though never on the adhan itself. Mashhud won't ring over the most beautiful alarm there is. It moves with the season so you never have to.
Prove you're up — your way.
Pick the check the alarm will ask for. Each one is something a sleeping person can't fake.
Make wudu at the basin, hands and water in frame. It's the water that's judged, never your face — wash done, alarm off.
Walk 40 steps away from where the phone slept, then photograph your mat — both feet in the frame. Beds don't follow.
Every clip is judged once, then it's gone — never stored by Mashhud. Pass or fail is the only thing recorded.
Your dawns, on the record.
Every witnessed dawn becomes a lit point. No flames, no trophies, no guilt trips — a missed dawn is simply an unlit day, and tomorrow is another dawn.
Quiet by day.
Stubborn by night.
No feeds, no reels of other people's piety. One screen for tonight, one for your record — and the alarm underneath it all.
The camera keeps nothing.
Your clip is sent once to be judged, read in memory, and gone — never written to disk, never stored by Mashhud, never used to train anything. The only thing Mashhud writes down is witnessed or not yet. And if you're offline, no clip is sent at all: the alarm still works, and the morning is taken on your word.
Same Fajr. Different morning.
Pay once. Wake for life.
The first 500 pay once and never again. Everyone else, a plan. Your pillow will lobby against both.
Questions, answered.
Can I snooze it?+
There's no snooze — but you don't have to pass the check mid-ring either. Acknowledge the alarm and it goes quiet while a countdown starts: your window to get to the basin (or produce whichever proof you chose). Pass before it runs out and the dawn is witnessed. Let it lapse and the alarm returns.
What if there's a real emergency?+
An emergency bypass silences the alarm instantly — no lecture, no lockout. It costs you the record: the count resets to zero, and that dawn stays unlit. The dawns you witnessed still happened; the count just starts again. The cost is the point.
What if it doesn't actually wake me?+
Then we don't keep your money. Every Founding purchase carries a 10-dawn guarantee: if Mashhud isn't getting you up in your first ten dawns, ask right from the app — on iPhone, Mashhud's Settings → "Request a refund" hands you Apple's own refund sheet. No in-app path on your platform, or the store says no inside your ten dawns? Write to services@mashhud.app and we'll put it right ourselves.
Do I have to use the camera?+
Briefly, yes — but never for your face. Wudu watches your hands and the water at the basin. Steps is the camera-light option: a 40-step walk, finished with one photo of your mat, both feet in the frame. Pick your check once — change it any time.
Where do my pre-dawn photos go?+
To be judged, once — then nowhere. The clip is sent encrypted, read in memory, and never stored by Mashhud or used to train anything. The only record kept is witnessed or not yet. Offline? No clip is sent at all — the morning is taken on your word.
How does it know my prayer times?+
Computed on your phone for your city — by GPS or typed by hand. Standard calculation methods, Hanafi and Standard Asr, and it keeps working in airplane mode.
What about Ramadan?+
Suhoor and Tahajjud alarms are built in alongside Fajr — same checks, earlier hours. Turn them on for the month; they were built exactly for it.