Timings of Sleep

Timings of Sleep

It should be remembered that sleeping from early hours of the morning till the rise of the sun, between Maghrib and Isha (night prayer) and after Namaz-e-Asr (afternoon prayer) is makrooh. However, sleeping is sunnat before Namaz-e-Zohr during summer and also between Zohr and Asr.

According to another reliable tradition, if one recites extra prayers (Taqeebat) after Namaz-e-Subh (morning prayers) and sleeps just before sunrise, it is not harmful. Another tradition states that Imam Reza (a.s.) asked a man to meet him after the sun has risen completely as he slept just after his morning prayers.

According to the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.), the earth complains to God on the basis of three things; firstly on blood-shed without any justice, secondly when the water falls on the earth while taking bath after committing adultery and thirdly when a person is sleeping before sunrise.

According to Imam Ja'far-e-Sadiq (a.s.), sleeping during morning hours is a source of loss of income, plain, of complexion ugliness. Sleeping at such hours is undesirable because God distributes food. One should never sleep at that time for Bani Israel used to receive roasted chicken and Trinjabeen at that time and the sleeping one never used to receive his share.

According to the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.), a person who sits on the prayer-mat during those hours will be saved by God from the fire of hell; and another tradition states that that person will receive the reward of a (sunnat) Haj of Ka'aba and his sins will be forgiven.

According to Hazrat Imam Mohammed Baqir (a.s.), sleeping in the early hours of the morning is foolish, sleeping in the afternoon is a blessing and it is harmful to sleep after Asr and sleeping between Maghrib and Isha is depriving oneself of the daily bread.

Another tradition states that a person entered the presence of the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) and said that his memory was getting worse and he is forgetting everything easily. The Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) pointed out that he has left midday nap and the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) bade him to do as he used to do before and his memory would improve.

[O day! You can bear testimony to the fact that during the lifetime of Ali you never once dawned and found me sleeping. 

The ignorant man does not understand the learned for he has never been learned himself.

Contentment is the capital which will never diminish.

One, who adopts patience, will never be deprived of success though it may take a long time to reach him.

Death is never very far.

In this world, man is a target of death, an easy prey to calamities, here every morsel and every draught is liable to choke one, here one never receives a favor until he loses another instead, here every additional day in one's life is a day reduced from the total span of his existence, when death is the natural outcome of life, how can we expect immortality?

Bear sorrows and calamities patiently, otherwise you will never be happy. Imam Ali AS]