Sleep of heedlessness and wasting of life

An ignorant person said to a Hakeem (wise person): ‘Describe the benefits of such a thing to me that by the virtue of using it, I remain asleep even during the day time.’ The wise person replied: ‘O so and so! How unwise are you! You are already spending half of your life by sleeping (heedlessly at nights), whereas sleep is the other name of death. Now, you want to waste further three-fourths of your life in sleeping and keep only one-fourth’.

That man asked: ‘How is that?’ The wise person replied: ‘Suppose you have a lifespan of 40 years, so half of your life will be 20 years. Now you want to reduce it further to just 10 years.’ (In other words, you are already spending 20 years of your life by sleeping at night. If you remain asleep during the day also, it means you will be spending another 10 years of your life in sleep. Now what you will have in your hand to carry out good deeds for the preparation of the Hereafter will be only 10 years. Therefore, remove the desire of sleeping in excess from your heart.) (Qoot-ul-Quloob, vol. 1, pp. 474)

صَلُّوۡا عَلَى الۡحَبِيۡب              صَلَّى اللّٰهُ تَعَالٰى عَلٰى مُحَمَّد

Dear Islamic brothers! You have heard how nicely the wise man reformed the person who had the desire of sleeping in excess, and how he tried to give him the Madani mind-set to think about his afterlife. The abovementioned parable especially contains admonition for those unwise people who waste most of their time only sleeping or staying in bed like bedridden patients. Such people neither care about Salah nor about the rights of their family. Remember! Sleeping in excess is such a bad habit that not only severely wastes time, but is also a mean of disgrace and humiliation in this world as well as in the Hereafter.

The Beloved Rasool صَلَّى اللهُ تَعَالٰى عَلَيْهِ وَاٰلِهٖ وَسَلَّم said: The blessed mother رَضِیَ اللهُ تَعَالٰی عَنْهَا of Sayyiduna Sulayman Bin Dawood عَـلَـيْهِ الـصَّلٰوةُ وَالـسَّلَام said, ‘O my son, do not sleep till late at night, for sleeping too much at night will leave a man poor on the Day of Judgement.’ (Sunan Ibn Majah, vol. 2, pp. 125, Hadees 1332)