Or while they slept for their afternoon rest.¹

This was written in connection with Re’fet being curious and asking about the word ‘qâ’ilûn—slept for their afternoon rest—in the verse, Or while they slept for their afternoon rest and to prevent his diamond-like pen from becoming idle in prison due to the lethargy resulting from sleeping after the morning prayer like the others.

Sleep is of three sorts:

T h e F i r s t is ‘Ghaylula’. This is from pre-dawn to forty minutes or so after the sun has risen, the time when prayer is lawful but reprehensible. Sleep at this time is contrary to the Practices of the Prophet (PBUH), since according to Hadiths, it leads to a decrease in one’s livelihood and to be its being unfruitful. The time most appropriate for preparing to labour for one’s sustenance is when it is cool. When this time has passed, a lethargy descends. It has been established through numerous experiences that just as this is detrimental to that day’s labour and indirectly to one’s livelihood, so also is it the cause of unfruitfulness.

T h e S e c o n d is ‘Faylula’. This is from the afternoon prayer till sunset. This sleep leads to a diminution of life, that is, it makes life that day shorter and makes it pass in a state of semi-sleep due to drowsiness, thus causing a physical deficiency to life. So too in an immaterial aspect, since most of the results of that day, material and immaterial, become apparent after the afternoon prayer, to pass that time in sleep as though prevents those results being seen and makes the day as though not lived.

T h e T h i r d is ‘Qaylula’, which is in accordance with the Practices of the Prophet (PBUH).² It is from mid-morning to just past noon. This sleep is part of the Practices since it allows a person to rise at night to pray. So also in the Arabian Peninsula to rest from work at noon when it is intensely hot is the custom of the people and of the area, so has further strengthened this Practice of the Prophet (PBUH). This sleep increases both life, and sustenance. For half an hour’s qaylula sleep is the equivalent of two hours’ sleep at night. That means it adds one and a half hours’ to a person’s life every day. It saves one and a half hours from the hand of sleep, the brother of death, and makes it live, adding it to the time of working for one’s livelihood.

S a I d N u r s i

FOOTNOTES

1. Qur’an, 7:4.

2. Ibn Maja, Siyam 22; al-Munawi, Fayzu’l-Qadir iv, 531; al-Ajluni, Kashfu’l-Khafa 330; al-Albani, Sahih Jami’i’s-Saghir No: 4307.