The 365 · Sunnah · Day 77 · Sleep
Sleeping in a State of Wuḍūʾ
The hadith
إِذَا أَوَيْتَ إِلَىٰ فِرَاشِكَ فَتَوَضَّأْ وُضُوءَكَ لِلصَّلَاةِ
The Prophet ﷺ said to al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib: 'When you go to bed, perform wuḍūʾ as you would for prayer...' (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 247, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2710.) Cross-ref: 'There is no Muslim who goes to sleep with wuḍūʾ and awakens during the night, then asks Allah for some good in this world or the next, but He gives it to him.' (Aḥmad 22117, ṣaḥīḥ, Muʿādh ibn Jabal.)
Svenska: Profeten ﷺ sade: 'När du går till sängs, gör wudu som du gör för bönen...' Cross-ref hadithen om ängeln som tillbringar natten med den troende som har wudu.
Sahih Bukhari 247, Sahih Muslim 2710, Ahmad 22117
The story
Imam Aḥmad slept in wuḍūʾ throughout his adult life: 'If I die during the night, I want to be in a state of purity.' Imam an-Nawawī, ibn Taymiyyah, and the major classical scholars practiced this. The Prophet's ﷺ paired instructions to al-Barāʾ (wuḍūʾ + right side + the al-Barāʾ duʿāʾ) form the complete Prophetic bedtime protocol.
Why it's here
The Prophet ﷺ established sleeping-in-wuḍūʾ as a structural Sunnah. Named benefits: an angel spends the night with the believer, making duʿāʾ for him whenever he turns; the believer who dies in his sleep dies in purity; the believer who wakes for tahajjud is structurally ready; the sleep itself becomes a form of ʿibādah.
Try it today
1. Make wuḍūʾ before bed. 2. Pair with the bedtime adhkār package (Day 71). 3. Lie down on the right side (Day 72). 4. If wuḍūʾ is broken during the night and you wake, renew it before further dhikr. 5. If you cannot make wuḍūʾ, make tayammum where possible.
In your day
Cost: 3 minutes of wuḍūʾ. Named benefits: an angel's nightly duʿāʾ-support, dying-in-purity, wake-for-tahajjud-readiness. The cost-benefit is structurally severe in its disproportion. Build the habit.
A reflection to carry
Sleeping in wuḍūʾ. The Prophet ﷺ: 'When you go to bed, perform wuḍūʾ as you would for prayer.' (Bukhārī 247.) Plus the angel-spends-the-night hadith (Aḥmad 22117): an angel spends the night with the believer who sleeps in wuḍūʾ.
Read the longer reflection
The structural benefits: angel-makes-duʿāʾ-throughout-the-night; if you die in sleep, you die in purity; if you wake for tahajjud, you are structurally ready (no need to make wuḍūʾ); the sleep itself becomes a form of ʿibādah. Imam Aḥmad slept in wuḍūʾ throughout his adult life: 'If I die during the night, I want to be in a state of purity.' Cure: make wuḍūʾ before bed; if wuḍūʾ is broken during the night and you wake, renew it before further dhikr or reading; if you cannot make wuḍūʾ (medical, logistical), make tayammum where possible. The 3-minute cost produces the named structural benefits.
Sources: Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Ahmad. The Qur'an and its translation are verified; the scholarship is retold faithfully in our own words and credited to its sources, never reproduced verbatim.
A verse, a healing, and a Sunnah, every morning.
Subscribe, free