The 365 · Sunnah · Day 305 · Sleep
Sleeping on the Right Side
The hadith
قَالَ النَّبِيُّ ﷺ: «إِذَا أَتَيْتَ مَضْجَعَكَ فَتَوَضَّأْ وُضُوءَكَ لِلصَّلَاةِ، ثُمَّ اضْطَجِعْ عَلَى شِقِّكَ الْأَيْمَنِ، ثُمَّ قُلْ: اللَّهُمَّ أَسْلَمْتُ وَجْهِي إِلَيْكَ، وَفَوَّضْتُ أَمْرِي إِلَيْكَ، وَأَلْجَأْتُ ظَهْرِي إِلَيْكَ، رَغْبَةً وَرَهْبَةً إِلَيْكَ، لَا مَلْجَأَ وَلَا مَنْجَا مِنْكَ إِلَّا إِلَيْكَ، آمَنْتُ بِكِتَابِكَ الَّذِي أَنْزَلْتَ، وَبِنَبِيِّكَ الَّذِي أَرْسَلْتَ. فَإِنْ مِتَّ مِتَّ عَلَى الْفِطْرَةِ».
The Prophet ﷺ said: 'When you come to your bed, perform wudu as you would for prayer, then lie on your right side, then say: O Allah, I have submitted my face to You, entrusted my affair to You, and turned my back to You out of hope and fear; there is no refuge from You except to You. I have believed in Your Book which You revealed, and Your Prophet whom You sent. If you die [that night], you will die upon the fiṭrah.' (Bukhari 247; Muslim 2710)
Svenska: Profeten ﷺ sade: 'När du går till din säng, utför wudu som du skulle göra för bönen, lägg dig sedan på höger sida, och säg sedan: O Allah, jag har överlämnat mitt ansikte till Dig, anförtrott min sak till Dig, och vänt min rygg till Dig i hopp och fruktan; det finns ingen tillflykt från Dig utom till Dig. Jag har trott på Din Bok som Du uppenbarade, och Din Profet som Du sände. Om du dör den natten kommer du att dö i fiṭrah.' (Bukhari 247; Muslim 2710)
Bukhari 247; Muslim 2710; Bukhari 6311; Abu Dawud 5046
The story
When the Prophet ﷺ taught the duʿāʾ to al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib, he asked him to recite it back. Al-Barāʾ said: 'I believe in Your Book which You revealed, and Your Messenger whom You sent.' The Prophet ﷺ corrected him: 'No, say: Your Prophet whom You sent.' Why the precision? Because the word nabī (prophet) carries closer intimacy than rasūl in this context; the Prophet ﷺ wanted his Ummah to die naming him exactly as Allah named him. Even the very last word before sleep was teaching us tawḥīd.
Why it's here
Sleep is the small death (al-mawtah al-ṣughrā). The Sunnah of going to sleep transforms the unconscious hours into protected ones, by wudu, by position, by words. To lie on the right side is the body's geometry of submission; to recite the duʿāʾ is the soul's last act before going. The promise is breathtaking: if death finds you during those hours, you die upon the fiṭrah, the original purity Allah created in you.
Try it today
Before bed, perform wudu fully. Brush the bed with the inner edge of your izār (or your sleeve) three times saying bismillāh (Bukhari 6320). Lie down on your right side, place your right hand under your right cheek (Bukhari 6314). Recite the duʿāʾ above. Optionally add: Āyat al-Kursī (Bukhari 2311), the last three Sūrahs (blowing on the hands and passing over the body, Bukhari 5017), the last two verses of al-Baqarah, Tasbīḥ Fāṭimah (33-33-34).
In your day
We sleep at 1 a.m. with a screen still warm in the hand, and wake at 7 with the same screen the first thing. The Sunnah replaces that frame: wudu, dhikr, right side, duʿāʾ. The night becomes a small ḥajj. The body lies down toward death rehearsing the Day. The screen is silenced. The fiṭrah is reclaimed.
A reflection to carry
The right side is the body's geometry of submission. The duʿāʾ is the soul's geometry of submission. Wudu is the cleanliness that makes the lying-down sacred. The Sunnah turns sleep into a small worship. The night that was a void becomes a prayer.
Read the longer reflection
A believer's last waking act is the rehearsal of his last act. The duʿāʾ of sleeping is in fact a small shahādah: I have submitted my face, entrusted my affair, turned my back to You. There is no refuge from You except to You. I have believed. This is exactly what the dying believer says, condensed and lit. The Prophet ﷺ taught us to die a small death every night, so that when the great death comes, we have practiced. The right side is not arbitrary; it slows the heart, it places the body in the posture of the lowering at the time of burial. Allah's mercy is in the design: the night, the position, the words, all align toward fiṭrah-death. The hadith promises: if you die in that state, you die upon fiṭrah, the original purity. So tonight, before you reach for the screen, reach for wudu, for the right side, for the duʿāʾ. The night that was just sleep can become the night you reentered fiṭrah. May Allah accept every one of our nights as a return to the way He first made us.
Sources: Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Abu Dawud. 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.
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