The 365 · Sunnah · Day 324 · Sleep
Hand Under Right Cheek When Sleeping
The hadith
«كَانَ النَّبِيُّ ﷺ إِذَا أَوَى إِلَى فِرَاشِهِ جَعَلَ يَدَهُ الْيُمْنَى تَحْتَ خَدَّهِ، ثُمَّ يَقُولُ: اللَّهُمَّ قِنِي عَذَابَكَ يَوْمَ تَبْعَثُ عِبَادَكَ».
When the Prophet ﷺ went to bed, he would place his right hand under his cheek, then say: 'Allāhumma qinī ʿadhābaka yawma tabʿathu ʿibādak' ('O Allah, protect me from Your punishment on the Day You resurrect Your servants'). (Abū Dāwūd 5045, Tirmidhi 3398)
Svenska: När Profeten ﷺ gick till sängs placerade han sin högra hand under sin kind, sedan sade han: 'Allāhumma qinī ʿadhābaka yawma tabʿathu ʿibādak' ('O Allah, skydda mig från Ditt straff den dag Du återuppväcker Dina tjänare'). (Abū Dāwūd 5045, Tirmidhi 3398)
Abū Dāwūd 5045; Tirmidhi 3398; Bukhari 6314
The story
Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān narrated: 'When the Prophet ﷺ went to bed, he put his right hand under his cheek and said: 'O Allah, protect me from Your punishment on the Day You resurrect Your servants.'' (Tirmidhi 3398). The Companion remembered the small detail because every detail of the Prophet ﷺ was a Sunnah worth preserving.
Why it's here
The Prophet ﷺ specified the position of the hand. The right cheek rested on the right hand. The position is gentle, anatomically supportive, and (in the believer's eyes) a posture of submission. Together with the duʿāʾ of seeking refuge from the Day's punishment, the sleeper enters the night in the position of one preparing for both the small death and the great one.
Try it today
Lie on your right side. Place your right hand flat under your right cheek (not under the pillow). Say: 'Allāhumma qinī ʿadhābaka yawma tabʿathu ʿibādak'. Then your other duʿāʾs from the night routine.
In your day
We treat sleep position as arbitrary; the Sunnah treats it as sacred. The right hand under the cheek is the posture of a Companion. Adopt it deliberately. Within weeks, the body finds it natural; within months, it feels strange to sleep any other way.
A reflection to carry
The right hand under the cheek is the Sunnah's quiet detail. Small alignments build the believer's body into a vessel of submission.
Read the longer reflection
There is a beauty in the smallness of this Sunnah. The right hand under the cheek is so easy to do, so easy to forget, and so meaningful when remembered. It is the posture the Prophet ﷺ kept every night. It is the posture his Companions narrated to us. It is the posture we can take tonight. The accompanying duʿāʾ is bone-deep: O Allah, protect me from Your punishment on the Day You resurrect Your servants. The sleeper is asked to remember that the small death he is about to enter is a rehearsal for the great one. The right hand under the cheek is the resting-place between the two. May we sleep in the Prophet's ﷺ posture, and may He resurrect us from the same one.
Sources: Sahih Bukhari, Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi. 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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