﴿قُلْ إِنَّمَا أَنَا بَشَرٌ مِثْلُكُمْ يُوحَى إِلَيَّ...

It is written that if one says that once I tried but could not wake up at the desired time, he makes a mistake. Do trust that he did wake up at that moment but as he was sluggish he slipped in sleep again. I want to bring to your notice today some signs pertaining to our inner physical being. The Holy Qur’an says about sleep. It is mentioned that it is not in man’s control. Then in whose control is it? The One Who has created me and controls my each and everything.

One must ponder over sleep for some hours in the day and night. If you do not sleep, you are forced to sleep. You get into a slumber. The wisdom behind sleep is mentioned in the Holy Qur’an: We have made sleep a means of rest and continuance of life for you. Arabic word “Sa ba ta’’ means a break and rest. When awake, how much work does this body do? These deeds or works are both outer and inner.

There are involuntary or forced functions like the machinery of digestion and nourishment etc in addition to those voluntary actions that man performs with this body like talking, walking handling, seeing, hearing. The daytime engagements compulsorily bring tiredness. If one works continuously for 24 hours his body does not remain useful for him. So he must take rest for a few hours. If one, after he wakes up in the morning toils continuously till past midnight his body becomes loose.

He must indeed take some rest for renewal of his strength. The more tired the body, the more sleep you need. So sleep overtakes you perforce. You must have experienced that after taking some sleep you become fresh for work. Therefore it is desirable that man must, after waking up from sleep make a prostration for thanking God. He should say: Thanks to God I have become alive again.[^5] “Sleep is the brother of death” It means sleep is like death. During sleep all the faculties of sense go away.

What remains is only natural (involuntary) functions like breathing, digesting, growing.