What is the ruling on saying “sleep is a sultan” as an excuse for abandoning prayer at its appointed time?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. Some people say they sleep through the prayer. When the time has passed, I ask them, “Why did you not pray?” They reply, “I was sleeping, and sleep is a sultan.” What is the ruling on this phrase, “sleep is a sultan,” and on the one who always uses it as an excuse for abandoning prayer?
Answer:
Sleep sometimes overcomes a person. If he is diligent in getting up and it is his habit to rise, but sleep overcomes him on some nights, there is no doubt that this is an excuse. As for the sleep that one persists in and becomes accustomed to, and he does not care about it, this is not permissible. This is intentional. Yes, sleep is indeed a sultan.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. Some people say they sleep through the prayer. When the time has passed, I ask them, “Why did you not pray?” They reply, “I was sleeping, and sleep is a sultan.” What is the ruling on this phrase, “sleep is a sultan,” and on the one who always uses it as an excuse for abandoning prayer?
Answer:
Sleep sometimes overcomes a person. If he is diligent in getting up and it is his habit to rise, but sleep overcomes him on some nights, there is no doubt that this is an excuse. As for the sleep that one persists in and becomes accustomed to, and he does not care about it, this is not permissible. This is intentional. Yes, sleep is indeed a sultan.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [3651- 4717] ما حكم قول النوم سلطان للاحتجاج على ترك الصلاة في وقتها؟ - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.