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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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What is the ruling on wudu' for one who sleeps a light sleep?

Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
May Allah reward you. The questioner says: A man slept while in a state of wudu' for a light sleep, then he got up and prayed Fajr. Is his prayer valid? And may Allah reward you with good.

Answer:
By Allah, my brothers, it is observed that people in the Sacred Mosque sleep for a long time and then get up and pray.
They get up and pray, and this is not permissible; this is a mistake. Because if a person sleeps a long sleep, he does not control himself and does not know what happened to him, so it is obligatory for him to perform wudu'. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
The eyes are the seal of the heedless, so let the one who sleep perform wudu'العينان وكاء الساه فمن نام فليتوضا
in the hadith of
Safwan ibn 'Asal: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded us that when we were traveling, we should not remove our leather socks except from major ritual impurity, but from urination, defecation, and sleep.صفوان بن عسال امرنا رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم اذا كنا سفرا الا ننزع خفافنا الا من جنابه لكن من بول وغائط ونوم.

They do not remove their leather socks for minor ritual impurity, but they wipe over them for minor ritual impurity. So counting sleep as a cause of ritual impurity, counting it alongside urination and defecation, indicates that it invalidates wudu'. Because if a person sleeps and is overcome by it, he does not know what happened to him and does not control himself. But if he sleeps a light sleep, drowsiness, or while sitting and in control of himself, the light sleep does not harm. The Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) used to wait for the prayer with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), waiting for the 'Isha' prayer with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) until their heads would nod from drowsiness, then they would get up and pray without performing wudu'.
This is for light sleep, drowsiness. As for deep sleep, where one is lying on his side or on his back, lying down and sleeping for hours, it is not permissible for him to pray until he performs wudu', because he does not control himself and does not know what happened to him. Yes.
Source قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما حكم الوضوء لمن نام نوما خفيفا؟ للشيخ الفوزان — youtube.com

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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