The Ruling on Saying the Testimony of Faith Before Sleep
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. A questioner says: Some people, before going to sleep, recite the testimony by saying, “I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah,” on the grounds that if they die, they will die upon the testimony. Is this act prescribed?
Answer:
There is no evidence for this. What is reported regarding sleep is reciting the Verse of the Throne, because Allah protects the sleeper with it and drives the Shaytan away from him. This is what is reported in the authentic collections.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. A questioner says: Some people, before going to sleep, recite the testimony by saying, “I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah,” on the grounds that if they die, they will die upon the testimony. Is this act prescribed?
Answer:
There is no evidence for this. What is reported regarding sleep is reciting the Verse of the Throne, because Allah protects the sleeper with it and drives the Shaytan away from him. This is what is reported in the authentic collections.
Source
شرح إغاثة اللهفان من مصائد الشيطان لابن القيم، فصل الاسم الثاني والثالث : الزور واللغو — islamhouse.com (1:03:40)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.