The Ruling on Sleeping Through the Prayer and the Fear of Hypocrisy
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. The questioner says: Many people sleep through the prayer, and they fear for themselves regarding hypocrisy. Is this action of theirs a form of hypocrisy?
Answer:
If he does it intentionally, then it is hypocrisy. But if he does not do it intentionally, and he intends to get up and is eager to get up, but sleep overcomes him, this is not hypocrisy. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was overcome by sleep during some of his travels regarding the Fajr prayer, and he did not pray it until the sun had risen. So if sleep overcomes him despite his intention and eagerness to get up, how is this hypocrisy?
But he must take precautions to wake him, because the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered Bilal to watch for the dawn for them, but sleep overtook Bilal (may Allah be pleased with him). The Messenger took the precaution, but in this instance, what overtook him overtook him? Yes. The Muslim takes precautions. Yes.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. The questioner says: Many people sleep through the prayer, and they fear for themselves regarding hypocrisy. Is this action of theirs a form of hypocrisy?
Answer:
If he does it intentionally, then it is hypocrisy. But if he does not do it intentionally, and he intends to get up and is eager to get up, but sleep overcomes him, this is not hypocrisy. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was overcome by sleep during some of his travels regarding the Fajr prayer, and he did not pray it until the sun had risen. So if sleep overcomes him despite his intention and eagerness to get up, how is this hypocrisy?
But he must take precautions to wake him, because the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered Bilal to watch for the dawn for them, but sleep overtook Bilal (may Allah be pleased with him). The Messenger took the precaution, but in this instance, what overtook him overtook him? Yes. The Muslim takes precautions. Yes.
Source
شرح كتاب المنتقى من أخبار المصطفى صلى الله عليه وسلم، أول كتاب الصلاة — islamhouse.com (1:07:08)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.