Wudu, the ritual ablution, is usually made before prayer or before touching the Quran. But making wudu before going to sleep is also a Sunnah, a practice taught by the Prophet Muhammad. Writing on Prothom Alo's religion page, Ahmad Sabbir argues that an everyday act such as sleep becomes part of worship when done according to the Sunnah.
The article cites a hadith in Sahih Muslim (number 2725): the Prophet told his Companion al-Bara ibn Azib to make wudu as for prayer before going to bed, lie on his right side and recite a supplication. The hadith adds that whoever dies that night after doing so dies upon the fitrah, the natural faith.
The writer notes that people often go to bed weighed down by work, family worries and anxiety, and sleep does not come easily. The touch of water on the face and hands during wudu brings a sense of calm, and the feeling of ending the night in purity and in remembrance of God can ease a restless mind. But the practice rests on the Prophet's clear instruction, not on personal feeling.
The article also draws the parallel between sleep and death: in both, a person is cut off from the world around them, and no one knows whether the next morning will come. A believer therefore goes to sleep in a state in which, if they were to return to their Lord, they would at least have tried to follow the Sunnah.
Wudu before bed costs nothing and takes only a few minutes, and the article closes by encouraging readers to make it part of their nightly routine.
Photo: Ahm masum / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Prothom Alo
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