Concept

In this chapter of the Kashf al-Mahjub, Hujwiri surveys the differing positions of the Sufi masters on whether a disciple (murid) may sleep. One group holds that the disciple should not sleep except under compulsion (ghalaba), when he can no longer keep sleep from himself, since the Prophet said al-nawm akh al-mawt ('sleep is the brother of death'): life is a divine blessing and death-like sleep an affliction, and the nobler blessing is preferable. This is reinforced by Shibli's saying that whoever sleeps becomes heedless (ghafil), and whoever is heedless is veiled (mahjub) from God. A second group permits the disciple to sleep by choice, and even to constrain himself to sleep once he has discharged his religious duties, appealing to the hadith that 'the pen is lifted from three, among them the sleeper until he wakes.' The passage thus frames sleep as a contested site of spiritual discipline, weighing vigilance against the licit rest of one who has fulfilled his obligations.