Question:
Are the hadith claims that sleeping in the morning causes poverty or that sleeping after certain times like Asr causes harm authentic?
Answer:
Another question concerns sleep and certain hadiths mentioned in a video.
The video claims:
- Sleeping in the morning causes poverty.
- Certain times of sleep are prohibited.
- Only a short nap before Dhuhr is allowed.
- Sleeping after Asr leads to insanity.
The question is whether these hadiths are authentic.
The narration that morning sleep causes poverty appears in Musnad Ahmad (530) and also in Musnad Shihab. But the chain of narration includes Ishaq ibn Abdullah ibn Abi Farwa.This narrator was abandoned by hadith scholars because he was suspected of fabricating reports.
Many scholars rejected his narrations:
- Imam Bukhari said people abandoned his narrations.
- Imam Ahmad warned against narrating hadith through him.
- Other scholars also declared his narrations unreliable.
Therefore, this hadith is not authentic.
Another narration comes through Sulayman ibn Arqam, who was also considered weak and abandoned by scholars. Even Ibn al-Jawzi, in his book on fabricated hadiths, listed this narration as unreliable. So, the statement that morning sleep causes poverty is not an authentic hadith.
Someone may advise people not to sleep excessively in the morning because it reduces productivity. That is reasonable advice in worldly matters.
But it should not be presented as a religious ruling based on the Prophetﷺ unless there is authentic evidence.
Another report mentioned in the video says sleep has three types and condemns sleeping after Asr.
This narration traces back to a statement attributed to Ibn Abbas scolding his son for sleeping during the morning. But even there, Ibn Abbas did not present it as a Prophetﷺic teaching. He referred to Arab sayings from the pre-Islamic era.
So, it was a cultural saying, not a religious rule.
Therefore, these narrations about specific times of sleep are not authentic Prophetﷺic hadiths. They are either weak narrations or cultural sayings of Arabs, not religious rulings.
Next, another issue is discussed regarding a narration attributed to Abdullah ibn Abbas.
If a report claims to narrate something about Abdullah ibn Abbas, then the person who narrates it must be someone who lived during his time or shortly after him. Abdullah ibn Abbas passed away in 68 AH. Therefore, someone narrating an incident about him must belong to that generation or be connected through a chain of narrators.
But the person who narrates this story is Ibn al-Arabi, who lived around 231 AH. Abdullah ibn Abbas died in 68 AH. How could someone who lived in 231 AH directly narrate something about an incident involving Ibn Abbas raising his son from sleep?
In the narration, Ibn al-Arabi begins by saying, “I heard that Ibn Abbas said…” Yet between Ibn al-Arabi and Ibn Abbas there should be several narrators. At least three or four generations would normally appear in the chain. Without those intermediaries, the narration cannot be considered reliable.
So, this is not proper hadith. It is merely a story attributed to Ibn Abbas, and even that attribution is weak because the narrator lived many generations later and the chain is missing.
Furthermore, even in the story itself, Ibn Abbas does not present it as a Prophetﷺic teaching. He simply refers to what Arabs used to say about sleeping at certain times. It is merely an example of Arab customs, not a religious rule.
Yet the preacher in that video takes this story and begins declaring:
- Sleeping after Asr is forbidden.
- Sleeping at certain times is forbidden.
That is incorrect. One may sleep at any time.There is no religious restriction on sleeping at a particular hour.