Fatwa ID: 06156

 

Answered by: Maulana Burhaan Rahman

 

Question:

 

Assalamu alaikum, I am a medical student, since my SSLC I have had a habit of studying at night when everyone in my home is sleeping.

 

But recently, my father told me that sleeping late at night is a call for diseases and problems for my family members.

I don’t indulge myself in scrolling through the media, instead, I study. And now my father is not allowing me. I wanted to know that is it bad/sinful if a student spends their night studying?

 

 

 

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

 

Answer:

 

It’s not sinful if a student spends portions/long hours of the night studying. We don’t find anywhere in the Qur’an or the Hadeeth where it forbids this type of activity. This is from a perspective of ‘sin’.

 

But is it ‘bad’ – from a health perspective and from the norms of how Allah SWT created man, it is.

 

Allah SWT mentions in the Qur’an:

وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ مَنَامُكُم بِاللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ وَابْتِغَاؤُكُم مِّن فَضْلِهِ إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِّقَوْمٍ يَسْمَعُونَ

“And among His Signs is your sleep by night and by day, and your seeking of His Bounty. Verily, in that are indeed signs for a people who listen”. [Surah Room verse 23].

 

Allah SWT also mentions:

وَهُوَ الَّذِي جَعَلَ لَكُمُ اللَّيْلَ لِبَاسًا وَالنَّوْمَ سُبَاتًا وَجَعَلَ النَّهَارَ نُشُورًا

And it is He Who makes the night a covering for you, and the sleep (as) a repose, and makes the day “Nushoor” [Surah Furqan verse 47]

 

Nushoor means waking up and going about one’s daily business whether it’s a job/studying after a night’s sleep. It also comes from the word that refers to the rising of all the dead at the Last Judgment – resurrection.

 

Sleeping is usually done at night, however, it is also possible to sleep during the day. Allah made the day for work and going out in search of food, and He made the night for rest, thus sleep happens at night and work happens during the day. Some students spend hours studying at night because there’s less noise, that is fine and no sin shall occur. But from a health and well-being perspective and according to how humans were created by Allah, sleeping at night if possible would be the best.

 

 

 

Only Allah knows best.

Written by Maulana Burhaan Rahman

Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Darul Ifta Birmingham