Sleeping Throughout the Day in Ramadhaan

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Shaykh Muhammad bin Saaleh al-‘Uthaymeen [May Allaah have Mercy on him] was asked:

Question: What is the ruling on sleeping throughout the day whilst fasting? If one only wakes up to pray his obligatory prayers and then he sleeps against, will he be rewarded for his fasting?

Answer: This question has two separate situations:

First: A person sleeps all day and he doesn’t get up, then there is no doubt that he is cheating himself and he is disobeying Allaah as he has left praying on its proper time. If he is liable to pray his prayers in congregation then this is addition to the sin he has committed, it is Haraam and it reduces the reward of his sin. So this person needs to repent to Allaah and make sure he wakes up to pray on its proper time.

Second: A person sleeps throughout the day but he wakes up to pray his obligatory prayers on its proper times, he prays in congregation, so this person has no sin upon him. Despite this, the person is missing on a great deal of good as it is incumbent on the fasting person to busy himself with good deeds, pray extra prayers, make Dhikr, make Dua’a, recite Quraan, there’s a range of righteous deeds he can do whilst he is fasting.

So if a person account himself and doesn’t remove laziness from him and the sense of comfort, then doing righteous deeds will become even more difficult for him, especially whilst he is fasting.

So my advice for this person is for this person to program himself whilst he is fasting to sleep for an allotted time, to encourage himself to acts of worship, and Allaah has made our lives easier for us these days, Praise be to Allaah, so the fasting person doesn’t experience much difficulty whilst fasting as he has air conditioners and the likes to make our fast easier.

[Fiqh al-‘Ibaadah Pg. 214 (Question 159)]