Book of Healing - Healing Through Knowledge - Cure of Sleeplessness or Insomnia

Cure of Sleeplessness or Insomnia

1. Sleeplessness or insomnia is called sahar (in Arabic) and agrypnia (in English) in ancient medicine. The one who suffers from this disease usually goes to a physician or a doctor who treats him according to his respective principles. Sometimes the patient is given sleeping pills which cause him to sleep, but the root of the disease remains unchanged. That is, the patient always needs the sleeping pills, without which he cannot sleep. Thus it turns into a chronic disease and adversely affects the patient's mental and physical health.

2. Let us analyze or investigate the background of this disease in the light of the wise Qur'an and the Hadith. For it cannot be a physical disease, but is in fact a mental and imaginary disease, to prove which, several clear proofs can be furnished here. One of them is that when a poor person all of a sudden receives a huge sum by winning bonds, or a lottery or by any other means, a kind of a flood of disturbing thoughts of happiness and delight inevitably gushes forth in his heart, due to which he cannot sleep at night. Similarly, disturbing thoughts also occur to a person due to a major or minor grief. And you know that disturbing thoughts can be insinuated only by the devil from among jinn and mankind (114:4-6). Since the devil is the religious enemy of man, therefore, on such occasions he repeatedly attacks the children of Adam, makes them forget Divine remembrance and makes them fall ill. Thus the sneaking devil (khannas) constantly insinuates disturbing thoughts in their hearts and minds and never tires of this act.

3. According to the Divine law and the law of wisdom, every individual not only has a personal devil, but also a personal angel, who acts as his guardian. Thus, when a man forgets God and chooses blindness, the angel cannot help him at all, and the devil instantly fires a volley of disturbing thoughts (43:36). (See, Mishkat, I, 42).

4. The wisdom for a mu'min lies in that he should remain engaged in good deeds and devote himself day and night to obligatory and supererogatory acts and should not forget the remembrance of God even for a moment, so that the devil may become silent and disappointed and the angel may have the full opportunity to exercise his role. For the law of equity requires there to be as much benefit in paving the path for the angel, as there is loss in giving in to the devil. Thus the angel, by the command of God, kindles the lamps of hope, certitude, success and guidance in the heart and mind of a believing servant.

5. You cannot call every wakeful state agrypnia, for the need of sleep becomes less and less due to both age as well as dhikr-u `ibadat, to the extent that a pious mu'min, who is in constant remembrance of God, needs very little sleep. You can see the mention of such mu'mins who sleep very little in the Qur'an (32:16; 51:17; 73:20). The purpose of sleep can be fulfilled in a very short time. This is because man who is the son of Adam is given honour and excellence over all other creatures by God (17:70). Thus, the more a mu'min advances in the stages of spirituality, the more wonders and marvels of human capabilities are revealed to him, as well as many secrets related to sleep.

6. If you go to bed on time in the evening and cannot sleep as you would like, it is not the disease of agrypnia or sleeplessness, nor is it a disease to wake up before the usual time. But if you consider it a disease and become sad and do not benefit from the remembrance of God, then undoubtedly it turns into a mental and psychological disease. This means that, in not falling asleep in the evening and in waking up before time, there is the trial of whether you will make it a disease for yourself or make it the light of Divine remembrance and reflection?

7. Reflect carefully on verses (3:190-191) in which the key to the hidden and locked secrets of the universe and existents, is the reflection of the people of intellect. The key to reflection is Divine remembrance, which comprises three states, namely: standing, sitting and lying on their sides, in which the people of intellect remember God, the Great, the Exalted. There are many wisdoms in this order of remembrance. Here we will take into consideration only those wise people who remember God in the state of lying on their sides, who are:

That mu'min who is in constant remembrance, and has laid down to take rest.
The religious man who is very tired.
The ill person who cannot get up.
The old man who is very weak.
The one who has laid down to sleep.
The one who has opened his eyes from sleep.
The one who cannot fall asleep.
The one who has become extremely weak due to starvation and long i`tikaf (sitting in constant `ibadat).
The one who dies spiritually.
The one who is in the state of physical death, etc.

8. Hazrat `Izra'il is not only the angel of death, but is also the angel in charge of sleep (39:42). Similarly, Hazrat Israfil, who is the custodian of the sur (Sahib-i sur), is also appointed to wake people up, both today and tomorrow (36:52). Thus the greatest bliss of a person is in piety and abundant remembrance of God, so that the angels may make him sleep on time and wake him up on time, with high hopes concerning religion and the world. For without knowledge and good deeds, the friendship and support of angels cannot be obtained.

9. Here the question arises: What is the purpose of sleep? Namely, why is it so necessary, and what are its benefits? This question apparently seems to be quite easy, as some may instantly say that the mental and physical fatigue is removed by sleep and what is eaten becomes properly digested. But we will say that every kind of fatigue can also be removed without sleep and food can also be digested during the day without sleeping. For instance, take domestic animals such as the ox, the horse, the mule and the donkey; how much work do these poor animals do, yet they do not sleep. They only need to rest after work. Thus I would like to say that the main purpose of sleep is the exchange of some particles of soul (39:42) which can take place even during a short sleep.

10. The noble Qur'an does not impose a duty upon a person if he does not have the natural capacity to accomplish it (2:286). If this is a Qur'anic fact, let us see in the light of verse (73:20) how many hours some of the great companions of the Prophet, who used to get up for `ibadat with him, used to sleep. When did they get up at night and for how long did they do dhikr-u `ibadat? The answer to this question is in the same Surah that, sometimes they used to spend two-thirds of the night in dhikr-u `ibadat, sometimes half of it and sometimes one third of it. This difference is related more and more to the season and less and less to their different conditions. Season in the sense that in the whole year, day and night increase and decrease constantly. Anyhow, according to the Qur'anic programme, the time of sleep is very limited.

11. Although sleep is the name of a thing, during which the senses of a person stop working, nonetheless, there are different degrees of it, and the supreme kind of sleep, is the sleep of the Prophets and awliya', in which the body and the senses sleep, but the glorious chain of the remembrance of God continues. The wise Qur'an, praising this sleep says: "And We made your sleep a thing of repose (subat)" (78:9). By this sleep is meant the sleep of a supreme kind, in which by the blessings of the remembrance of God, not only do the intellect and soul attain peace, but also the body.

12. When the believing servant (bandah-yi mu'min) who is pious and is in constant remembrance of God, sleeps after abundant dhikr-u `ibadat, he sometimes immediately receives a sweet jerk from the sole of the foot to the top of the head, by which he wakes up all at once. In this jerk, it is alluded to him that the purpose of your sleep has been achieved, now if you wish you can do more `ibadat. Here the question arises: What is this pleasant jerk or delightful current? The answer is that it is a miraculous act of the angels and the exchange of the particles of soul.

13. The gist of the points of this article is that, if someone cannot sleep despite having sound health, he does not need to worry. If he worries, this blessing of waking up may turn into a burden and into the form of a psychological disease. Thus the wise mu'min is the one who does `ibadat in such a wakeful state and reflects upon the realities and gnoses of the universe and the existents (3:190-191).

Note. After "Qur'anic Healing", now, God willing, such articles will be devoted to "Healing through Knowledge". Please pray all of you.

Nasir al-Din Nasir Hunzai
11/6/87

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