an invalidator in and of itself; rather, it is a circumstance in which something may well exit the body. For that reason, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ commanded every sleeper to renew his ablution—even one who is firmly seated. He ﷺ informed us that “the eyes are the tether of the anal opening; when the eyes fall asleep the tether is loosed,” as another ḥadith states. A person who is securely seated is nevertheless asleep, and his tether can loosen on occasion—such as when he leans to the right or the left—so wisdom demanded that every sleeper be required to perform wuḍūʾ. Allah knows best.

The view we have adopted is that of Ibn Ḥazm, and it is the position toward which Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām inclined, as related in an amusing anecdote transmitted by Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr in his Sharḥ al-Muwaṭṭaʾ, 1 / 117 / 2. He said:

“I used to give the verdict that one who sleeps while sitting need not make ablution—until, on a Friday, a man sat next to me, fell asleep, and wind escaped from him. I said, ‘Rise and perform wuḍūʾ.’ He replied, ‘I did not sleep.’ I said, ‘Indeed you did, and wind exited from you that nullifies ablution!’ He began to swear by Allah that nothing of the sort had come from him and said to me, ‘No, it came from you!’ From that incident I abandoned the opinion I had held about the seated sleeper and took into consideration the dominance of sleep and its effect on the heart.”

Important note: al-Khaṭṭābī said in Gharīb al-Ḥadīth, 32 / 2:

“The essence of sleep is the heavy stupor that seizes the heart and cuts it off from perceiving outward matters, whereas the drowsy person (nāʿis) is one upon whom a lesser heaviness descends, severing him only from awareness of inward states.”

Recognizing this distinction between sleep and drowsiness removes many difficulties and firmly establishes that sleep, without qualification, breaks ablution. Al-Shawkānī’s pen, however, strayed from the correct path at this juncture in al-Sayl al-Jarrār; after presenting the foregoing argument in excellent fashion, he followed it up with the statement (1 / 96):