Abu Dawud, “It is a munkar (denounced) hadith.” Al-Bayhaqi added, “Abu Khalid al-Dalani is its lone transmitter, and all the leading scholars of hadith rejected it.” Ibn al-Mulqin said, “By their unanimous agreement, it is a weak hadith.”

Glossary of terms
• wakāʾ: the cord used to tie a purse, pouch, or water-skin.
• al-sah (pronounced with either fatḥah or kasrah on the sīn): the ring of the anus. Its original form was satah, but the middle radical dropped. The statement “the eye is the wakāʾ of the sah” means that wakefulness guards the anal orifice and prevents anything from exiting, just as a cord secures a water-skin and keeps its contents from spilling.
• istalqa (to become loose): derived from ṭalaqa–yaṭluqu–ṭalāqan; the root sense is “to be released from restraint,” and the other usages branch out from that. Here it refers to the sleeper’s loss of sensation, which would otherwise hold back what is inside.
• muḍṭajiʿan (lying down): originally muṭtaḍjaʿan, from the verb pattern iftiʿāl, the tāʾ having assimilated into a ṭāʾ. Syntactically it is a circumstantial accusative (ḥāl) relating to the subject of “slept.” To lie down is to place one’s side on the ground.

Points derived from the hadith

1. The discharge of wind from the anus, whether audible or silent, nullifies ablution.
2. Sleep in itself does not invalidate wuḍūʾ; it is only an indicator of a possible state of minor ritual impurity. Thus, only deep, enveloping sleep that makes the occurrence of hadath likely breaks ablution, whereas light dozing does not.
3. Everything that removes consciousness—insanity, fainting, drunkenness, and the like—shares the same ruling as sleep: all of them nullify ablution because sensation is lost in each case.
4. Physiologists state that sleep is a period of quiescence marked by the absence of perception and awareness. The body systems that slow down the most during sleep are the higher cerebral centers responsible for cognition, discrimination, thinking, and appropriate responses to external stimuli. Among the key features of sleep are the relaxation of voluntary muscles and the inability to exercise self-control.