There is a corroborating report for the hadith from Ibn ʿAbbās, attributed to the Prophet, with similar wording. It was narrated by Abū Dāwūd and others through a weak chain of transmission, containing the objectionable addition: “Ablution is only required of one who sleeps lying down...” For this reason, I included it in Daʿīf Abī Dāwūd (25). It is also recorded in the two Ṣaḥīḥs without this addition, in similar wording, and has been documented in Ṣaḥīḥ Abī Dāwūd (1224–1229).

As for the addition in Ibrāhīm’s mursal report, “His eyes would sleep, but his heart would not sleep,” it is authentic. It has been narrated with a connected chain in the two Ṣaḥīḥs and elsewhere, and has been documented in Ṣaḥīḥ Abī Dāwūd (1212), from the hadith of Abū Hurayrah and others. See Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr (2997).

I say: This addition explicitly establishes that sleep did not invalidate his ablution ﷺ, and that this was among his distinctive privileges. The scholars have differed concerning one who sleeps while seated firmly in his sitting position. The stronger view is that it invalidates ablution, as I have explained in Tamām al-Minnah. Whoever wishes may refer to it.

2926 — “Relate from the Children of Israel, and there is no harm, for marvels occurred among them.” He then began relating, saying: “A group from the Children of Israel set out until they came to one of their graveyards. They said, ‘If only we prayed two rakʿahs and supplicated Allah to bring forth for us a man from among those who had died, so that we might ask him about death.’ He said: So they did.”