Dua to Recite When Going to Sleep

Hudhayfah and Abu Dharr (may Allah be pleased with them) relate: "When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) lay down in his bed, he would place his blessed hand under his cheek and say 'Bismika Allāhumma amūtu wa-aḥyā' (O Allah! In Your name I die and I live)" (Sahih al-Bukhari, Da'awat 7-8; Sahih Muslim, Dhikr 59). What is meant here by dying and living is sleeping and waking, for sleep is a lesser death. It is also within the realm of possibility that one may fall asleep and never wake again.

For this reason, by repeating once more before sleeping his firm conviction that it is Allah alone who causes death and who gives life, a believer both renews his faith in Almighty Allah and presents his submission to Him. In the Noble Qur'an it is stated: "Allah takes the souls at the time of their death, and the souls of those who do not die during their sleep" (Zumar 42). This ayah clearly sets forth the relationship between sleep and death.

The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) also advised performing wudu before lying down, lying on the right side, and joining the hands together, reciting Surahs al-Ikhlas, al-Falaq and an-Nas, and wiping them over the body (Sahih al-Bukhari, Da'awat 12; Sahih Muslim, Dhikr 56).