Sleep is a miracle and a blessing from our Lord. “And He is the One who has made the night a cloak for you, and sleep a rest, and the day a time of activity” [Furqan; 47].
Yet the reality of sleep is a mystery: biologists still cannot fully explain it; doctors and scientists continue to study it.
The Quran explains what sleep is. “Allah takes the souls at the time of their death, and also of those who do not die while they sleep” [Zumr; 42]. And “Sleep is the brother of death” as one Hadith reminds us. In both cases, our souls are taken out of our bodies; the main difference is that in sleep, our soul is eventually returned, while in death, our souls depart for good.
Therefore, every day we wake up, we have, quite literally, been given life again. That is why the Prophet (Peace Be Up Him) would say, when he woke up, “All praise is due to Allah who has given us life back, after causing us to die [i.e., in sleep]. And to Him shall be the ultimate return.”
Every day is a new life, a new beginning. And every night is almost death, and could be our last. The believer continues to live between hope and fear, between the optimism of a better tomorrow and the realization of an inevitable end, until he meets his Lord.
Truly, as our Prophet (SAW) would pray every single night as he lay down in bed, “It is in Your Name, O Allah, that I live and die.”