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Fatwa CenterIt is disliked to sleep before the time of 'Ishaa' starts
Question
Salam, Whenever my period is nearby,I become very weak in my salaat.What I mean by that is that I would delay one of my prayers,which it is mostly Isha by sleeping.I have been seeing a pattern for this for about a year.I tried to figure out on ways to help myself to pray Isha on time.For examples,my family would try to wake me up whenever they see me sleeping to ask me if I prayed Isha,my mom bought a watch that has an alarm,my cell phone has an alarm,but those things didn't helped me much.Now this week was the worst week ever,because I have been constantly delaying Isha from Sunday to today,and been asking Allah forgiveness.Please advise me on what I should do.Should I see a Doctor for this?What should I do?May Allah reward you.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
reported that the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, disliked sleeping before ‘Ishaa’ prayer and engaging in conversation after it. [Al-Bukhari and Muslim].”
The undesirability of this is, of course, if you sleep before the beginning of the time of ‘Ishaa’ and you believe that you will get up on time to perform it. However, after the time of the prayer begins, it is forbidden for you to sleep before performing it if you believe that that you will most likely miss its time. Haashiyat Al-Jamal reads: “It is disliked to sleep before performing the ‘Ishaa' prayer if one believes that one will wake up on time, otherwise it would be forbidden to sleep [i.e. before ‘Ishaa’ if one believes that one will not wake up on time] as stated by Ibn As-Salah and others.” [End of quote]
Some scholars are even very stringent on sleeping before the beginning of the time of ‘Ishaa’ for anyone who is likely to oversleep and miss the ‘Ishaa’ prayer, and they oblige such a person to engage himself in whatever would prevent him from sleeping until he performs the ‘Ishaa’ prayer. Shaykh Ibn Baaz 
said in an answer to someone like you who misses the ‘Ishaa’ prayer because of sleeping and sleeps before the time of ‘Ishaa’: “You must engage yourself in what prevents you from sleeping until you have performed the ‘Ishaa’ prayer after its time begins. Its time starts with the setting of the red twilight; when the red twilight disappears, the time of ‘Ishaa’ starts. You have no excuse to be negligent in this matter; rather, it is an absolute and great obligation on you to avoid sleeping knowing that it would lead you to miss the ‘Ishaa’ prayer, so you should be engaged in something with your family until the time of ‘Ishaa’ starts.” [End of quote]
Therefore, dear Sister, you should try to engage yourself in what prevents you from sleeping until you have prayed the ‘Ishaa’ prayer. You should supplicate Allaah much to help you and you should not overburden yourself during the day and become exhausted to the point of sleeping too early.
You may also consult a female specialist doctor as your laziness may be due to a physical disorder.
For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 86233 and 84758.
Allaah Knows best.
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