Remembrance of Allah — Page 70
70 [evening Prayer, immediately after sunset]or immediately after it. It happens sometimes that while the spirit is willing and alert, the body makes it lazy. The body acts like a yoke that is clinging to the spirit and when the yoke becomes heavy, it suppresses the spirit. For this reason the stomach should not be full at the time of going to sleep, because it affects the heart greatly and it makes a person lazy. 10. THE TENTH METHOD is that when a man goes to sleep at night, he should not be in the post-sex state of uncleanliness or have some filth attached to him. The fact is that the angels have a strong affinity with cleanliness and they do not come close to a man who is unclean; instead, they distance themselves from him. This is why when something with a strong odour was brought to the Holy Prophet s as to eat, he told his compan- ions that they could eat it, but he would not. The Companions said that they, too, would not eat it. He explained to them that they could eat it but the angels come to converse with him, which was why he would not eat it since they have a strong dislike for such things. In short, the angels abhor filth. Hadrat Khalifatul Masih I ra used to narrate that once he went to bed without washing his hands after eating. He saw in a vision that his older brother came and wanted to give him the Holy Quran, but when he was about to touch it, his brother forbade him from doing so as his hands were not clean. So cleanliness of the body has a great effect upon the heart. One who goes to sleep clean, will have the angels come to wake him up, but should there be