THE FORTY-NINTH DISCOURSE On censure of sleep

Whoever prefers sleep instead of spending the night in wakeful prayer, which is the cause of alertness, chooses an inferior thing and the one which attaches him to the dead and makes him indifferent towards all occupations, because sleep is the brother of death. It is therefore for that reason that sleep is unbecoming of God because He is free from all defects. In the same way sleep cannot be predicated of the angels because they remain very near to God, the Mighty, the Glorious. Similarly, sleep cannot be associated with the people of heaven because they are in very exalted and holy, decent and honourable positions, and because that will cause a defect in their condition of life. Thus all good lies in keeping awake and all evil lies in sleep and indifference towards work. So, whoever eats out of greed, eats too much, drinks too much and also sleeps too much, much that is good disappears from him. And whoever eats even a little from unlawful things is like one who has eaten a lot from permissible things out of greed because an unlawful thing beclouds the faith and darkens it, and when faith is darkened there is no prayer and no worship and no sincerity. Whoever eats a lot from lawful things under the commandment of God becomes like one who has eaten a little in the joy of worship and strength. A lawful thing is a light added unto light whereas an unlawful thing is darkness added unto darkness in which there is nothing good; so the eating of a lawful thing out of greed and without any reference to commandment is like the eating of an unlawful thing in a way, and it brings sleep in which there is no good.