“To spend the night asleep and wake up regretful is dearer to me than to spend the night in prayer and wake up pleased with myself.”

Mutarrif ibn ‘Abdullah ibn ash-Shikhkhir was one of the leading Successors of Basra and a man known for his worship, which is what gives the saying its weight: he is not excusing sleep, he is warning that a night of worship which ends in self-admiration has spoiled itself. Abu Nu‘aym records it in Hilyat al-Awliya’, and Ibn al-Mubarak in his al-Zuhd.