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In a question and answer session, May 29, 1986, Bawa discusses fighting sleep or drowsiness: Question: What is the best way to fight sleep or the drowsiness when it comes? Bawa Muhaiyaddeen: That is merely a sign of laziness. Get up and go and wash your face. Wash your hands and your feet. Walk a bit. If you go to pray, you will feel sleepy. If you have to study, will you feel sleepy. Sleep tries to overtake you only when you set out to do something important. That is satan’s work—to spoil everything. When you are doing something that will make you progress satan tries to prevent you. If you go away from him onto the other path, he tries to block you. If you go the other way you will escape so he tries to pull you onto his side. Therefore, if you have faith in God, certitude and determination you must shrug that drowsiness away. Take the cow for example. Even if there are flies on his body, no matter where the flies may be, the cow uses his tail to beat them away. In the same way, in your feeling, in your awareness, as you feel the sleep coming over you, you must drive it away. It was because your determination was flagging at the time, that sleep came over you. A certain person working for a company was given $100,000.00 and told that he had to deliver it to another company in a distant city. When you are entrusted with such a duty, you have to be very, very vigilant. When you are on that journey, you have the conviction that you have to be vigilant and very, very attentive. So even if sleep tried to overtake you, you would fight to keep awake. Even if the journey takes two days, you would drive sleep away, because you have to be very, very attentive to safeguard that money. And the moment you hand over the money to the other company, then you would not want food or water or anything; you would just drop down and immediately fall asleep. Similarly, in whatever you may try to do, if you have enough determination and conviction, sleep will not overtake you. If you have the faith and the certitude, you will only want to do that thing which needs to be done. You would not give in to sleep. Darkness sets in only if the light goes out. As long as the lamp is burning, darkness cannot come. And similarly, if you have faith, determination, certitude, and wisdom in your heart in each thing you do, then the darkness will not come. If not, the darkness will come. In the same way that the darkness came when the lamp went out, sleep can come and overtake you when your faith is shaking or weak. Do you understand? Questioner: Yes A parent asks: This kind of goes with the previous question. We have been trying to get our son up for Dhikr. And he has been going to bed earlier. We haven’t been bringing him to break fast at night (Ramadan). But when I wake him up, it takes like twenty minutes to even get him to stir. And like this morning I let him go back to sleep. Should we make him get up? Bawa Muhaiyaddeen: Suppose you have to make an important journey, and you are going by a horse-drawn cart or a cart drawn by a bull. Suppose the bull or the horse is sleeping. You would get it up and hitch it onto the cart, wouldn’t you? If you start to wonder if you should wake it up and hitch it to the cart or let it sleep you would never go on this journey. It is something very important. You have to go on this important journey. Similarly, if you want to train your children on the good path, on the right path, get them up! That is an extremely important duty. The parent: I shouldn’t fear him turning against the whole thing? That is what I fear. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen: That which will not bend when it is five will surely not bend when it is sixty. If he does not want to wake up then he has already turned away from the whole thing—so what is the use of you worrying about it. What does it matter if he gets turned away now or later? If you don’t wake him up you are allowing him to turn away. If you wake him up you at least tried—you do your part and he has a chance. He must live as a man here and grow in wisdom. If you do not see that he will live as a man here and now, what is the use of fearing that he will be turning to the other side later? Get him up with love. Wake him up with patience and love. Teach him wisdom. Only then will he be your child. Otherwise it will surely be difficult. Similarly, if you want to train your children on the good path, on the right path, get them up! That is an extremely important duty. If a child tries to draw mil from the backside of a cow, all you will get is urine and the dung of the cow. So stop him. Show him where the milk comes from. Similarly, if you train the child for a few days—it might take some time but he will get up. Train the child for a few days, then he will get up at the right time. Look at the little baby that wants milk at three A.M. He gets up doesn’t he? If he learns to get up at a particular time, if you train him and say, ‘You must get up at 3 o’clock for prayers’ and if you train him like this regularly, he will get used to it. If you get used to getting up at that time, after a while it becomes automatic. If you are used to a siesta after lunch, then the moment you finish eating you will fall sleepy, because you are used to that idea. But if you change your thought and say you shouldn’t sleep and get used to that, then you will stay awake. Try your best. Try with wisdom, with patience and love. Teach him in a loving way. Copyright: Q & A Session: May 29, 1986 Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship Family Newsletter Nov - Dec 1999
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