الصَّلاةُ خَيْرٌ مِن الْنَّوْمِ: Why is the prayer better than sleep?

At least regarding the grammar of the sentence, the Arabic sentence الصَّلاةُ خَيْرٌ مِن الْنَّوْمِ means “prayer is better than sleep”.

You might know that in Sunni Islam there is a special line that the muezzin says if he calls people to come to pray during dawn: الصَّلاةُ خَيْرٌ مِن الْنَّوْمِ (as-salatu khayrun min an-nawm). This is only said for the الْفَجْر-prayer (fajr).

This is an interesting grammatical construction. We do not use the regular اِسْم التَّفْضِيل – ism -al-Tafdeel – here, following the pattern: أَفْعَل – which would denote a comparative or superlative meaning.

So, why do we translate the word with a comparative meaning?

The word خَيْرٌ is usually translated as good, which is correct. However, it also has another meaning – the meaning of a اِسْم تَفْضِيل.

The word خَيْر has the same meaning as أَحْسَن – better.

Let us have a closer look at some examples:

What is the DNA of the word خَيْر?

The word for better was originally أَخْيَر – but it was changed into خَيْر.

This happened a long time ago as in the Qur'an, خَيْر is already used in the meaning of better.

The word comes from the root خ – ي – ر. The corresponding I-verb is خارَ.

Watch out for the correct plural:

There are other words which follow the same logic as خَيْرٌ, for example, the word شَرٌّ (bad or evil), but it is less common.

Watch out: If you use خَيْرٌ or شَرٌّ in a إِضافة-construction, they have the meaning of the superlative.

• In Arabic, you don't use the definite article, although it has a definite meaning in English.
•  As it is a إِضافة-construction, the word خَيْر doesn't get nunation.

The special line of the morning prayer call in other languages:

• Hindi: नमाज़ नींद से बेहतर है (namaz neend se behtar hai)
• Deutsch: Das Gebet ist besser als der Schlaf

• What are the best Christmas gifts for Arabic nerds in 2023?
• Collective nouns in Arabic: Do you use the same word for camels and a camel?
• What gender should you use for Arabic grammar terms?
• “He gives it to me” – How to add two pronoun suffixes in Arabic
• When do you have to use إِنَّ in Arabic?

Picture credit: Image by Mücahit Yıldız from Pixabay