The Taʿawwudh: Seeking Refuge

1. How Is the Command Connected to the Sūrah? §

The verse contains two instances of the letter فَـ, and each connects something different.

• The فَـ in فَاسْتَعِذْ connects seeking refuge to recitation.
• The فَـ in فَإِذَا connects the entire command to the preceding passage of Sūrat al-Naḥl.

The connection to recitation raises the question of timing: is refuge sought before or after it? The connection to the preceding passage raises the question addressed here: why does this instruction appear at this point in the sūrah?

Ibn ʿĀshūr describes the connection as hidden and subtle:

مَوْقِعُ فَاءِ التَّفْرِيعِ هُنَا خَفِيٌّ وَدَقِيقٌ، وَلِذَلِكَ تَصَدَّى بَعْضُ حُذَّاقِ الْمُفَسِّرِينَ إِلَى الْبَحْثِ عَنْهُ

The place of the fāʾ of consequence here is hidden and subtle. For this reason, some of the most skilled commentators set themselves to investigating it.^⁠[60]

Explanations at a Glance §

The Developing Argument §

The first explanation begins with the preceding promise:

﴿مَنْ عَمِلَ صَالِحًا مِنْ ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنْثَى وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْرَهُمْ بِأَحْسَنِ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ٩٧﴾

“Whoever does righteousness, whether male or female, while being a believer, We will surely grant them a good life, and We will surely reward them according to the best of what they used to do.” (16:97)

Al-Zamakhsharī understands the command to seek refuge as a continuation of this discussion. Reciting the Qurʾān is a righteous deed, and seeking refuge belongs among the deeds for which Allah grants abundant reward.

The connection is understandable, but it remains general. Many actions are righteous deeds. This explanation does not tell us why seeking refuge is attached specifically to reciting the Qurʾān. Ibn ʿĀshūr therefore judges the connection weak:

وَهُوَ إِبْدَاءُ مُنَاسَبَةٍ ضَعِيفَةٍ لَا تَقْتَضِي تَمَكُّنَ ارْتِبَاطِ أَجْزَاءِ النَّظْمِ

This presents a weak correspondence that does not establish a firm connection between the parts of the composition.^⁠[61]

The next explanation moves the discussion forward. The point is not merely that recitation is a righteous deed, but that every righteous deed is exposed to Satan’s attempts to spoil it. Al-Rāzī therefore connects the command with the protection of good deeds from whispering.^⁠[62]

Abū al-Suʿūd develops the same idea. Since reward depends on the goodness of the deed, the verse teaches the believer how to preserve that goodness by keeping the deed free from what would corrupt it.

This is stronger than the first explanation because it gives seeking refuge a clear function. The reader is not simply performing another rewarded act. He is asking Allah to protect the act he is about to perform.

Ibn ʿĀshūr identifies one remaining difficulty. Satan tries to spoil prayer, charity, remembrance, and every other righteous action. The explanation has not yet shown why this command belongs particularly at the entrance to Qurʾānic recitation:

لَا وَجْهَ لِتَخْصِيصِ الِاسْتِعَاذَةِ بِإِرَادَةِ قِرَاءَةِ الْقُرْآنِ

There is no basis here for restricting seeking refuge specifically to the intention to recite the Qurʾān.^⁠[63]

Ibn ʿAṭiyya avoids that difficulty by treating the first فَـ as a normal connector between two statements.^⁠[64] This may explain the grammar, but it does not explain the placement. The verse is joined to what precedes it, but the reader is still left asking why the command appears here.

Al-Ṭībī completes the argument by looking further back in the sūrah. In verse 89, Allah says:

﴿وَنَزَّلْنَا عَلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ تِبْيَانًا لِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ﴾

“We sent down to you the Book as a clarification of everything.” (16:89)

The intervening verses contain commands, prohibitions, promises, and warnings. They show something of the guidance the Book contains. Verse 98 then brings the reader back to the Book itself: as you begin to recite this source of guidance and clarification, seek Allah’s protection from Satan’s interference.^⁠[65]

The wider passage thus explains the particular command. Recitation is an encounter with the guidance just described, and the reader seeks protection in receiving it.

Conclusion §

Al-Ṭībī’s explanation brings the placement and purpose together. The command belongs here because the passage has been describing the Book’s guidance; recitation receives special mention because it brings the reader to that guidance. Al-Rāzī’s explanation supplies a supporting insight: this righteous deed, like others, needs protection from whispering and corruption.

The reader therefore asks Allah to guard both the reading and the reception of what is read. The request prepares him to attend to the Book’s guidance and act upon it. And Allah knows best.

2. Is Refuge Sought Before or After Recitation? §

The practical order is familiar: seek refuge, then read. The wording of the verse presents a question worth examining, because at first it appears to place refuge after recitation:

﴿فَإِذَا قَرَأْتَ الْقُرْآنَ فَاسْتَعِذْ﴾

“When you have recited the Qurʾān, seek refuge.” (16:98)

The appearance comes from two features working together. The verb قَرَأْتَ has the past form, “you have recited,” while the فَـ in فَاسْتَعِذْ ordinarily places one action after another. How, then, does seeking refuge before reading agree with the command?

The answer requires attention to both Arabic usage and transmitted practice. A grammatical possibility must be considered, and reports assigning it to early authorities must also be examined.

Three Positions at a Glance §

The Developing Argument §

The position favoring refuge after recitation begins with the apparent sequence of the verse. If فَـ means “and then,” the verse appears to say: first recite, and then seek refuge.

Al-Rāzī states the apparent argument directly:

الفاء في قوله: فاستعذ بالله للتعقيب فظاهر هذه الآية يدل على أن الاستعاذة بعد قراءة القرآن وإليه ذهب جماعة من الصحابة والتابعين

The connecting fāʾ makes the apparent sense place refuge after recitation, and a group of the Companions and Successors adopted that view.^⁠[66]

This interpretation was not without a stated purpose. Recitation earns reward, while Satan tries to spoil righteous deeds through whispering. On this account, refuge is sought afterward to ask Allah to protect the reward that has just been earned.^⁠[67]

The view favoring refuge after recitation was attributed to a number of early authorities.

Al-Qurṭubī records one form of the attribution:

روي عن أبي هريرة أن الاستعاذة بعد القراءة، وقاله داود

It was reported from Abū Hurayra that refuge comes after recitation, and Dāwūd held that view.^⁠[68]

Al-Rāzī names al-Nakhaʿī, Dāwūd al-Ẓāhirī, and one of the two reports from Ibn Sīrīn. Other accounts add Abū Hurayra, Mālik, Ḥamza, and Abū Ḥātim al-Sijistānī.^{⁠[69]⁠[70]⁠[71]}

The attribution to Ḥamza and Abū Ḥātim can be traced further. Ibn al-Jazarī identifies its source as Abū al-Qāsim al-Hudhalī’s al-Kāmil. Al-Hudhalī reports that Ḥamza sought refuge after completing the recitation and adds that Abū Ḥātim held the same view.^⁠[72]

Ibn al-Jazarī then examines these reports rather than treating the collection of names as proof:

• The report from Ḥamza has a broken chain.

• The attribution to Abū Ḥātim is absent from the works of the principal authorities who recorded his transmissions and preferences.

• The report from Abū Hurayra passes through Ṣāliḥ b. Abī Ṣāliḥ al-Kūfī, whom Ibn al-Jazarī calls weak and feeble, and Ibrāhīm b. Muḥammad al-Aslamī, whose weakness he then states. Even if accepted, the report may describe seeking refuge before the sūrah following al-Fātiḥah, not after recitation has ended.

  أجمع أهل النقل والحديث على ضعفه ولم يوثقه سوى الشافعي

  The specialists of transmission and hadith agreed upon Ibrāhīm b. Muḥammad al-Aslamī’s weakness, and no one declared him reliable except al-Shāfiʿī.^⁠[73]

• Nothing sound is established from Ibn Sīrīn or Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī.

  فلا يصح عن واحد منهما عند أهل النقل

  Nothing is soundly established from either of them according to the specialists of transmission.^⁠[74]

• The attribution to Mālik was rejected by Ibn al-ʿArabī as unsupported by either transmission or reasoning.

• The attribution to Dāwūd al-Ẓāhirī is contradicted by Ibn Ḥazm’s statement that refuge comes before recitation.

The minority interpretation therefore has a grammatical argument and an intelligible purpose, but no soundly established body of authorities stands behind it.

The majority understand the wording in its ordinary Arabic sense of beginning or intending an action.

Ibn al-Jazarī rejects reliance on the surface wording alone:

وأما الاستدلال بظاهر الآية فغير صحيح، بل هي جارية على أصل لسان العرب وعرفه، وتقديرها عند الجمهور: إذا أردت القراءة فاستعذ

As for arguing from the apparent wording, that is not correct. It follows ordinary Arabic speech. According to the majority, its understood meaning is: when you intend to recite, seek refuge.^⁠[75]

Al-Wāḥidī explains:

فَإِذَا قَرَأْتَ الْقُرْآنَ أَيْ: إِذَا أَرَدْتَ أَنْ تَقْرَأَ الْقُرْآنَ

When you recite the Qurʾān means: when you intend to recite the Qurʾān.^⁠[76]

The Qurʾān uses the same construction for ablution:

﴿إِذَا قُمْتُمْ إِلَى الصَّلَاةِ فَاغْسِلُوا وُجُوهَكُمْ وَأَيْدِيَكُمْ﴾

“When you rise for prayer, wash your faces and your hands.” (5:6)

A person performs ablution before the prayer. The meaning is: when you intend to rise for prayer, wash first. In the same way, when you intend to recite, seek refuge first. Al-Baghawī applies this construction consistently, while al-Qurṭubī supports it with an Arabic poetic example in which a past form refers to what will happen later.^{⁠[77]⁠[78]}

Ibn al-Jazarī reaches the same conclusion without depending entirely on the insertion of “intend.” He explains that the verse follows normal Arabic usage and prefers the meaning:

إِذَا ابْتَدَأْتَ وَشَرَعْتَ

When you begin and set out.^⁠[79]

On this reading, the verse does not describe completed recitation. It describes the moment at which the reader enters it.

After examining the competing reports, Ibn al-Jazarī gives the final judgment:

وَهُوَ قَبْلَ الْقِرَاءَةِ إِجْمَاعًا، وَلَا يَصِحُّ قَوْلٌ بِخِلَافِهِ عَنْ أَحَدٍ مِمَّنْ يُعْتَبَرُ قَوْلُهُ

It is before recitation by consensus, and no contrary position is soundly established from anyone whose view carries recognized weight.^⁠[80]

Al-Rāzī proposes a third position in his own voice. The Taʿawwudh would be said before recitation according to the Prophetic report and after it according to the apparent sequence of the verse. He presents this as a way of combining both proofs.

Ibn al-Jazarī rejects that reconciliation. The established evidence places the Taʿawwudh before recitation, while the arguments for adding it afterward do not establish a second practice.^⁠[81]

Conclusion §

The established order is refuge before recitation. The verse addresses the moment of beginning or setting out to read, and the reports examined here do not establish a sound practice to the contrary. Adding a second Taʿawwudh after the reading is likewise unsupported.

The language, the transmitted practice, and the purpose come together at that beginning. The reader seeks protection as he enters the Qurʾān, when distraction and whispering may interfere with what he is about to do. And Allah knows best.

3. Is the Taʿawwudh Obligatory or Recommended? §

Allah gives a direct command:

﴿فَاسْتَعِذْ بِاللَّهِ﴾

“Seek refuge in Allah.” (16:98)

In Islamic legal reasoning, a command normally indicates an obligation unless other evidence shows that recommendation is intended. The disagreement concerns whether such evidence exists here.

The practical consequence is important. If the Taʿawwudh is recommended, omitting it means missing a good practice, but the recitation and prayer remain valid. If it is obligatory, deliberate omission is sinful. Dāwūd’s followers took the latter position so far that they invalidated the prayer of someone who omitted it.

Three Positions at a Glance §

The Majority Position §

Most scholars held that the Taʿawwudh is recommended rather than strictly required:

وَجُمْهُورُ الْعُلَمَاءِ عَلَى أَنَّ الِاسْتِعَاذَةَ مُسْتَحَبَّةٌ لَيْسَتْ بِمُتَحَتِّمَةٍ يَأْثَمُ تَارِكُهَا

“The majority of scholars hold that seeking refuge is recommended, not binding such that one who leaves it sins.” (Ibn Kathīr)^⁠[82]

How does the majority reach recommendation from a command? Its principal argument is found in the Prophet’s ﷺ teaching of the man who performed his prayer badly. He taught the man the actions needed for a valid prayer and did not mention the Taʿawwudh.^⁠[83] Al-Jaṣṣāṣ draws the consequence: had it been obligatory, the Prophet ﷺ would not have left it out while teaching him how to pray correctly.^⁠[84]

On this reading, the command directs the reader to an encouraged practice. It retains its force as guidance without making the Taʿawwudh an absolute condition of valid recitation. The ruling applies inside and outside prayer.

This is the broad position recorded from the Companions, the Successors, and later scholars. Among its holders are Abū Ḥanīfa and his companions, Aḥmad and his companions, Isḥāq, and most Shāfiʿīs; within the Shāfiʿī school, it was regarded as the sound report from al-Shāfiʿī.^⁠[85] Al-Baghawī’s description of the practice as a sunna conveys the same distinction: it is encouraged rather than required.^⁠[86]

The Obligation Position §

The clearest early statement of obligation comes from ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ:

الِاسْتِعَاذَةُ وَاجِبَةٌ لِكُلِّ قِرَاءَةٍ فِي الصَّلَاةِ وَغَيْرِهَا

Seeking refuge is obligatory for every recitation, in the prayer and outside it.^⁠[87]

The words “every recitation” give this position its scope: the obligation is renewed with the act of reading, within prayer as well as outside it. Ibn Ḥazm later adopted and defended the position at length.^⁠[88]

The case for obligation joins the wording of the command to the need for protection. Its four connected arguments are:

1. فَاسْتَعِذْ is an imperative, and an imperative normally indicates obligation.
2. The Prophet ﷺ maintained the practice.
3. Repelling Satan’s interference is itself required.
4. Whatever is necessary to complete an obligation also becomes obligatory.^⁠[89]

The early attribution has a traceable route. Al-Jaṣṣāṣ transmits ʿAṭāʾ’s statement through Ibn Jurayj, and al-Dānī preserves it through that same route.^⁠[90] Al-Ālūsī traces it through ʿAbd al-Razzāq’s Muṣannaf and Ibn al-Mundhir; he separately reports the obligation position from al-Thawrī.^⁠[91] These details preserve who held the view and how it reached the later commentators.

Dāwūd ibn ʿAlī and his followers drew a stricter consequence from obligation: they held a prayer performed without the Taʿawwudh to be invalid.^⁠[92]

A third position is reported from Ibn Sīrīn:

إِذَا تَعَوَّذَ مَرَّةً وَاحِدَةً فِي عُمُرِهِ فَقَدْ كَفَى فِي إِسْقَاطِ الْوُجُوبِ

If he seeks refuge once in his lifetime, that suffices to discharge the obligation.^⁠[93]

This does not deny that the command creates an obligation. It treats the command as fulfilled once rather than renewed with every recitation.

Some sources claim consensus for the majority position.

Al-Sarakhsī expresses that claim as follows:

وهو مخالف للإجماع السلف فقد كانوا مجمعين على أنها سنة

This conflicts with the consensus of the early generations, for they agreed that it is a sunna.⁠^⁠[94]

A similar claim is reported from al-Ṭabarī, while al-Rāzī says that the remaining jurists disagreed with ʿAṭāʾ.^{⁠[95]⁠[96]}

The recommendation position was overwhelmingly dominant. Yet the preserved dissent of ʿAṭāʾ, Ibn Ḥazm, and Dāwūd prevents these consensus statements from being read as ijma'.

A separate caution concerns the way positions are transmitted. An authority may appear differently in discussions of obligation, placement, or repetition by rakʿah.^⁠[97] Each report needs to remain with the question it addresses; joining the reports into one unqualified ruling can conceal the distinction.

Conclusion §

The preferred position is recommendation. A person who omits the Taʿawwudh has missed an established practice, while the recitation and prayer remain valid. Recognizing that conclusion does not require erasing the early dissent associated with ʿAṭāʾ and later defended by Ibn Ḥazm, or assigning Dāwūd’s stricter invalidation ruling to all who held obligation.

For the reader, the result is a practice to value and maintain without treating every omission as the loss of a valid prayer. For the student, it is also a reminder to read a claim of consensus alongside the dissent the sources themselves preserve. And Allah knows best.

4. Which Words Does the Reciter Say? §

To know when to seek refuge leaves another question: what should the reader say? The verse commands the act without setting out one complete formula. For the wording, we turn to Prophetic reports and the practice transmitted by reciters and jurists.

The forms below belong to that record. Read the words together with the account of where they come from and when they were used. A phrase taught for entering the mosque, for example, should retain that setting when placed beside formulas used for recitation.

Six Principal Wordings §

Additional wordings are reported from early authorities. Such forms are at least permissible, but a wording established from the Prophet ﷺ has the stronger claim to be followed.^⁠[104]

The Standard Wording for Recitation §

The first and shortest form became the general wording used before Qurʾānic recitation:

أَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ

I seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the expelled.

Its standing rests on three connected facts:

1. It became the established practice. Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib calls it both the wording upon which practice rests and the preferred choice.^⁠[105]
2. It corresponds directly to the language of the Qurʾānic command. Ibn ʿAṭiyya says that the generality of people held to the wording found in Allah’s Book.^⁠[106]
3. It was adopted by reciters and jurists. Al-Dānī records it as the practice of the specialists in recitation and the position of the general body of jurists, including Abū Ḥanīfa, al-Shāfiʿī, and Aḥmad.^⁠[107]

Other forms nevertheless had substantial regional use. Al-Dānī reports that reciters in the two Sanctuaries (Mecca and Madina), Iraq, and Syria commonly added “the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing.” He also reports that many reciters in Egypt and the Islamic West used another extended form containing “the Magnificent.”^⁠[108]

Reports were also transmitted in support of preferring the short form. Al-Qurṭubī relates that Ibn Masʿūd used the form containing “the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing” and was corrected to the shorter wording, with the Prophet ﷺ saying:

هَكَذَا أَقْرَأَنِي جِبْرِيلُ

This is how Jibrīl taught me to recite it.^⁠[109]

Ibn al-Jazarī transmits the event through a chain of reciters reaching Ibn Masʿūd and describes that route as rare but good in its chain.^⁠[110] He also records a similar correction from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb to a student who used a longer form, though he describes its chain as gharib.^⁠[111]

Conclusion §

The familiar أَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ is the standard wording before recitation, generally used by the reciters and adopted by leading jurists. Its standing does not conflict with every other form transmitted in authentic hadith. Each retains its own source and setting, including the formula taught specifically for entering the mosque.

We have therefore answered which wording became the normal recitational practice. The next question is more exacting: what do the Prophetic reports themselves establish about the short form and its additions? Keeping these questions distinct lets each kind of evidence speak to the matter it actually answers. And Allah knows best.

5. Is the Short Wording Established by Hadith? §

A wording can have an established place in recitational practice while a particular claim about its Prophetic transmission still requires examination. That distinction matters for the familiar short form:

أَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ

I seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the expelled.

Here the question is deliberately narrow: is there a complete report showing the Prophet ﷺ using these words by themselves, in prayer? Those limits matter when weighing an answer.

The Evidence at a Glance §

What the Prophetic Reports Establish §

Al-Albānī found no complete hadith showing the Prophet ﷺ confining himself to the short wording in prayer:

وَأَمَّا الِاقْتِصَارُ عَلَى أَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ فَلَمْ نَجِدْ فِي ذَلِكَ حَدِيثًا

As for confining oneself to ‘I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan,’ we found no hadith for that.^⁠[114]

What he found was a mursal report from al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī in Marāsīl Abī Dāwūd.^⁠[115] In this kind of report, a Successor attributes words or an action directly to the Prophet ﷺ without identifying the person from whom he received the report. Al-Albānī notes that most hadith scholars do not accept such a report as proof. A second limit remains even apart from the chain: this report does not identify prayer as its setting.^⁠[116]

The fuller wording has a different evidentiary basis. Its routes come through five Companions:

1. Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī
2. Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim
3. Ibn Masʿūd
4. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb
5. Abū Umāma

Taken together, these routes establish the addition:

مِنْ هَمْزِهِ وَنَفْخِهِ وَنَفْثِهِ

From his prompting, his puffing, and his blowing.^⁠[117]

Al-Albānī’s judgment is specific:

فَالِاسْتِعَاذَةُ مِنْ هَذِهِ الْأَشْيَاءِ الثَّلَاثَةِ الشَّيْطَانِيَّةِ صَحِيحٌ ثَابِتٌ بِمَجْمُوعِ هَذِهِ الطُّرُقِ

Seeking refuge from these three satanic things is sound and established through the combined force of these routes.^⁠[118]

The addition “the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing” is established in the hadith of Abū Saʿīd through a ḥasan chain. Al-Albānī therefore recommends saying it sometimes.^⁠[119]

This hadith assessment does not erase the established practice of the reciters and jurists. It answers a different question. The short wording is their normal transmitted practice, while the fuller additions have the clearer support in the Prophetic reports examined here.

Does the Verse Prescribe the Short Wording? §

The Qurʾān says:

﴿فَاسْتَعِذْ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ﴾

“Seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the expelled.” (16:98)

The short form closely follows this language. Does that closeness establish it as the only complete formula intended by the command? Al-Albānī answers by distinguishing the act commanded from the words used to perform it:

وَلَا يَخْفَى أَنَّ الْآيَةَ مُجْمَلَةٌ؛ لَيْسَ فِيهَا بَيَانُ صِفَةِ الِاسْتِعَاذَةِ؛ فَوَجَبَ الرُّجُوعُ فِي ذَلِكَ إِلَى السُّنَّةِ

The verse does not explain the form of seeking refuge, so the matter must be referred to the Sunna.^⁠[120]

Abū Shāma makes a related point but states it more precisely. He describes the verse as unrestricted, not as fixing one formula. Its command is fulfilled when the reader genuinely seeks refuge in Allah from Satan:

فَبِأَيِّ لَفْظٍ فَعَلَ الْمُخَاطَبُ فَقَدْ حَصَلَ الْمَقْصُودُ

By whatever wording the person addressed does it, the intended purpose has been achieved.^⁠[121]

He then distinguishes between fulfilling the command and using the complete Qurʾānic form. A person who says only:

أَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ

I seek refuge in Allah from Satan

has performed an act of seeking refuge, although he has omitted الرَّجِيمِ and therefore has not used the complete wording. Abū Shāma calls the familiar Qurʾānic form أَدْنَى الْكَمَالِ, the minimum complete form.^⁠[122]

He also examines two reports used to support the exact short wording. He judges both weak and says that the first has no basis in the books of the hadith scholars.^⁠[123]

Differences in the transmitted formulas also appear within the reports from individual authorities. Al-Shāfiʿī is reported with the first and second forms. Aḥmad is reported with the first, second, and fifth. Ḥamza and Ibn Sīrīn are likewise associated with more than one wording. These are differences among their transmitters and should not be turned into an unsupported account of the authority changing his position.

The Practical Conclusion §

The hadith evidence and the established recitational practice answer different questions. Ibn ʿUthaymīn gives the practical conclusion without collapsing that distinction:

• Whoever uses the fuller wording has done nothing wrong.
• Whoever confines himself to أَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ has done enough.^⁠[124]

And Allah knows best.

6. Is It Repeated in Every Rakʿah? §

Each rakʿah brings another recitation of al-Fātiḥah. Does it also bring a new beginning for the Taʿawwudh, or does the recitation of the prayer remain one act throughout? The disagreement turns largely on that question. It concerns what counts as a new recitation, as well as how the general command applies within prayer.

Three Positions at a Glance §

For the majority, the prayer contains one continuous recitation, so the Taʿawwudh in the first rakʿah suffices. Ibn al-Qayyim explains what holds the recitations together: the words between them are remembrance belonging to the prayer, rather than an unrelated interruption.^⁠[125]

This position is reported from ʿAṭāʾ, al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, al-Nakhaʿī, al-Thawrī, Ibn Sīrīn, Ṭāwūs, Abū Ḥanīfa, al-Shāfiʿī, and Aḥmad in one narration.^⁠[126] Some of these names also appear in the reports for the other position.

The opposing view treats each rakʿah as a fresh recitation. It is reported from al-Nakhaʿī and Ibn Sīrīn, appears in another narration from Aḥmad, and is adopted by Ibn Ḥazm. It is also one of the two positions in the Shāfiʿī school, and al-Nawawī calls it the sounder of the two.^⁠[127]

Al-Shāfiʿī therefore appears on both sides because two positions are transmitted from him. Ibn Kathīr reports both and says that non-repetition after the first rakʿah was preferred.^⁠[128]

Mālik’s position stands apart. He held that the Taʿawwudh is not said in the obligatory prayers, although it is said in the night prayer of Ramaḍān.^⁠[129] Ibn Juzayy identifies his evidence as the practice of the people of Madīna. The opposing argument is that the Qurʾānic command applies generally to recitation inside and outside prayer.^⁠[130]

Ibn ʿUthaymīn chooses the first position:

الَّذِي يَظْهَرُ لِي أَنَّ قِرَاءَةَ الصَّلَاةِ وَاحِدَةٌ، فَتَكُونُ الِاسْتِعَاذَةُ فِي أَوَّلِ رَكْعَةٍ

What appears to me is that the recitation of the prayer is one, so the seeking of refuge occurs in the first rakʿah.^⁠[131]

He adds an important exception. If someone joins the imam while the imam is bowing, that person has not recited in the first rakʿah. His first recitation occurs in the second, so that is when he says the Taʿawwudh.^⁠[132]

If Satanic whispering troubles someone during the prayer, the person may seek refuge again at that moment, following the hadith of ʿUthmān ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ.^⁠[133]

Conclusion §

The preferred practice is to say the Taʿawwudh once, before the recitation in the first rakʿah. If a person’s first actual recitation occurs in a later rakʿah, he says it then.

And Allah knows best.

7. Is It Said Aloud or Quietly? §

The voice has a purpose as well as a volume. Outside prayer, it may alert someone that recitation is about to begin; inside prayer, the listener has already entered the act of worship. Keeping those settings apart makes the transmitted practices easier to understand.

Outside the Prayer §

When someone is listening, the preferred practice among the leading reciters is to say the Taʿawwudh aloud.

Ibn al-Jazarī states the transmitted norm:

أن المختار عند الأئمة القراء هو الجهر بها عن جميع القراء، لا نعلم في ذلك خلافًا عن أحد منهم إلا ما جاء عن حمزة وغيره

The preferred practice among the leading reciters is to say it aloud for all the reciters. We know of no disagreement except what is transmitted from Ḥamza and others.^⁠[134]

He explains the purpose in terms of the listener. Hearing the Taʿawwudh tells the listener that recitation is beginning, allowing silence and attention from its first word.^⁠[135]

Exceptions were transmitted from Nāfiʿ through al-Musayyabī, Ḥamza through both transmitted routes, Warsh through one route, and Qālūn through Abū Isḥāq al-Ṭabarī.^⁠[136]

The preference for an audible voice applies when someone is listening. The Taʿawwudh is said quietly when:

• the reader is alone;
• the recitation itself is quiet; or
• the reader is taking a later turn in a recitation circle rather than beginning it.^⁠[137]

Here “quietly” means speaking in a lowered voice, not merely forming the words silently within oneself. Ibn al-Jazarī records this as the majority interpretation and the correct one:

وقال الجمهور: المراد به الإسرار … وهذا هو الصواب

The majority said that what is meant is saying it quietly, and this is correct.^⁠[138]

Inside the Prayer §

Inside the prayer, Abū Shāma states his preference for saying the Taʿawwudh quietly:

المختار في الصلاة الاخفاء

The preferred practice in prayer is to say it quietly.^⁠[139]

This practice is reported from the four caliphs, Ibn ʿUmar, Ibn Masʿūd, al-Nakhaʿī, Abū Ḥanīfa, and Aḥmad. Saying it aloud is reported from Abū Hurayra and preferred by al-Shāfiʿī in al-Imlāʾ. A third position leaves the worshipper free to choose.^⁠[140]

Saying it quietly is preferable except when there is a need, such as teaching. The supporting argument, taken from al-Sarakhsī, is that regularly saying it aloud was not transmitted from the Prophet ﷺ. Had he done so, it would have been widely reported.^⁠[141]

Ibn Taymiyyah draws the practical boundary between an occasional need and a fixed practice:

الجهر بالتعوذ أحيانًا للتعليم ونحوه لا بأس به … وأما المداومة على الجهر بذلك، فبدعة

Saying the Taʿawwudh aloud occasionally for teaching or a similar need is permissible. Persisting in saying it aloud is an innovation.^⁠[142]

His objection concerns making the raised voice a regular habit contrary to the practice of the Prophet ﷺ and the rightly guided caliphs. The permission for occasional teaching remains part of the ruling.

Abū Shāma explains why the rule differs inside prayer. Outside prayer, raising the voice alerts the listener that recitation is beginning. Inside prayer, the follower has already been listening since the opening takbīr, so that purpose has already been achieved.^⁠[143]

Conclusion §

The practical distinction follows the setting. Inside prayer, the preferred practice is quiet recitation of the Taʿawwudh. Outside prayer, an audible voice serves those who are listening; when reading alone or quietly, the voice is lowered. An occasional need to teach may justify raising it, while making that the permanent practice remains a different matter. And Allah knows best.

8. Where Does the Word Shayṭān Come From? §

A single letter opens this discussion. Does the final nūn in شَيْطَان belong to the root, or has it been added? Each answer leads to a different root and pattern, and with them a different account of the word’s meaning. The evidence of Arabic usage will help us weigh the two.

The Two Derivations at a Glance §

The First Derivation: Distance §

On the majority position, the root is ش-ط-ن, which means to be far away. The nūn is therefore part of the root, and the word follows the pattern فَيْعَال.

Al-Ṭabarī begins with ordinary Arabic usage:

شَطَنَتْ دَارِي مِنْ دَارِكَ

My home is far from your home.

He then gives the wider definition:

وَالشَّيْطَانُ فِي كَلَامِ الْعَرَبِ كُلُّ مُتَمَرِّدٍ مِنَ الْجِنِّ وَالْإِنْسِ وَالدَّوَابِّ وَكُلِّ شَيْءٍ

In the speech of the Arabs, a shayṭān is every rebel among the jinn, human beings, animals, and other creatures.^⁠[144]

Two transmitted examples illustrate this broader use.

The Prophet ﷺ told Abū Dharr to seek refuge from the devils of human beings and jinn:

شَيَاطِينِ الْإِنْسِ وَالْجِنِّ

The devils of human beings and jinn.^⁠[145]

When Abū Dharr asked whether human beings could also be devils, the Prophet ﷺ answered that they could.^⁠[146]

The word was also applied to an animal. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb mounted a heavy horse that began swaggering beneath him. Striking it only made it swagger more, so he dismounted and said:

مَا حَمَلْتُمُونِي إِلَّا عَلَى شَيْطَانٍ

You have mounted me on nothing but a devil.^⁠[147]

In each case, the word describes extreme rebellion rather than identifying every bearer as the particular Satan from whom refuge is sought.

The pattern فَيْعَال is intensive. It indicates that Satan has reached the furthest degree of distance from goodness and mercy.^⁠[148]

The Second Derivation: Ruin or Destruction §

The minority position derives شَيْطَان from شَاطَ يَشِيطُ, meaning to burn or to perish.

وقيل: هو فعلان، من شاط يشيط إذا هلك؛ فالمتمرد هالك بتمرده

It was also said that the word follows faʿlān and comes from shāṭa yashīṭu, when something perishes. The rebel is destroyed by his rebellion.^⁠[149]

On this analysis, the root is ش-ي-ط, the nūn is additional, and the word follows the pattern فَعْلَان.

Al-ʿUkbarī gives two possible meanings:

1. Satan is one who has destroyed himself through rebellion:

   فَالْمُتَمَرِّدُ هَالِكٌ بِتَمَرُّدِهِ

   The rebel is destroyed by his rebellion.

2. He is named for the intensity with which he destroys others:

   وَيَجُوزُ أَنْ يَكُونَ سُمِّيَ بِفَعْلَانَ لِمُبَالَغَتِهِ فِي إِهْلَاكِ غَيْرِهِ

   It is also possible that he was named on the pattern faʿlān because of the intensity with which he destroys others.^⁠[150]

Both senses give the minority derivation an intelligible meaning: the rebel is ruined, or he is destructive. To choose between roots, however, we need more than a meaning that fits. We need to ask which forms Arabic speakers actually used.

The Evidence from Arabic Usage §

Two arguments favor the root ش-ط-ن.

1. The Derived Verb §

Sībawayh records that the Arabs say تَشَيْطَنَ فُلَانٌ, tashayṭana fulān, when a person acts like the devils.

أن سيبويه حكى أن العرب تقول: تشيطن فلان إذا فعل أفعال الشياطين، فهذا بين أنه تفعيل من شطن، ولو كان من شاط لقالوا: تشيّط

Sībawayh related that the Arabs say tashayṭana when a person acts like the devils. This shows that the word is derived from shaṭana. Had it come from shāṭa, they would have said tashayyaṭa.⁠^⁠[151]

That verb is formed from ش-ط-ن. If شَيْطَان came from شَاطَ, the expected verb would be تَشَيَّطَ, tashayyaṭa, not تَشَيْطَنَ.^⁠[152]

The form actually used by the Arabs therefore points to the nūn being part of the root.

2. The Poetic Evidence §

A line attributed to Umayya ibn Abī al-Ṣalt uses the word شَاطِن, shāṭin:

أَيُّمَا شَاطِنٍ عَصَاهُ عَكَاهُ

ثم يلقى في السجن والأكبال

“Any rebel who disobeyed him, he bound in chains;

then he is cast into prison and fetters.”^⁠[153]

Al-Ṭabarī argues that if the underlying verb were شَاطَ يَشِيطُ, the participle would have been شَائِط, shāʾiṭ, not شَاطِن.^⁠[154]

ولو كان فَعْلانَ من: شاط يَشِيطُ لقال: أيما شائطٍ

If it had been faʿlān from shāṭa yashīṭu, the poet would have said shāʾiṭ.⁠^⁠[155]

A line of al-Nābigha al-Dhubyānī gives distance a human setting:

نَأَتْ بِسُعَادَ عَنْكَ نَوًى شَطُونُ

فبانت والفؤادُ بها رَهِينُ

A distant road has carried Suʿād away from you;

she has gone, and the heart is captive to her.^⁠[156]

The word شَطُونُ describes the distance that separates them. The line supplies linguistic evidence through the familiar experience of separation.

Both the derived verb and the poetic usage point to ش-ط-ن.

Ibn Kathīr states the preference clearly:

الْأَوَّلُ أَصَحُّ، وَعَلَيْهِ يَدُلُّ كَلَامُ الْعَرَبِ

The first is sounder, and the speech of the Arabs points to it.^⁠[157]

Ibn Manẓūr preserves two supporting judgments in Lisān al-ʿArab: al-Azharī calls the first derivation more common, while al-Nihāya calls it sounder.^⁠[158]

Does Declension Settle the Question? §

A third argument concerns whether شَيْطَان accepts tanwīn, the final indefinite n sound.

If the word follows فَيْعَال from ش-ط-ن, it should accept tanwīn. If it follows فَعْلَان from ش-ي-ط, it may be treated like سَكْرَان and prevented from full declension.

فإن جعلته فيعالًا من قولهم تشيطن الرجل صرفته، وإن جعلته من شيط لم تصرفه لأنه فعلان

If you treat it as fayʿāl from their expression the man acted like a devil, you decline it fully. If you derive it from sh-y-ṭ, you do not decline it fully because it is faʿlān.⁠^⁠[159]

This seems to offer a decisive test, until the counter-evidence is considered. Ibn Barrī cites a poetic line in which شَيْطَانٌ is a proper name with tanwīn, yet uses it to support the opposite conclusion: the pattern is فَعْلَان and the nūn is additional.^⁠[160] Because declension has been argued in both directions, it cannot settle the dispute on its own.

Conclusion §

The stronger evidence lies in the forms Arabic actually gives us: the verb تَشَيْطَنَ and the poetic شَاطِن. They support ش-ط-ن, the root of distance, with the nūn belonging to the root and the word following فَيْعَال.

The derivation from burning or destruction remains a recognized minority explanation. Its possible meaning deserves to be recorded, while the evidence of usage gives the distance-root its stronger claim. Declension alone does not decide between them. And Allah knows best.

9. How the Commentators Read the Taʿawwudh §

The same brief formula opens different questions for its commentators. One follows an Arabic root, another tests a transmitted practice, and another considers the reader who is about to encounter the Qurʾān. Reading their treatments together shows how these concerns meet without making them interchangeable.

Al-Ṭabarī (d. 310 AH / 923 CE) §

Al-Ṭabarī begins Jāmiʿ al-Bayān with the Taʿawwudh under its own heading, before commencing his commentary on al-Fātiḥah. His treatment begins with the Arabic language.

He explains الِاسْتِعَاذَةُ through the synonym الِاسْتِجَارَةُ, seeking shelter.^⁠[161] He then returns الرَّجِيمِ to the physical meaning of its root:

وَأَصْلُ الرَّجْمِ الرَّمْيُ

The original meaning of rajm is throwing.^⁠[162]

From that physical act comes the meaning of someone pelted, expelled, and driven away.

His treatment of شَيْطَان follows the same method. Rather than selecting a root merely because it supplies a possible meaning, he tests what forms the Arabic language actually produces. The poetic form شَاطِن supports ش-ط-ن because a derivation from شَاطَ would have produced شَائِط.^⁠[163]

Al-Ṭabarī also defines what the speaker seeks protection from:

أَسْتَجِيرُ بِاللهِ دُونَ غَيْرِهِ مِنْ سَائِرِ خَلْقِهِ، مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ، أَنْ يَضُرَّنِي فِي دِينِي، أَوْ يَصُدَّنِي عَنْ حَقٍّ يَلْزَمُنِي لِرَبِّي

I seek shelter in Allah, rather than in any other part of His creation, from Satan, lest he harm me in my religion or prevent me from fulfilling a duty owed to my Lord.^⁠[164]

The protection named here is specific. It concerns harm to one’s religion and obstruction from an obligation owed to Allah.

Ibn ʿAṭiyya (d. 542 AH / 1147–48 CE) §

Ibn ʿAṭiyya addresses both the standard formula and the additional forms used by some reciters.

On the standard wording, his judgment is direct:

الَّذِي عَلَيْهِ جُمْهُورُ النَّاسِ هُوَ لَفْظُ كِتَابِ اللهِ تَعَالَى

What the generality of people follow is the wording of Allah’s Book.^⁠[165]

He also discusses reciters who substituted other divine attributes and descriptions of Satan, producing rhyming formulas, such as:

أَعُوذُ بِاللهِ الْمَجِيدِ، مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الْمَرِيدِ

I seek refuge in Allah, the Glorious, from Satan, the obstinate.

Al-Qurṭubī preserves Ibn ʿAṭiyya’s careful response. Ibn ʿAṭiyya does not praise the practice, but neither does he declare it impermissible:

مِمَّا لَا أَقُولُ فِيهِ: نِعْمَتِ الْبِدْعَةُ، وَلَا أَقُولُ: إِنَّهُ لَا يَجُوزُ

Of this I do not say, ‘What an excellent innovation,’ nor do I say that it is impermissible.^⁠[166]

His refusal to issue either verdict is deliberate. He records the practice while withholding both approval and prohibition.

Al-Rāzī (d. 606 AH / 1210 CE) §

Al-Rāzī presents the disagreements as arguments rather than merely listing their conclusions.

When discussing whether the Taʿawwudh comes before or after recitation, he begins with the apparent difficulty. The letter فَـ ordinarily indicates sequence, so the surface wording may appear to place seeking refuge after recitation.^⁠[167]

He then explains why the minority adopted that reading. Recitation earns a great reward. If Satan produces self-admiration or another corrupting whisper afterward, that reward may be lost. On their reasoning, refuge is sought after recitation to protect what has been earned.^⁠[168]

This does not make the minority position correct. Its importance is that al-Rāzī allows the reader to see the reasoning that produced it before presenting the majority’s answer.

He similarly preserves ʿAṭāʾ’s position that the Taʿawwudh is obligatory, while also recording that the other jurists did not accept it.

مذهب عطاء: أنه تجب الاستعاذة عند قراءة القرآن سواء كانت القراءة في الصلاة أو غيرها، وسائر الفقهاء اتفقوا على أنه ليس كذلك

ʿAṭāʾ held that seeking refuge is obligatory whenever the Qurʾān is recited, whether inside or outside prayer. The other jurists did not accept that position.^⁠[169]

The report of this disagreement predates al-Rāzī. Al-Jaṣṣāṣ transmits ʿAṭāʾ’s position through Ibn Jurayj, and al-Dānī also preserves that route.^{⁠[170]⁠[171]}

His distinctive contribution is therefore not simply the collection of views. He exposes the question beneath each disagreement, presents the argument that makes the minority view intelligible, and only then allows the evidence to be weighed.

Al-Qurṭubī (d. 671 AH / 1273 CE) §

Al-Qurṭubī organizes his treatment into twelve questions. This allows him to examine the Taʿawwudh from several angles without treating every disagreement as though it concerned the same issue.^⁠[172]

His legal discussion distinguishes between recitation outside the prayer and recitation inside it. Outside the prayer, he presents seeking refuge as the position of the majority. Inside the prayer, he records a wider disagreement over whether it is said, when it is said, and whether it should be repeated.

هذا الأمر على الندب في قول الجمهور في كل قراءة في غير الصلاة. واختلفوا فيه في الصلاة

According to the majority, this command indicates recommendation for every recitation outside prayer. They disagreed about it within prayer.^⁠[173]

This distinction matters because a ruling about prayer cannot automatically be extended to every act of recitation. Mālik’s reported practice in the obligatory prayer, for example, does not amount to a general rejection of the Taʿawwudh before reading the Qurʾān.

Al-Qurṭubī also preserves the linguistic test attributed to Sībawayh. The Arabic verb تَشَيْطَنَ supports deriving شَيْطَان from ش-ط-ن rather than from شَاطَ يَشِيطُ. If the latter had been the source, the expected verb would have been تَشَيَّطَ.^⁠[174]

His commentary is therefore especially useful for seeing the full range of the discussion. It brings together language, transmitted practice, legal disagreement, and the reasoning offered for competing positions.

Ibn Kathīr (d. 774 AH / 1373 CE) §

Ibn Kathīr begins with the difference between a human enemy and a satanic enemy.

A human enemy may sometimes be changed by kindness. The Qurʾān therefore tells the believer to respond to wrongdoing with what is better:

﴿ادْفَعْ بِالَّتِي هِيَ أَحْسَنُ﴾

“Repel evil with that which is better.” (41:34)

Satan cannot be reconciled in this way. He seeks the destruction of the human being because of his ancient enmity toward Adam and his descendants. The appropriate response is therefore to seek Allah’s protection.

Ibn Kathīr connects this distinction with three Qurʾānic passages:

1. Sūrat al-Aʿrāf 7:199–200
2. Sūrat al-Muʾminūn 23:96–98
3. Sūrat Fuṣṣilat 41:34–36

In each passage, the command to respond well to human wrongdoing is followed by a command to seek refuge when Satan provokes or whispers. Ibn Kathīr says that these are the three places in the Qurʾān where this particular connection appears.^⁠[175]

The order teaches two different responses:

• Meet human wrongdoing, where possible, with patience and good conduct.
• Meet satanic temptation by turning to Allah for protection.

This does not mean that every human aggressor will be persuaded by kindness or that ordinary means of protection should be abandoned. The point concerns the spiritual remedy appropriate to each kind of enemy.

In his discussion of prayer, Ibn Kathīr records two positions from al-Shāfiʿī concerning repetition of the Taʿawwudh. One position repeats it in every rakʿah. The other confines it to the first rakʿah, and Ibn Kathīr gives preference to non-repetition after the first.^⁠[176]

Ibn al-Jazarī (d. 833 AH / 1429 CE) §

Ibn al-Jazarī approaches the Taʿawwudh as a master of transmitted recitation. His principal concern is to determine what the reciters transmitted, through which routes, and with what strength.

This method is particularly important in the disagreement over whether refuge is sought before or after recitation. A long list of names may make the later position appear well established. Ibn al-Jazarī does not accept the number of attributions as proof. He examines the reports individually.

His findings are restrictive:

• The attribution to Ḥamza has a broken chain.
• The report from Abū Hurayra passes through weak transmitters.
• Nothing sound is established from Ibn Sīrīn or Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī.
• The attribution to Dāwūd al-Ẓāhirī is contradicted by Ibn Ḥazm’s account of the Ẓāhirī position.^⁠[177]

He therefore concludes that the established practice is to seek refuge before recitation. He understands the verse to mean:

إِذَا ابْتَدَأْتَ وَشَرَعْتَ

When you begin and set out.^⁠[178]

His contribution extends beyond this one disagreement. He also records:

• the wordings transmitted among the reciters;
• which readers or transmitters used particular additions;
• whether the Taʿawwudh was pronounced aloud or quietly;
• when it was repeated;
• and how the reader joined it to the Basmala and the opening of a sūrah.

He keeps these questions within the discipline of recitation. When he mentions the legal claim that seeking refuge is obligatory, he makes clear that resolving that legal question lies outside the specific remit of his work.^⁠[179]

A book of recitation may establish what the reciters transmitted without independently deciding every legal question attached to that practice.

Sayyid Quṭb (d. 1386 AH / 1966 CE) §

Sayyid Quṭb turns attention from the legal form of the command to the state of the reader.

The Qurʾān is guidance, but the reader approaches it while exposed to distraction, pride, desire, and satanic suggestion. Seeking refuge prepares the inner self to receive the words of Allah. It cleans the entrance through which the Qurʾān reaches the heart and renews the reader’s bond with his Lord.^⁠[180]

The following verses explain where Satan’s influence succeeds and where it fails:

﴿إِنَّهُ لَيْسَ لَهُ سُلْطَانٌ عَلَى الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَلَى رَبِّهِمْ يَتَوَكَّلُونَ٩٩﴾

﴿إِنَّمَا سُلْطَانُهُ عَلَى الَّذِينَ يَتَوَلَّوْنَهُ وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ بِهِ مُشْرِكُونَ١٠٠﴾

“He has no authority over those who believe and rely upon their Lord. His authority is only over those who take him as an ally and those who associate others with Allah.” (16:99–100)

The protection is therefore not attributed to the sounds of the formula by themselves. It is connected with faith, reliance upon Allah, and a sincere turning toward Him.

Sayyid Quṭb does not use this passage to determine whether the Taʿawwudh is legally obligatory, which wording is strongest by transmission, or whether it should be repeated in every rakʿah. His contribution concerns the spiritual purpose of the command: the reader enters the Qurʾān seeking freedom from the influence that would obstruct understanding, submission, and action.

Ibn ʿĀshūr (d. 1393 AH / 1973 CE) §

Ibn ʿĀshūr concentrates on the position of the command within Sūrat al-Naḥl. He describes the connection as hidden and subtle because the command appears after a long passage of instructions, promises, and warnings.^⁠[181]

He considers four explanations:

1. Seeking refuge is among the righteous deeds promised a reward.
2. It protects righteous deeds from Satan’s attempts to corrupt them.
3. The connecting letter merely joins one statement to another.
4. The command returns to the earlier description of the Qurʾān as guidance and clarification.

The explanations do not carry equal weight. The first gives only a general relationship. The second identifies an important purpose but does not fully explain why recitation is singled out. The third accounts for the grammar without explaining the meaning of the placement.

The fourth gives the most complete connection. Verse 89 describes the Book as a clarification of everything; the intervening passage then presents something of its guidance. Verse 98 returns the reader to the Book itself, teaching him to seek Allah’s protection from Satan’s interference as he begins to read.^⁠[182]

Ibn ʿĀshūr’s treatment shows how the placement of a verse contributes to its meaning. The Taʿawwudh is not merely attached to recitation as an isolated practice. It stands at the entrance to the Book through which divine guidance is received.

Ibn ʿUthaymīn (d. 1421 AH / 2001 CE) §

Ibn ʿUthaymīn’s treatment is practical and carefully tied to particular settings.

On the wording, he does not condemn the fuller transmitted forms or require them in every case. His conclusion is:

• Whoever uses the fuller wording has done nothing wrong.
• Whoever confines himself to أَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ has done enough.^⁠[183]

On repetition in prayer, he reasons that the prayer contains one continuous recitation. The Taʿawwudh is therefore said in the first rakʿah, not repeated automatically in every later one.

He identifies two exceptions:

1. If someone joins the imam while the imam is bowing, that person has not recited in the first rakʿah. The Taʿawwudh is said when that person first begins an actual recitation.
2. If satanic whispering troubles someone during the prayer, the person may seek refuge again at that moment, following the hadith of ʿUthmān ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ.^⁠[184]

His discussions of the legal ruling must remain attached to their respective contexts. In commenting on the Qurʾānic command, he observes that its apparent force supports obligation in general.^⁠[185] In his practical discussion of prayer, however, he classifies the Taʿawwudh as a sunna rather than an obligatory element of the prayer.^⁠[186]

These statements should not be compressed into a broader conclusion than Ibn ʿUthaymīn himself gives. One concerns the apparent force of the Qurʾānic command. The other states the legal ruling of the Taʿawwudh within the prayer.

His overall treatment preserves a clear sequence:

1. Seek refuge before beginning the recitation.
2. The familiar short wording is sufficient, while a fuller transmitted wording is permissible.
3. In prayer, say it with the first actual recitation.
4. Repeat it when a new need arises, such as active satanic whispering.

Taken together, the commentators examine the Taʿawwudh from complementary directions. Al-Qurṭubī gathers the range of questions. Ibn Kathīr explains the difference between human and satanic enmity. Ibn al-Jazarī tests the transmitted practices. Sayyid Quṭb describes the reader’s spiritual preparation. Ibn ʿĀshūr explains the command’s place in the sūrah. Ibn ʿUthaymīn states its practical application while keeping each ruling within its proper setting.

10. How Satan Changes His Approach §

Refusing an obvious wrong does not end the need for refuge. Temptation may return in a form that attracts less suspicion: a lawful activity given too much time, a good deed allowed to displace a better one, or worship mixed with the wish to be admired. The danger changes its appearance as the person resists it.

A graded sequence is mentioned by Ibn al-Qayyim. It begins with an attempt to lead the person into disbelief. If that fails, Satan descends from one aim to another. Al-Lāḥim’s summary describes that descent in these words:

فيوقعه في البدعة، فإن لم يستطع أوقعه في الكبائر، فإذ لم يستطع أوقعه في الصغائر، فإن لم يستطع ثبطه عن الطاعات وشغله بالمباحات، فإن لم يستطع شغله بالمفضول عن الفاضل، فإن لم يستطع ذلك أتاه من باب الإعجاب والكبر والرياء

He casts him into religious innovation. If he cannot, he casts him into major sins. If he cannot, he casts him into minor sins. If he cannot, he holds him back from acts of obedience and occupies him with permissible things. If he cannot, he occupies him with the lesser instead of the better. If he cannot do that, he approaches him through self-admiration, pride, and showing off.^⁠[187]

The Seven Stages at a Glance §

Notice how the sequence changes what the person must recognize. The early stages concern what is clearly false or sinful. Later, the activity may be lawful or good, and the danger lies in the place it has been given or the intention accompanying it.

From Open Sin to Misplaced Priorities §

The fifth stage reaches into ordinary choices. Rest, conversation, business, recreation, and time with others may be permissible or beneficial. The difficulty begins when they repeatedly push aside prayer, Qurʾān, learning, family responsibilities, or another act of obedience.

A person who refuses major sins still needs to consider these priorities. Asking “Is this allowed?” remains necessary, but the sequence teaches him to ask something further:

“What is this preventing me from doing?”

At the sixth stage, Satan does not even need to occupy the person with something merely permissible. He may occupy him with a genuine good so that a better good is neglected.

A person may choose the deed that is easier, more enjoyable, more visible, or more likely to receive praise. Meanwhile, a more urgent responsibility remains undone. The lesser deed remains good in itself. The harm lies in its displacing what should have taken priority.

The believer therefore asks two questions:

1. Is this a good action?
2. Is it the best action for me at this time?

This requires knowledge, honesty, and an awareness of one’s responsibilities. A good deed should not become a hiding place from a more important duty.

The Most Hidden Door §

The final stage is the most dangerous for people who are already known for good qualities:

وهذا - في الغالب - مدخله على كثير من العباد والعلماء وذوي الجاه والسلطان والكرم والشجاعة ونحوهم

This is generally his way in upon many worshippers, scholars, and people of standing, authority, generosity, courage, and similar qualities.^⁠[188]

Their worship or service may continue. What changes is the condition of the heart.

Three dangers are named:

1. ʿUjb, self-admiration: A person becomes impressed with his own worship, knowledge, courage, generosity, or service.
2. Kibr, pride: He begins to view himself as greater than others or becomes unwilling to accept truth and correction from them.
3. Riyāʾ, showing off: He performs or improves an action because people are watching, speaking about him, or praising him.

This approach is especially dangerous because the outward deed may still look good. The person may continue teaching, praying, giving, leading, or serving while the intention is being damaged within him. His deed is brought to nothing while he does not know.^⁠[189]

The answer is not to abandon good deeds or become trapped in endless doubts about every intention. The answer is to examine and renew the intention throughout the deed:

• Before beginning: Am I doing this for Allah?
• While acting: Would I continue if nobody saw me?
• After finishing: Am I grateful that Allah enabled me, or impressed with myself?
• When corrected: Do I want the truth, or do I only want my position defended?
• When someone else succeeds: Am I pleased that good was accomplished, or disturbed that I did not receive the credit?

The person who fears showing off should continue doing good while struggling to purify the intention. Satan must not be allowed to corrupt the deed through showing off and then stop the deed by creating fear of showing off.

When All These Approaches Fail §

If none of these stages succeeds, a final attack follows:

سلط عليه حزبه من شياطين الإنس والجن يبدعونه ويفسقونه

He sets against him his party from the devils of humankind and jinn, who declare him an innovator and a sinner.^⁠[190]

The purpose of this attack is to disturb his heart and prevent people from benefiting from him.^⁠[191]

This does not mean that every criticism is false or satanic. A scholar, teacher, worshipper, or community leader must still accept correction when it is supported by evidence. The warning concerns false accusations used to exhaust a person, confuse him, damage his reputation, or frighten him away from beneficial work.

The proper response has two parts:

1. Examine the criticism honestly. If it reveals a real error, accept the truth and correct the mistake.
2. Continue the beneficial work. If the accusation is false, do not allow abuse, praise, or blame to determine whether you obey Allah.

Conclusion §

This sequence shows that temptation may move from the obvious to the hidden:

1. It may attack faith.
2. It may corrupt a person’s understanding of religion.
3. It may invite him into sin.
4. It may bury obedience beneath lawful distractions.
5. It may replace the better deed with a lesser one.
6. It may enter the good deed itself through self-admiration, pride, or showing off.
7. If those doors remain closed, it may use false accusations and pressure from others.

The more committed a person becomes, the greater care he must take to guard his priorities and intentions. Refusing an obvious sin is not the end of the struggle. A person must also protect lawful time from waste, good deeds from poor priorities, and worship from the hidden desire to be admired.

And Allah knows best.

11. Iʿrāb: Grammatical Structure§

The grammar follows the movement we have already heard in the meaning: a person seeks shelter, names the One in whom he seeks it, and identifies the enemy from whom he wishes to be kept safe. Together, the words form a complete verbal sentence:

أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ

aʿūdhu bi-llāhi mina l-shayṭāni l-rajīm

I seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the expelled.

The Sentence at a Glance §

أَعُوذُ §

أَعُوذُ is a present-tense verb, a fiʿl muḍāriʿ. It is nominative, marfūʿ, because no particle appears before it that would place it in the accusative or jussive state.

Its subject is a concealed first-person pronoun:

أَنَا

I

The formula therefore begins with a personal act: I seek refuge.

Al-ʿUkbarī explains that an instruction is understood before the formula:

وَهَذَا تَعْلِيمٌ وَالتَّقْدِيرُ فِيهِ: قُلْ أَعُوذُ

This is instruction, and what is understood in it is: ‘Say: I seek refuge.’^⁠[192]

The word قُلْ, “say,” is not part of the formula. It is supplied in the grammatical explanation because the reader is being taught what to say.

بِاللَّهِ §

بِاللَّهِ is a prepositional phrase, jārr wa-majrūr:

• بِ is the preposition.
• اللَّهِ is genitive, majrūr, because of that preposition.
• Its grammatical marker is the kasra beneath the final letter.

The phrase is attached to أَعُوذُ. It completes the meaning by identifying the One in whom the speaker takes shelter.

Two explanations are given for the preposition بِ:^⁠[193]

1. The bāʾ of seeking help, bāʾ al-istiʿāna. On this analysis, the speaker seeks Allah’s help and protection.
2. The bāʾ of attachment, bāʾ al-ilṣāq. On this analysis, the speaker attaches himself to Allah’s protection and takes cover in Him.

These explanations emphasize two connected aspects of refuge: asking Allah for help and holding fast to His protection.

مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ §

مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ is another prepositional phrase attached to أَعُوذُ.

• مِنْ is a preposition expressing separation and departure from a starting point.
• الشَّيْطَانِ is genitive because it follows مِنْ.

The first prepositional phrase identifies where the speaker turns:

بِاللَّهِ

In Allah

The second identifies what the speaker seeks to escape:

مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ

From Satan

The grammar therefore reflects the movement contained in the meaning. The speaker turns toward Allah and seeks distance from Satan.

الرَّجِيمِ §

الرَّجِيمِ is an adjective, a naʿt or ṣifa, describing الشَّيْطَانِ.

An Arabic adjective follows the noun it describes. Both words are therefore:

• genitive;
• definite;
• singular; and
• masculine.

The grammatical agreement is complete:

الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ

Satan, the expelled

What Kind of Sentence Is It? §

The sentence is declarative in form, but it contains a request.

وَجُمْلَةُ أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ خَبَرِيَّةٌ تَتَضَمَّنُ طَلَبَ الْإِعَاذَةِ

The sentence ‘I seek refuge in Allah’ is declarative in form and contains within it the request for protection.^⁠[194]

The words “I seek refuge” state what the speaker is doing and, at the same time, ask Allah to protect him.

The two descriptions are not in conflict:

1. Its grammatical form is a statement.
2. Its intended force includes a request.

The Grammatical Question in Qurʾān 16:98 §

The Qurʾānic command joins a time clause to an imperative:

﴿فَإِذَا قَرَأْتَ الْقُرْآنَ فَاسْتَعِذْ﴾

“When you recite the Qurʾān, seek refuge.”

إِذَا is an adverb of future time containing the sense of a condition. Its condition-clause is:

﴿قَرَأْتَ﴾

“You recited”

Its answer is:

﴿فَاسْتَعِذْ﴾

“Then seek refuge”

The answer is connected to the condition by the letter فَـ.

The apparent difficulty is that قَرَأْتَ is a perfect verb, which normally describes a completed action. The connecting فَـ also ordinarily indicates sequence. This surface reading produced the minority claim that refuge should follow recitation.^⁠[195]

Four grammatical explanations were given:

The strongest explanation does not require the reader to reverse the sentence. The perfect verb describes entry into the action: when you begin and set out to recite, seek refuge.

How أَعْوُذُ Became أَعُوذُ §

The underlying form is:

أَعْوُذُ

aʿwudhu, the underlying form

Al-ʿUkbarī explains that the ḍamma on the wāw was considered heavy. It was transferred to the preceding letter, leaving the wāw still:

أَعْوُذُ ← أَعُوذُ^⁠[200]

aʿwudhu became aʿūdhu

Ibn Khālawayh gives the same account and compares it with:

• أَقُولُ, “I say”
• أَزُولُ, “I depart”^⁠[201]

Al-Muntajab al-Hamadhānī objects to the explanation of heaviness. He argues that a vowel on a weak letter is not considered heavy when the preceding letter is already still. In his analysis, the change occurs so that the present-tense verb will resemble its past-tense form.^⁠[202]

The two explanations produce the same spoken form, أَعُوذُ. Their disagreement concerns why the vowel changed, not the resulting word. The same morphological account also appears independently in the legal literature.^⁠[203]

12. Ṣarf: Roots and Word Formation§

Three roots require separate examination:

1. ع-و-ذ, the act of seeking shelter
2. ش-ط-ن, Satan’s distance and rebellion
3. ر-ج-م, his expulsion and pelting

The Root ع-و-ذ §

Ibn Fāris returns the root ع-و-ذ to one central meaning:

الْعَيْنُ وَالْوَاوُ وَالذَّالُ أَصْلٌ صَحِيحٌ يَدُلُّ عَلَى مَعْنًى وَاحِدٍ، وَهُوَ الِالْتِجَاءُ إِلَى الشَّيْءِ

The letters ʿayn, wāw, and dhāl form a sound lexical root indicating one meaning: taking refuge in something.^⁠[204]

The base verb is:

عَاذَ يَعُوذُ

He took shelter; he takes shelter.

It is a hollow wāw-verb, ajwaf wāwī, because the middle root letter is و.

Its verbal nouns include:

• عَوْذ
• عِيَاذ
• مَعَاذ^⁠[205]

Ibn Manẓūr explains the act through three connected verbs:

لَاذَ بِهِ وَلَجَأَ إِلَيْهِ وَاعْتَصَمَ

He resorted to it, took shelter in it, and held fast to it.^⁠[206]

Al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī adds the idea of attachment:

الْعَوْذُ: الِالْتِجَاءُ إِلَى الْغَيْرِ وَالتَّعَلُّقُ بِهِ

Refuge is taking shelter in another and attaching oneself to him.^⁠[207]

The root appears in three important forms:

Form X carries its ordinary meaning of seeking the action. Maryam’s mother uses Form IV because she places her daughter under Allah’s protection. The reader uses Form X because he seeks that protection for himself.

The Root ر-ج-م §

رَجِيم follows the pattern فَعِيل. Two interpretations of that pattern are recorded.

Al-Ṭabarī gives the passive meaning:

وَتَأْوِيلُ الرَّجِيمِ: الْمَلْعُونُ الْمَشْتُومُ

The meaning of al-rajīm is the cursed and reviled one.^⁠[208]

Ibn Kathīr describes him as:

أي: أنه مرجوم مطرود عن الخير كله

That is, he is pelted and driven away from every good.^⁠[209]

Al-ʿUkbarī likewise glosses the passive interpretation as one pelted through expulsion and cursing.

أي مرجوم بالطرد واللعن

That is, one pelted through expulsion and cursing.^⁠[210]

Al-ʿUkbarī records the alternative active interpretation:

أَيْ يَرْجُمُ غَيْرَهُ بِالْإِغْوَاءِ

That is, he pelts others with misguidance.^⁠[211]

Ibn Kathīr explains this as Satan pelting people with whispering and the things that obstruct them. He nevertheless describes the passive interpretation as better known:

وَقِيلَ: رَجِيمٌ بِمَعْنَى رَاجِمٍ؛ لِأَنَّهُ يَرْجُمُ النَّاسَ بِالْوَسْوَاسِ وَالرَّبَائِثِ، وَالْأَوَّلُ أَشْهَرُ

It has been said: rajīm in the sense of rājim, because he pelts people with whispering and with the things that hold them back; and the first is the better known.^⁠[212]

The lexicographers cited here record the passive meaning.

الشيطان الرجيم أي المرجوم بالكواكب، صُرِف إلى فعيل من مفعول

Satan, the expelled, means the one pelted with the stars. The pattern was shifted from mafʿūl to faʿīl.⁠^⁠[213]

وقيل: رجيم ملعون مرجوم باللعنة مبعد مطرود، وهو قول أهل التفسير

It was also said that rajīm means cursed, pelted with the curse, distanced, and driven away. This is the explanation of the commentators.^⁠[214]

Ibn Manẓūr thus records both pelting with the stars and the commentators’ explanation of cursing, distancing, and expulsion.^⁠[215] Al-Rāghib likewise defines him as one expelled from good things and from the stations of the highest assembly.^⁠[216]

The active interpretation therefore belongs to the grammatical and commentarial discussion. The established lexical meaning remains passive: Satan is the one expelled and driven away.

The Root ش-ط-ن §

On the sounder derivation established earlier, شَيْطَان follows the pattern فَيْعَال and comes from ش-ط-ن, distance. Its nūn is part of the root.

The pattern intensifies the meaning: Satan has reached the furthest degree of distance from goodness and mercy.^⁠[217]

The Arabic word الشَّطَنُ, a long, tightly twisted rope, comes from the same root. It is named for the distance between its two ends.^⁠[218]

The alternative derivation from ش-ي-ط remains recognized, but the derived verb تَشَيْطَنَ and the poetic form شَاطِن support ش-ط-ن as the sounder root.

The morphology of the complete formula therefore reinforces its meaning:

1. أَعُوذُ expresses the speaker’s act of taking shelter.
2. بِاللَّهِ identifies Allah as the One in whom shelter is taken.
3. مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ identifies the distant and rebellious enemy being escaped.
4. الرَّجِيمِ describes that enemy as expelled and driven from divine mercy.

13. Balāgha: Rhetorical Analysis §

The rhetorical analysis concerns the Qurʾānic command at 16:98:

﴿فَإِذَا قَرَأْتَ الْقُرْآنَ فَاسْتَعِذْ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ٩٨﴾

“When you recite the Qurʾān, seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the expelled.” (16:98)

The six words of the familiar Taʿawwudh are not themselves a Qurʾānic verse. This section examines both the Qurʾānic command and the reader’s spoken response to it. Keep the two distinct: a feature of the command belongs to 16:98; the discussion of saying “I seek refuge” concerns the formula used in response.

The Rhetorical Features at a Glance §

1. Naming the Reading but Meaning the Intention to Read §

The verse says:

﴿فَإِذَا قَرَأْتَ الْقُرْآنَ﴾

“When you have recited the Qurʾān” (16:98)

The intended meaning is:

“When you intend to recite the Qurʾān.”

The difference between these two expressions is the point of the analysis. The wording names the act, while the intended meaning concerns the intention that leads immediately to it. Al-Ālūsī calls this al-majāz al-mursal, a transferred expression based on a recognized relationship:

فَالْقِرَاءَةُ مَجَازٌ مُرْسَلٌ عَنْ إِرَادَتِهَا إِطْلَاقًا لِاسْمِ الْمُسَبَّبِ عَلَى السَّبَبِ

Recitation is a transferred expression for intending it, because the name of the effect is applied to its cause.^⁠[219]

In this explanation, intention is the cause and the recitation that follows is its effect. Abū al-Suʿūd fixes the time more closely: the intention must be joined directly to the recitation, rather than a distant plan to read later in the day.^⁠[220] Al-Zamakhsharī explains the same closeness without naming the rhetorical device. The act follows its intention without an interval, allowing one to stand for the other.^⁠[221]

The command thus meets the reader at the moment of beginning. The intention has formed, reading is about to start, and refuge is sought before it starts.

2. Naming the Qurʾān Instead of Saying “It” §

The verse says:

﴿الْقُرْآنَ﴾

“The Qurʾān”

It could have used a pronoun:

“When you recite it.”

The Qurʾān had already been described as الْكِتَابَ, “the Book,” in verse 89. Why, then, is its name stated again?

This is called al-iẓhār fī maqām al-iḍmār: using an explicit noun where a pronoun could have been used.

Ibn ʿĀshūr attends to the distance between the references. Several verses separate this command from the earlier mention of the Book, so repeating the noun makes the reference clear.^⁠[222]

Al-Ṭībī attends to what the name contributes. He connects الْقُرْآن with gathering and joining, a meaning that the pronoun alone would not express.^⁠[223] One explanation concerns clarity across the passage; the other concerns the meaning brought by the name itself. At the moment of recitation, the Book is named again.

3. Why the Reader Says أَعُوذُ §

The command says:

﴿فَاسْتَعِذْ﴾

“Seek refuge.”

The reader answers:

أَعُوذُ

I seek refuge.

A closer repetition of the command’s verbal form would have been:

أَسْتَعِيذُ

I seek refuge.

One early Ḥanafī manual preferred أَسْتَعِيذُ for precisely this reason: its form corresponds more visibly to the command.

Ibn ʿĀshūr begins with a general principle. When the commanded act consists of words to be spoken, the finest compliance reflects the command as closely as possible. Both أَعُوذُ and أَسْتَعِيذُ could answer the command, but he explains why أَعُوذُ is more effective:

فَاخْتِيرَ لَفْظُ أَعُوذُ لِأَنَّهُ مِنْ صِيَغِ الْإِنْشَاءِ، فَفِيهِ إِنْشَاءُ الطَّلَبِ بِخِلَافِ لَفْظِ أَسْتَعِيذُ فَإِنَّهُ أَخْفَى فِي إِنْشَاءِ الطَّلَبِ

The wording ‘I seek refuge’ was chosen because it is a form of performative speech. The request is performed through it, unlike ‘I seek to take refuge,’ in which the performance of the request is less evident.^⁠[224]

This is al-inshāʾ, speech that performs an act. Saying أَعُوذُ carries out the request for refuge: the reader turns to Allah and asks Him for protection.

The wording also follows Qurʾān 23:97:

﴿وَقُلْ رَبِّ أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ هَمَزَاتِ الشَّيَاطِينِ٩٧﴾

“Say: My Lord, I seek refuge in You from the promptings of the devils.” (23:97)

Ibn ʿĀshūr calls this أَبْدَعُ الِامْتِثَالِ, “the most exquisite form of compliance.” Al-Ālūsī reaches the same preference through the same reasoning.^⁠[225]

This analysis does not cancel the earlier grammatical description of the sentence as declarative.

The two classifications consider different aspects:

1. Declarative in form: “I seek refuge” appears to state what the speaker is doing.
2. Performative in use: saying it carries out the request for refuge.

On the first analysis, the sentence reports while containing a request. On the second, it performs that request directly.

4. Why Recitation Is Singled Out §

The command follows a promise of reward for righteous deeds, but it singles out reciting the Qurʾān for the instruction to seek refuge.

This is al-takhṣīṣ, singling out one thing from a wider class.

The verse could have prescribed refuge before every righteous deed. Instead, it names recitation.

Abū al-Suʿūd does not understand this as restricting refuge to recitation. He reads it as an argument from the greater case to the lesser.^⁠[226]

The command is addressed to the Prophet ﷺ. The Book he recites is protected from falsehood approaching it from before or behind. If even this recitation is approached through seeking Allah’s protection, then other people have still greater need for refuge when performing their righteous deeds.

The verse therefore gives recitation special mention without teaching that Satan interferes only with recitation.

5. Why Refuge Stands at the Entrance §

We commonly associate beginning an act with the Basmala, the naming of Allah. Why, then, is the reader first directed to seek refuge? Ibn ʿĀshūr answers by considering al-maqām, the situation to which the words are fitted.

The Qurʾān comes from the sanctified angelic realm. Its preciousness and purity stand beside the reader’s human weakness and susceptibility to whispering. The opening request acknowledges both: the worth of what is about to be read, and the protection needed by the one reading it.^⁠[227]

This also explains the distinction Ibn ʿĀshūr draws between the two openings. The Taʿawwudh seeks the removal of defects; the Basmala seeks blessing. The Qurʾān is itself blessing and complete perfection, with no need for blessing to be drawn down upon it. The preparation is needed in the reader, whose defects may obstruct the guidance he receives.^⁠[228]

The Book’s worth is already there. The reader comes asking for help in receiving it.

6. Why Reassurance Follows Immediately §

The command to seek refuge is followed at once by:

﴿إِنَّهُ لَيْسَ لَهُ سُلْطَانٌ عَلَى الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَلَى رَبِّهِمْ يَتَوَكَّلُونَ٩٩﴾

“He has no authority over those who believe and rely upon their Lord.” (16:99)

The command might otherwise create a false impression: if the believer must seek protection from Satan, perhaps Satan possesses independent power.

Al-Rāzī explains that the next verse immediately removes this impression. Satan has no independent power over people’s bodies. His power is confined to whispering.^⁠[229]

Al-Bayḍāwī gives the same explanation: Satan’s limited power is stated after the command so that the command will not make the reader imagine that he possesses authority of his own.^⁠[230]

Ibn ʿĀshūr adds three rhetorical observations:

1. The sentence explains why refuge is commanded.
2. Giving the reason encourages compliance because a person obeys more readily when the purpose is understood.
3. وَعَلَى رَبِّهِمْ, “upon their Lord,” is placed before the verb to express restriction: upon their Lord and no one else.^⁠[231]

The present-tense verb يَتَوَكَّلُونَ adds the sense of renewed, continuing reliance.^⁠[232] The turning expressed in the Taʿawwudh belongs to a dependence that continues beyond the sentence.

Read together, the verses teach refuge without giving Satan an independent power to fear. They direct the believer toward Allah: seek His protection, believe in Him, and renew reliance upon Him. The enemy is named, but the heart’s dependence is placed upon the Lord.

14. The Wording as the Reciters Transmit It §

We return here to the distinction made at the beginning of the booklet. The six familiar words of the Taʿawwudh are not a Qurʾānic verse, so they do not have qirāʾāt in the technical sense. Canonical and irregular readings concern the Qurʾānic text itself.

The reciters’ record concerns practice: the formula a reciter used, the raising or lowering of the voice, and the strength of the reports that transmit those choices. Keeping that boundary clear allows us to examine the record closely without mistaking it for variation in the text of the Qurʾān.

The Principal Recitation Wordings §

The following forms are needed for the table of reciters:

Form 7 is transmitted specifically from Ḥamza through Khalaf.

The Wordings Transmitted from Individual Reciters §

The table records what was transmitted. It does not mean that every wording has the same hadith evidence or that every reciter rejected the shorter form.

Was It Said Aloud or Quietly? §

The leading reciters generally chose to say the Taʿawwudh aloud when beginning a recitation for listeners.

Named exceptions were transmitted from:

• Nāfiʿ, through al-Musayyabī;
• Warsh, through one route;
• Qālūn, through a single transmitter; and
• Ḥamza, through both of his transmitted ways.^⁠[240]

Two practices are transmitted from Ḥamza:

1. He said the Taʿawwudh quietly wherever he recited.
2. He said it aloud before al-Fātiḥah but quietly throughout the remainder of the Qurʾān.^⁠[241]

Al-Ṣafrāwī states that both practices were transmitted from him.

This disagreement concerns the voice, not whether the Taʿawwudh was said at all.

Four Separate Claims About Ḥamza §

Several different reports about Ḥamza are sometimes combined into the vague statement that he “opposed the majority.” That description is misleading because the reports do not all have the same standing.

The report placing refuge after recitation reaches Ḥamza through a broken chain in al-Kāmil:

مُنْقَطِعَةٌ فِي الْكَامِلِ لَا يَصِحُّ إِسْنَادُهَا

It is broken in al-Kāmil, and its chain is not sound.^⁠[245]

The attribution of أَسْتَعِيذُ or نَسْتَعِيذُ is also rejected. Ibn al-Jazarī first says:

وَفِي صِحَّةِ ذَلِكَ عَنْهُمَا نَظَرٌ

There is reason to question the soundness of that attribution to both of them.^⁠[246]

Elsewhere he states directly:

وَلَا يَصِحُّ

It is not sound.^⁠[247]

Two claims therefore remain established: Ḥamza used transmitted longer forms, and he had transmitted practices of lowering the voice. The claims that he placed refuge after recitation or replaced أَعُوذُ with another opening do not stand.

أَعُوذُ or أَسْتَعِيذُ? §

Both openings appear in transmitted reports:

• أَعُوذُ, “I seek refuge”
• أَسْتَعِيذُ, “I seek refuge”

Al-Ṭabarī transmits a report from Ibn ʿAbbās in which Jibrīl teaches the Prophet ﷺ:

أَسْتَعِيذُ بِالسَّمِيعِ الْعَلِيمِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ

I seek refuge in the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing, from Satan, the expelled.^⁠[248]

Ibn Kathīr does not accept this as sound evidence:

وَهَذَا الْأَثَرُ غَرِيبٌ … فَإِنَّ فِي إِسْنَادِهِ ضَعْفًا وَانْقِطَاعًا

This report is rare. In its chain there is weakness and a break.^⁠[249]

Ibn al-Jazarī reaches the same conclusion:

وَمَعَ ضَعْفِهِ وَانْقِطَاعِهِ وَكَوْنِهِ لَا تَقُومُ بِهِ حُجَّةٌ

With its weakness, its broken chain, and the fact that no proof can be established through it.^⁠[250]

Ibn al-Jazarī then reports that Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī transmitted a version from Abū Rawq, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, from Ibn ʿAbbās, whose wording Ibn al-Jazarī calls correct. In this version, Jibrīl instructs the Prophet ﷺ with the familiar Form I verb:

قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ

Say: I seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the expelled.^⁠[251]

The author of the Ḥanafī work al-Hidāya nevertheless preferred أَسْتَعِيذُ because it more closely resembles the form of the Qurʾānic command. Ibn al-Jazarī rejects that choice.^⁠[252]

The established opening remains:

أَعُوذُ

I seek refuge.

The Governing Principle §

After recording the transmitted forms, Ibn al-Jazarī states the general rule:

وَلَا يَنْبَغِي أَنْ يُعْدَلَ عَمَّا صَحَّ مِنْهَا … فَإِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُتَّبِعُونَ لَا مُبْتَدِعُونَ

One should not depart from what is soundly established among them. We are followers, not innovators.^⁠[253]

The collection of wordings serves that principle of following what is established. Its variety calls for attention to each report and its limits, rather than the construction of a new formula. Knowing the differences helps the reader follow the transmitted practice with understanding.

And Allah knows best.

The Wordings Transmitted for Other Occasions §

Seeking refuge occurs in many settings besides Qurʾānic recitation. The words change with the occasion. These formulas should not be replaced automatically with the recitation formula.

The setting governs the wording. A formula transmitted for entering a mosque, treating pain, responding to a dream, or protecting a child should remain attached to that setting. The familiar Taʿawwudh before recitation has its own transmitted practice, and these other formulas have theirs.

Notes §

1. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb fī tafsīr al-istiʿādha wa-l-basmala wa-fātiḥat al-kitāb, p. 26: المطلب الذي من أجله يستعيذ المسلم، وهو السلامة في دينه وديناه [كذا: دنياه]، من الشيطان ووسوسته ومكايده وجميع شروره "The thing for the sake of which the Muslim seeks refuge, namely safety in his religion and his worldly life from Satan, his whispering, his stratagems and all his harms." The division is not his own. He gives it as كما يقول بعض أهل العلم "as some of the people of knowledge say", citing al-Tafsīr al-Kabīr, 1/71 and Gharāʾib al-Qurʾān, 1/16. ↩︎

2. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, pp. 63–68. ↩︎

3. al-Baghawī, Maʿālim al-Tanzīl, 3/95, on 16:98: أي: إذا أردت قراءة القرآن فاستعذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم، كقوله تعالى: إذا قمتم إلى الصلاة فاغسلوا "That is: when you intend to recite the Qurʾān, seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan, as in His words, when you rise for prayer, wash"; 3/95: والاستعاذة سنة عند قراءة القرآن "Seeking refuge is a sunna at the recitation of the Qurʾān." ↩︎

4. Abū Dāwūd, no. 775; al-Tirmidhī, no. 242 (ت بشار taḥqīq Bashshār, the printing edited by Bashshār ʿAwwād Maʿrūf for دار الغرب الإسلامي Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, the edition this number belongs to); al-Nasāʾī 2/132; Ibn Māja, no. 804; Aḥmad 3/50. From Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī. Aḥmad Shākir grades the Abū Saʿīd report in al-Tirmidhī no. 242 ṣaḥīḥ; al-Albānī grades that report ṣaḥīḥ in Ṣaḥīḥ Sunan Abī Dāwūd no. 748. Dorar’s report entry attributes a weak-isnād judgment for Takhrīj al-Musnad, no. 11473, to Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ. The report ends ثم يقرأ "then he would recite". Al-Tirmidhī says: وحديث أبي سعيد أشهر حديث في هذا الباب "The report of Abū Saʿīd is the best known report in this chapter." ↩︎

5. لَفْظُ الجَلَالَةِ lafẓ al-jalāla, the Name of Majesty: the grammarians' own title for this word, rather than treating it as an ordinary proper noun. Here it is مَجْرُور majrūr, in the genitive, governed by the preposition. ↩︎

6. Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, 4/183: العين والواو والذال أصل صحيح يدل على معنى واحد، وهو الالتجاء إلى الشيء، ثم يحمل عليه كل شيء لصق بشيء أو لازمه "ʿAyn, wāw and dhāl is a sound root indicating one meaning, which is taking shelter with a thing; then everything that clings to a thing or keeps close to it is referred back to it." ↩︎

7. Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab, 3/498, root ع-و-ذ ʿ-w-dh: عاذ به يعوذ عوذًا وعياذًا ومعاذًا: لاذ به ولجأ إليه واعتصم "He took refuge with him, taking refuge, refuge-seeking and a place of refuge: he sheltered with him, resorted to him and held fast to him." Same page: وعذت بفلان واستعذت به أي لجأت إليه "I took refuge with so-and-so and sought refuge with him, that is, I resorted to him." ↩︎

8. al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 1/109, in the discussion of the meaning of seeking refuge: والاستعاذة الاستجارة "Seeking refuge is seeking protection." ↩︎

9. Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, 1/114: وَالْعِيَاذَةُ تَكُونُ لِدَفْعِ الشَّرِّ، وَاللِّيَاذُ يَكُونُ لِطَلَبِ جَلْبِ الْخَيْرِ "Seeking refuge is for warding off harm, and resorting is for seeking to draw in good." ↩︎

10. Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab, 3/498, root عوذ ʿ-w-dh: وَالْمَلَاذُ مِثْلُ الْمَعَاذِ "A place of resort is like a place of refuge." ↩︎

11. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, pp. 23–25: الله most often (16:98, 7:200, 41:36, 40:56, 2:67), الرب frequently (113:1, 114:1, 40:27, 44:20, 23:97–98, 11:47, 3:36), and الرحمن once only, at 19:18, ووردت الاستعاذة باسمه الرحمن مرة واحدة "Seeking refuge by His name al-Raḥmān occurs once only", together with كلمات الله التامات the perfect words of Allah in the Sunna. ↩︎

12. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 25: ولا تصح الاستعاذة بغير الله، فيما لا يقدر عليه إلا الله، لأن الاستعاذة بالمخلوق في أمر لا يقدر عليه إلا الله لا تدفع شرًا، ولا تجلب خيرًا، بل مما يزيد المستعيذ خوفًا ورهقًا "Seeking refuge with other than Allah in what none but Allah has power over is not valid, because seeking refuge with a created thing in a matter none but Allah has power over wards off no harm and draws in no good; rather it is among the things that increase the one seeking refuge in fear and oppression", on 72:6. ↩︎

13. al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 1/109: والشيطان في كلام العرب كل متمرد من الجن والإنس والدواب وكل شيء "Shayṭān in the speech of the Arabs is everything rebellious among jinn, human beings, beasts and all else"; 1/110: شطنت داري من دارك. يريد بذلك: بعدت "My house has grown shaṭana from your house, meaning by that: it has grown distant." ↩︎

14. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, pp. 34–35: و «أل» في «الشيطان» للجنس، فهو يشمل كل متمرد، عات، خارج عن الطاعة، من الجن، والإنس، والدواب، وكل شيء "The al- in al-shayṭān is generic, so it takes in every rebellious, insolent one who has left obedience, among jinn, human beings, beasts and all else"; وقيل أل فيه للعهد. والصحيح الأول "It has been said that the al- in it is definite by prior mention. The sound view is the first." ↩︎

15. al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 1/110: وأصل الرجم الرمي، بقول كان أو بفعل "The root of rajm is pelting, whether by word or by deed." ↩︎

16. al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 1/90: الرجيم أي المبعد من الخير المهان. وأصل الرجم الرمي بالأحجار … والرجم: القتل واللعن والطرد والشتم "Al-rajīm, that is, the one driven far from good and made contemptible. The root of rajm is pelting with stones … and rajm is killing, cursing, driving off and reviling." ↩︎

17. al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 1/110: وأما الرجيم فهو فعيل بمعنى مفعول … وتأويل الرجيم: الملعون المشتوم "As for al-rajīm, it is faʿīl in the sense of mafʿūl … and the meaning of al-rajīm is the cursed, the reviled." ↩︎

18. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 37: والشيطان مرجوم بالفعل والقول: أي فعلًا وقولًا، حسًا ومعنى "Satan is pelted by deed and by word: that is, in act and in speech, in the sensible and in the intelligible." ↩︎

19. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 2366, from Abū Hurayra; Aḥmad, Musnad, ed. al-Risāla, 12/106: ما من مولود يولد إلا نخسه الشيطان، فيستهل صارخًا إلا ابن مريم وأمه "No child is born but that Satan prods it, so it cries out, except the son of Maryam and his mother." For al-Lāḥim’s later citation and discussion of the report, see al-Lubāb, pp. 22–23. ↩︎

20. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 32: وجملة أعوذ بالله خبرية تتضمن طلب الإعاذة "The sentence I seek refuge with Allah is declarative in form, containing within it the request for protection." Compare al-ʿUkbarī, al-Tibyān fī Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān, 1/2: وهذا تعليم والتقدير فيه: قل أعوذ "This is instruction, and what is understood in it is: say, I seek refuge." ↩︎

21. Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Nashr fī al-Qirāʾāt al-ʿAshr, 1/256: لأنها طهارة الفم مما كان يتعاطاه من اللغو والرفث وتطييب له، وتهيؤ لتلاوة كلام الله تعالى "Because it is a cleansing of the mouth from the idle and coarse speech it had been engaged in, and a sweetening of it, and a readying for the recitation of the speech of Allah, exalted is He." ↩︎

22. Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, 1/114: فإن الشيطان لا يكفه عن الإنسان إلا الله، ولهذا أمر تعالى بمصانعة شيطان الإنس، ومداراته بإسداء الجميل إليه، ليرده طبعه عما هو فيه من الأذى، وأمر بالاستعاذة به من شيطان الجن، لأنه لا يقبل رشوة، ولا يؤثر فيه جميل، لأنه شرير بالطبع، ولا يكفه عنك إلا الذي خلقه، وهذا المعنى في ثلاث آيات من القرآن، لا أعلم لهن رابعة "For none restrains Satan from a man but Allah. This is why He commanded conciliating the human devil, and handling him gently by extending kindness to him, so that his own nature would turn him back from the harm he is in; and He commanded seeking refuge with Him from the devil of the jinn, because he accepts no bribe and no kindness works on him, since he is evil by nature, and none restrains him from you but the One who created him. This sense is in three verses of the Qurʾān; I know of no fourth." ↩︎

23. Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, 1/114: ولما كان الشيطان يرى الإنسان من حيث لا يراه، استعاذ منه بالذي يراه، ولا يراه الشيطان "Since Satan sees a man from where the man does not see him, he sought refuge from him with the One who sees him, while Satan does not see Him." ↩︎

24. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 6115 (Kitāb al-Adab, باب الحذر من الغضب the chapter on guarding against anger); also nos. 3282 and 6048; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 2610 (Kitāb al-Birr). Narrator Sulaymān b. Ṣurad. Two wordings of the man's reply are transmitted: إني لست بمجنون "I am no madman." (Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr, 1/113; al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 14; Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Nashr, 1/243) and أمجنونًا تراني! "Do you take me for a madman!" (al-Qurṭubī 1/89). Al-Nashr 1/244 adds parallels: Abū Yaʿlā from Ubayy b. Kaʿb; Aḥmad; al-Nasāʾī, ʿAmal al-Yawm wa-l-Layla; Abū Dāwūd; and al-Tirmidhī from Muʿādh b. Jabal. A third wording of the reply, وهل ترى بي من جنون؟ "Do you see any madness in me?", is in al-Arnaʾūṭ's notes to Musnad Aḥmad, 29/506. Al-Ḥākim, al-Mustadrak, 2/441, and al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab al-Īmān no. 8283, add at the end that the Prophet ﷺ then recited 7:200. ↩︎

25. See note 24 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

26. Abū Dāwūd, no. 4784, from ʿUrwa b. Muḥammad b. ʿAṭiyya al-Saʿdī: إن الغضب من الشيطان "Anger is from Satan." Al-Arnaʾūṭ grades this chain in two of his works and does not grade it alike. In his notes to Musnad Aḥmad, ed. al-Risāla, 29/505–506, no. 25794, he writes إسناده ضعيف "its chain is weak", and at 29/506 وأبوه محمد مجهول، وقد انفرد بهذا الحديث "His father Muḥammad is unknown, and he was alone in transmitting this hadith."; there he also states that the sentence has a corroborating witness (shāhid) in the hadith of Sulaymān b. Ṣurad at al-Bukhārī no. 3282 and Muslim no. 2610: ولقوله: "الغضب من الشيطان" شاهد من حديث سليمان بن صرد "And for his words, anger is from Satan, there is a corroborating witness in the report of Sulaymān b. Ṣurad." In his takhrīj of al-Baghawī's Sharḥ al-Sunna, no. 3583, on the same chain from ʿAṭiyya al-Saʿdī and with takhrīj to Abū Dāwūd no. 4784 and Aḥmad no. 17985, he writes إسناده حسن "its chain is good, one grade below sound". The first verdict is from the printed notes to the Musnad; the second is attested through a hadith aggregator rather than from the original, the copy of Sharḥ al-Sunna available here having the report at 13/161, no. 7891, with no takhrīj beside it. ↩︎

27. See note 26 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

28. See note 24 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

29. For the words taught to Abū Bakr for morning, evening, and bedtime, see Abū Dāwūd, no. 5067, and al-Tirmidhī, no. 3392: Abū Hurayra reports that Abū Bakr asked the Prophet ﷺ what to say, and the Prophet ﷺ taught him a formula seeking refuge from the evil of his own self and from Satan’s evil. For the sermon of need, see Abū Dāwūd, no. 2118, and al-Tirmidhī, no. 1105, from ʿAbdallāh b. Masʿūd: the Prophet ﷺ taught the opening ونعوذ بالله من شرور أنفسنا "and we seek refuge in Allah from the evils of ourselves." Al-Lāḥim later states the Qurʾān/Sunna contrast in al-Lubāb, pp. 72–73: ولم يأمر بالاستعاذة منها في موضع واحد من القرآن، وإنما جاءت الاستعاذة من شرها بالسنة "He did not command seeking refuge from it in a single place in the Qurʾān; seeking refuge from its harm came rather in the Sunna." ↩︎

30. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 72: بل إن النفس المذمومة كل ما يحصل منها من شر وفساد، إنما هو بسبب تزيين الشيطان، ووسوسته، لأنها مركب الشيطان، والأداة لتنفيذ شره "Rather, everything of harm and corruption that comes about from the blameworthy soul is only by Satan's adorning and his whispering, because it is Satan's mount and the instrument by which his harm is done." ↩︎

31. See note 2 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

32. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 56: وإذا قطع القراءة في غير الصلاة لعذر كعطاس أو كلام يتعلق بمصلحة القراءة فإنه لا يعيد الاستعاذة، وأما لو قطعها إعراضًا عن القراءة، أو لكلام لا يتعلق بالقراءة، فإنه يستأنف الاستعاذة استحبابًا "If he breaks off the recitation outside prayer for a reason such as a sneeze, or speech bearing on the interest of the recitation, he does not repeat the seeking of refuge. But were he to break it off turning away from the recitation, or for speech not bearing on it, he begins the seeking of refuge afresh, as a recommendation." ↩︎

33. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, pp. 56–58. ↩︎

34. Ibn Taymiyyah, al-Fatāwā al-Kubrā, 2/166, answering a question about an imām who says the taʿawwudh aloud after the opening takbīr in every prayer: إِذَا فَعَلَ ذَلِكَ أَحْيَانًا لِلتَّعْلِيمِ وَنَحْوِهِ، فَلَا بَأْسَ بِذَلِكَ ... وَأَمَّا الْمُدَاوَمَةُ عَلَى الْجَهْرِ بِذَلِكَ فَبِدْعَةٌ، مُخَالِفَةٌ لِسُنَّةِ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ﷺ وَخُلَفَائِهِ الرَّاشِدِينَ "If he does that occasionally for the sake of teaching and the like, there is no harm in it … But as for keeping to saying it aloud, that is an innovation, at variance with the sunna of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and of his rightly guided successors." ↩︎

35. Dream report: Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 2261, and Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 3292, from Abū Qatāda. Traveller report: Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 2708, from Khawla bint Ḥakīm. For al-Lāḥim’s later discussion of the two settings, see al-Lubāb, pp. 65 and 66–67. ↩︎

36. See note 35 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

37. Al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, pp. 75–82. He presents seven means by which Allah protects the servant from Satan: faith and obedience, avoiding disobedience, seeking refuge, reciting the Qurʾān, maintaining the daily remembrances, performing voluntary prayers at home, and restraining excess in looking, speaking, eating, and mixing with people. ↩︎

38. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 657, Kitāb al-Masājid wa-Mawāḍiʿ al-Ṣalāh, from Jundub b. ʿAbd Allāh: مَنْ صَلَّى الصُّبْحَ فَهُوَ فِي ذِمَّةِ اللَّهِ, “Whoever prays the dawn prayer is in Allah’s protection.” The statement that neglecting the dawn prayer exposes a person to satanic harm is al-Lāḥim’s inference from the report, not part of the Prophet’s ﷺ words. He extends the warning to neglecting other obligations. Al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 76. ↩︎

39. See note 38 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

40. Al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, pp. 76–77, mentions attachment to singing and instruments, bells, images and statues, dogs, and crosses. The reports he cites include Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, nos. 2113–2114, concerning bells; Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, nos. 3225 and 3227, and Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 2106, concerning dogs and images; and Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 5952, concerning crosses. These reports do not make every modern case identical. The following institutional rulings illustrate the distinctions:

    • Singing and instruments: Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta, “Musical Instruments in Islam,” 22 December 2013, records the juristic disagreement and distinguishes corrupt content and distraction from disputed uses of instruments. Jordan’s General Iftaa Department, “Ruling on Listening to Music,” Fatwa 3463, 13 February 2019, likewise distinguishes music joined to indecency or other prohibitions from music free of them, while acknowledging disagreement over the latter.
    • Bells: The Office of the Mufti of the Federal Territories of Malaysia, “The Ruling of Putting a Bell on Farm Animals,” 26 February 2020, distinguishes an unnecessary bell from one used for a genuine need, and treats a bell believed to repel harm as a separate creed-related violation.
    • Images and statues: Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta, “What Is the Islamic Ruling on Photography and Drawing Humans?” 25 July 2013, records the distinction drawn by jurists between complete three-dimensional statues and other images, together with the disagreement concerning drawings and photographs.
    • Dogs: Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta, “What Is the Ruling of Keeping a Dog in the House?” 25 July 2013, distinguishes keeping a dog without need from keeping one for hunting, guarding, agriculture, herding, or another recognized benefit.
    • Crosses and intersecting designs: The Perlis State Fatwa Committee, “The Ruling on Using Objects Shaped Like Crosses or Other Religious Symbols,” 21 September 2020, distinguishes an intended or clearly recognizable religious cross from coincidental intersecting lines, such as a plus sign, crossroads, construction timber, or a four-petaled flower. The ruling was endorsed by the Perlis Islamic Religious Council and Malay Customs on 9 November 2020.
    ↩︎

41. Al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, pp. 77–78, joins the established words of seeking refuge with the two sūrahs of refuge and emphasizes consistency, conviction that benefit and harm are in Allah’s hand, reliance, and trust. On Satan’s weakness he cites 4:76 and the report الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي رَدَّ كَيْدَهُ إِلَى الْوَسْوَسَةِ, “Praise belongs to Allah, who reduced his plot to whispering,” recorded by Abū Dāwūd, no. 5112, from Ibn ʿAbbās. Al-Albānī graded it sound in Ṣaḥīḥ Sunan Abī Dāwūd, no. 4264. ↩︎

42. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 780, from Abū Hurayrah: لَا تَجْعَلُوا بُيُوتَكُمْ مَقَابِرَ، إِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ يَنْفِرُ مِنَ الْبَيْتِ الَّذِي تُقْرَأُ فِيهِ سُورَةُ الْبَقَرَةِ, “Do not make your houses into graves. Satan flees from the house in which Sūrat al-Baqarah is recited.” The report concerning Usayd b. Ḥuḍayr and the presence of angels during his recitation is recorded by al-Bukhārī, no. 5018, and Muslim, no. 796. See also al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, pp. 79–80. ↩︎

43. See note 42 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

44. See note 42 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

45. Al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 80, includes the appointed daily remembrances and supplications of morning, evening, and sleep, citing 7:201 and 7:205. Among the established protections are Āyat al-Kursī before sleep, recorded by al-Bukhārī, no. 3275, and the final two verses of Sūrat al-Baqarah at night, recorded by al-Bukhārī, no. 4008, and Muslim, no. 808. ↩︎

46. The statement أَفْضَلُ الصَّلَاةِ صَلَاةُ الْمَرْءِ فِي بَيْتِهِ إِلَّا الْمَكْتُوبَةَ, “The best prayer is a person’s prayer in his home, apart from the obligatory prayer,” is recorded from Zayd b. Thābit by al-Bukhārī, no. 731, and Muslim, no. 781. The instruction اجْعَلُوا مِنْ صَلَاتِكُمْ فِي بُيُوتِكُمْ، وَلَا تَتَّخِذُوهَا قُبُورًا, “Perform some of your prayers in your homes, and do not make them into graves,” is recorded from Ibn ʿUmar by al-Bukhārī, no. 1187, and Muslim, no. 777. Al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, pp. 81–82. ↩︎

47. See note 46 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

48. Al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 82, identifies the four doors as excess in looking, speaking, eating, and mixing with people: الْإِمْسَاكُ عَنْ فُضُولِ النَّظَرِ وَالْكَلَامِ وَالطَّعَامِ وَمُخَالَطَةِ الْأَنَامِ. He refers the reader to Ibn al-Qayyim, Badāʾiʿ al-Fawāʾid, 2/267 and following. The attribution is therefore reported through al-Lāḥim; no direct quotation from Ibn al-Qayyim is used here. ↩︎

49. al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 1/86: أجمع العلماء على أن التعوذ ليس من القرآن ولا آية منه "The scholars are agreed that the Taʿawwudh is not part of the Qurʾān, nor a verse of it.". ↩︎

50. Ibn Taymiyyah, Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā, 22/351: وَهِيَ تُشْبِهُ الِاسْتِعَاذَةَ مِنْ بَعْضِ الْوُجُوهِ لَكِنَّ الِاسْتِعَاذَةَ لَيْسَتْ بِقُرْآنٍ وَلَمْ تُكْتَبْ فِي الْمَصَاحِفِ وَإِنَّمَا فِيهِ الْأَمْرُ بِالِاسْتِعَاذَةِ وَهَذَا قُرْآنٌ "It resembles the seeking of refuge in some respects, except that the seeking of refuge is not Qurʾān and was not written in the copies; what is in it is the command to seek refuge, and this is Qurʾān." ↩︎

51. Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, 1/113. ↩︎

52. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, pp. 14–21; the further transmitted variants at pp. 20–21: وهذه الصيغ وإن رويت عن بعض السلف، فإن أقل أحوالها الجواز، وما صح عن المصطفى ﷺ هو الأولى بالاتباع "These wordings, though transmitted from some of the early generations, are at the least permissible; and what is established from the Chosen One ﷺ is the more fitting to follow." Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Nashr, 1/243, says the familiar wording is the chosen form among all reciters and the form adopted by the generality of jurists, naming al-Shāfiʿī, Abū Ḥanīfa, and Aḥmad. ↩︎

53. al-Albānī, Aṣl Ṣifat Ṣalāt al-Nabī ﷺ, 1/275: وبالجملة؛ فالاستعاذة من هذه الأشياء الثلاثة الشيطانية صحيح ثابت بمجموع هذه الطرق، وزيادة: "السميع العليم" ثابتة أيضًا في حديث أبي سعيد بإسناد حسن … فينبغي أن يؤتى بها أحيانًا "In sum, seeking refuge from these three satanic things is sound and established by the sum of these routes; and the addition the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing is likewise established in the report of Abū Saʿīd with a good chain … so it should be said sometimes."; and وأما الاقتصار على (أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم) فلم نجد في ذلك حديثًا "As for confining oneself to I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan, we have found no report for that.", and at 1/276 his own verdict on the al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī mursal that he found in Marāsīl Abī Dāwūd: فهو مرسل، ولا يحتج به عند جمهور المحدثين "It is mursal, and the generality of the hadith scholars do not argue from it.". Full takhrīj from five Companions at 1/272–1/275; see also Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl no. 342. Ḥikmat Bashīr Yāsīn, الصحيح المسبور 1/69, reports a further verdict on the Jubayr b. Muṭʿim route of this group: Muqbil al-Wādiʿī grades it ḥasan. ↩︎

54. Ibn ʿUthaymīn, Fatāwā Nūr ʿalā al-Darb, 5/2: فإذا قالها الإنسان فلا حرج عليه وإذا اقتصر على الجزء الأول منها أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم كفى "If a person says it there is no harm on him, and if he confines himself to the first part of it, I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan, that suffices." ↩︎

55. al-Rāzī, Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb, 20/269: لما أمر رسوله بالاستعاذة من الشيطان وكان ذلك يوهم أن للشيطان قدرة على التصرف في أبدان الناس، فأزال الله تعالى هذا الوهم، وبين أنه لا قدرة له البتة إلا على الوسوسة "When He commanded His Messenger to seek refuge from Satan, and that would give the impression that Satan has power to act upon people's bodies, Allah removed this impression and made clear that he has no power at all except over whispering." ↩︎

56. Al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 78: وَمَعَ أَنَّ لَهُ تَسَلُّطًا عَلَى بَنِي آدَمَ، فَهُوَ لَا يَعْلَمُ الْغَيْبَ, “Although he has influence over the children of Ādam, he does not know the unseen.” He cites 34:14, which shows that the jinn did not know that Sulaymān had died, together with 27:65, 2:255, and 26:212. ↩︎

57. Al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 82, rejects believing that devils know the unseen or possess the powers people attribute to them. He supports the conclusion with 34:22, 27:65, 3:175, and 17:65. The first states that those invoked besides Allah possess no share in His rule; the third describes Satan frightening his allies and commands believers not to fear them; the fourth denies him authority over Allah’s faithful servants. For the practical contemporary limit, Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta, “How Can I Protect Myself from Black Magic?” 9 December 2013, warns against attributing every disruption or affliction to magic and jinn while affirming their existence and the lawful means of seeking Allah’s protection. Jordan’s General Iftaa Department, “The Ruling of Islamic Law on Using a Jinn Servant for Good Purposes,” Fatwa 3913, 20 August 2024, stresses that the jinn are hidden from people and that their truthfulness cannot be verified. ↩︎

58. See note 57 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

59. See note 12 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

60. Ibn ʿĀshūr, al-Taḥrīr wa-l-Tanwīr, 14/274. ↩︎

61. Al-Zamakhsharī, al-Kashshāf, quoted by Ibn ʿĀshūr, al-Taḥrīr wa-l-Tanwīr, 14/274: لَمَّا ذَكَرَ الْعَمَلَ الصَّالِحَ وَوَعَدَ عَلَيْهِ وَصَلَ بِهِ قَوْلَهُ تَعَالَى: فَإِذَا قَرَأْتَ الْقُرْآنَ فَاسْتَعِذْ بِاللَّهِ إِيذَانًا بِأَنَّ الِاسْتِعَاذَةَ مِنْ جُمْلَةِ الْأَعْمَالِ الَّتِي يُجْزَلُ عَلَيْهَا الثَّوَابُ "When He mentioned the righteous deed and promised for it, He joined to it His words, exalted is He, when you have recited the Qurʾān seek refuge with Allah, as notice that seeking refuge is among the deeds for which reward is given liberally." For Ibn ʿĀshūr’s response, see also 14/274. ↩︎

62. Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, quoted by Ibn ʿĀshūr, al-Taḥrīr wa-l-Tanwīr, 14/274: أَرْشَدَ إِلَى الْعِلْمِ الَّذِي تَخْلُصُ بِهِ الْأَعْمَالُ مِنَ الْوَسْوَاسِ "He guided to the knowledge by which deeds are kept clear of whispering.", with Ibn ʿĀshūr's وَهُوَ أَمْكَنُ مِنْ كَلَامِ الْكَشَّافِ "and this is better grounded than what al-Kashshāf says". ↩︎

63. Abū al-Suʿūd, quoted by Ibn ʿĀshūr, al-Taḥrīr wa-l-Tanwīr, 14/274: لَمَّا كَانَ مَدَارُ الْجَزَاءِ هُوَ حُسْنَ الْعَمَلِ رَتَّبَ عَلَيْهِ الْإِرْشَادَ إِلَى مَا بِهِ يَحْسُنُ الْعَمَلُ الصَّالِحُ بِأَنْ يَخْلُصَ مِنْ شَوْبِ الْفَسَادِ "Since the turning-point of reward is the goodness of the deed, He set upon it the guidance toward that by which the righteous deed becomes good, namely that it be kept clear of any admixture of corruption." Ibn ʿĀshūr responds at 14/274. ↩︎

64. Ibn ʿAṭiyya, quoted by Ibn ʿĀshūr, al-Taḥrīr wa-l-Tanwīr, 14/274: الْفَاءُ فِي فَإِذَا وَاصِلَةٌ بَيْنَ الْكَلَامَيْنِ وَالْعَرَبُ تَسْتَعْمِلُهَا فِي مِثْلِ هَذَا "The fāʾ in fa-idhā joins the two statements, and the Arabs use it in the like of this.", with وَالْعُهْدَةُ عَلَيْهِ "and the responsibility for it rests with him". ↩︎

65. Sharaf al-Dīn al-Ṭībī, quoted by Ibn ʿĀshūr, al-Taḥrīr wa-l-Tanwīr, 14/274–275, joining the verse to 16:89, وَنَزَّلْنَا عَلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ تِبْيَانًا لِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ "And We sent down to you the Book as a clarification of everything.". ↩︎

66. al-Rāzī, Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb, 20/269, on 16:98. ↩︎

67. See note 66 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

68. al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 1/88, with Ibn al-ʿArabī's response: وهذا قول لم يرد به أثر، ولا يعضده نظر "This is a view for which no transmitted report has come, and no reasoning supports it." ↩︎

69. See note 66 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

70. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 47: وقد تمسك بهذا الظاهر بعض القراء، فنقل ذلك عن حمزة، وأبي حاتم السجستاني، وروي ذلك أيضًا عن أبي هريرة، ومحمد بن سيرين، وإبراهيم النخعي، وداود الظاهري "Some of the reciters held fast to this apparent sense, and that was transmitted from Ḥamza and Abū Ḥātim al-Sijistānī, and it is also related from Abū Hurayra, Muḥammad b. Sīrīn, Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī and Dāwūd al-Ẓāhirī." ↩︎

71. See note 68 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

72. Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Nashr, 1/255–256. The discussion of the Abū Hurayra route identifies Ṣāliḥ b. Abī Ṣāliḥ al-Kūfī as weak and feeble. The following judgment concerns Ibrāhīm b. Muḥammad al-Aslamī. ↩︎

73. See note 72 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

74. See note 72 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

75. Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Nashr, 1/254. ↩︎

76. al-Wāḥidī, al-Wajīz fī tafsīr al-kitāb al-ʿazīz, p. 619, on 16:98: فإذا قرأت القرآن أي: إذا أردت أن تقرأ القرآن، فاستعذ بالله: فاسأل الله أن يعيذك "When you have recited the Qurʾān, that is: when you intend to recite the Qurʾān; so seek refuge with Allah: so ask Allah to give you refuge." ↩︎

77. See note 3 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

78. al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 1/86: فأوقع الماضي موقع المستقبل "So he put the past in the place of the future", with the line وإني لآتيكم لذكري الذي مضى … من الود واستئناف ما كان في غد "I come to you for the affection of mine that has passed, and to begin afresh what will be tomorrow"; and the taqdīm wa-taʾkhīr option, وقيل: في الكلام تقديم وتأخير "It has been said: in the wording there is a putting forward and a putting back." ↩︎

79. Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Nashr, 1/256: وعندي أن الأحسن في تقديرها: إذا ابتدأت وشرعت "In my view the better way to supply the sense is: when you begin and set out." ↩︎

80. See note 75 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

81. See note 75 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

82. See note 51 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

83. Al-Jaṣṣāṣ, Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/13: وَالِاسْتِعَاذَةُ لَيْسَتْ بِفَرْضٍ لِأَنَّ النَّبِيَّ ﷺ لَمْ يُعَلِّمْهَا الْأَعْرَابِيَّ حِينَ عَلَّمَهُ الصَّلَاةَ وَلَوْ كَانَتْ فَرْضًا لَمْ يُخْلِهِ مِنْ تَعْلِيمِهَا "Seeking refuge is not an obligation, because the Prophet ﷺ did not teach it to the bedouin when he taught him the prayer; had it been an obligation he would not have left him without being taught it." ↩︎

84. See note 83 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

85. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 54: وجمهور أهل العلم من الصحابة والتابعين، ومن بعدهم، على أن الاستعاذة مستحبة، قبل كل قراءة للقرآن، سواء كان ذلك في الصلاة، أو خارجها "The generality of the people of knowledge among the Companions, the Successors and those after them hold that seeking refuge is recommended before every recitation of the Qurʾān, whether in prayer or outside it". Compare al-Nawawī, al-Tibyān, quoted p. 55; Ibn ʿAṭiyya, quoted p. 55; Ibn Hubayra, al-Ifṣāḥ, quoted p. 55. ↩︎

86. See note 3 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

87. Al-Jaṣṣāṣ, Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/12, transmitting Ibn Jurayj from ʿAṭāʾ. ↩︎

88. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 53: فذهب بعض أهل العلم إلى أنها واجبة في الصلاة وخارجها. منهم عطاء، واختاره ابن حزم في المحلى، وانتصر له "Some of the people of knowledge went to the view that it is obligatory in prayer and outside it. Among them is ʿAṭāʾ, and Ibn Ḥazm chose it in al-Muḥallā and argued for it." ↩︎

89. See note 88 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

90. Al-Dānī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān fī al-Qirāʾāt, 1/393: وَرَوَى ابْنُ جُرَيْجٍ عَنْ عَطَاءٍ قَالَ: الِاسْتِعَاذَةُ وَاجِبَةٌ فِي الصَّلَاةِ وَغَيْرِهَا "Ibn Jurayj related from ʿAṭāʾ, who said: seeking refuge is obligatory in the prayer and outside it." ↩︎

91. Al-Ālūsī, Rūḥ al-Maʿānī, 7/464: وَأَخْرَجَ عَبْدُ الرَّزَّاقِ فِي الْمُصَنَّفِ وَابْنُ الْمُنْذِرِ عَنْ عَطَاءٍ وَرُوِيَ عَنِ الثَّوْرِيِّ أَنَّهَا وَاجِبَةٌ لِكُلِّ قِرَاءَةٍ فِي الصَّلَاةِ أَوْ غَيْرِهَا "ʿAbd al-Razzāq brought it out in al-Muṣannaf, and Ibn al-Mundhir, from ʿAṭāʾ, and it is related from al-Thawrī, that it is obligatory for every recitation, in the prayer or outside it." ↩︎

92. Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Nashr, 1/257–258: وذهب داود بن علي وأصحابه إلى وجوبها حملًا للأمر على الوجوب كما هو الأصل، حتى أبطلوا صلاة من لم يستعذ "Dāwūd b. ʿAlī and his followers went to the view that it is obligatory, taking the imperative to obligation as is the default, to the point that they invalidated the prayer of one who does not seek refuge"; and وهي مسألة لا تعلق للقراءات بها "and it is a question to which the Readings have no bearing". ↩︎

93. Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr, 1/113: وقال ابن سيرين: إذا تعوذ مرة واحدة في عمره فقد كفى في إسقاط الوجوب "Ibn Sīrīn said: if he seeks refuge once in his lifetime, that suffices to discharge the obligation." Ibn Kathīr reports both this and ʿAṭāʾ's position through al-Rāzī (وحكى فخر الدين "Fakhr al-Dīn related"). ↩︎

94. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 55, quoting al-Sarakhsī, al-Mabsūṭ, and reporting al-Ṭabarī's appeal to consensus. ↩︎

95. See note 66 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

96. See note 94 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

97. al-Rāzī, Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb, 20/269, reports ʿAṭāʾ for obligation; al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 54, places him among those holding it recommended. Ibn Sīrīn and al-Nakhaʿī are each reported for seeking refuge after the recitation at p. 47, for the first rakʿah only at pp. 56–57, and for every rakʿah at p. 58. ↩︎

98. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, pp. 14–15. The three imāms also at Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Nashr, 1/243. ↩︎

99. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, pp. 15–17, with 7:200 and 41:36 given as its evidence alongside the hadith of Abū Saʿīd. ↩︎

100. Abū Dāwūd no. 775; al-Tirmidhī no. 242 (ت بشار taḥqīq Bashshār, the printing edited by Bashshār ʿAwwād Maʿrūf for دار الغرب الإسلامي Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, the edition this number belongs to); Ibn Māja no. 804. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 17. ↩︎

101. Ibn Māja, no. 808; Ibn Khuzayma, no. 472, from Ibn Masʿūd. Al-Albānī grades the Ibn Masʿūd report as collected by Ibn Māja ṣaḥīḥ in Ṣaḥīḥ Sunan Ibn Māja no. 658. Al-Lāḥim gives it as marfūʿ from Ibn Masʿūd in al-Lubāb, p. 18. Ibn al-Jazarī separately judges Ibn Māja’s chain in al-Nashr, 1/249: روى ابن ماجه بإسناد صحيح "Ibn Māja related it with a sound chain." ↩︎

102. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, pp. 18–19; Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Nashr, 1/250. ↩︎

103. Abū Dāwūd, no. 466, from ʿAbdallāh b. ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ. Al-Albānī grades this complete Abū Dāwūd report ṣaḥīḥ. Al-Lāḥim discusses it in al-Lubāb, pp. 19, 65. Ibn al-Jazarī separately judges the report in al-Nashr, 1/251: إسناده جيد، وهو حديث حسن "Its chain is good, and it is a ḥasan report." ↩︎

104. See note 52 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

105. Makkī b. Abī Ṭālib, al-Kashf ʿan wujūh al-qirāʾāt al-sabʿ, 1/8: الَّذِي عَلَيْهِ الْعَمَلُ، وَهُوَ الِاخْتِيَارُ أَنْ يَقُولَ الْقَارِئُ: أَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ "What practice rests on, and what is the preferred choice, is that the reciter say: I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan." ↩︎

106. Ibn ʿAṭiyya, al-Muḥarrar al-Wajīz, 1/58: وَأَمَّا لَفْظُ الِاسْتِعَاذَةِ فَالَّذِي عَلَيْهِ جُمْهُورُ النَّاسِ هُوَ لَفْظُ كِتَابِ اللهِ تَعَالَى "As for the wording of the seeking of refuge, what the generality of people hold to is the wording of the Book of Allah, exalted is He." ↩︎

107. Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī, quoted in Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Nashr, 1/243. ↩︎

108. Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Nashr, 1/249 and 1/250, from al-Dānī's Jāmiʿ al-Bayān. ↩︎

109. al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 1/87. Introduced there with وروي "and it is related" and no chain. ↩︎

110. Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Nashr, 1/244, the musalsal chain through Rawḥ b. ʿAbd al-Muʾmin, Yaʿqūb al-Ḥaḍramī, Sallām b. al-Mundhir, ʿĀṣim b. Bahdala and Zirr b. Ḥubaysh: حديث غريب جيد الإسناد من هذا الوجه "a rare report, good in its chain by this route". ↩︎

111. Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Nashr, 1/246, from al-Khuzāʿī's al-Muntahā, بإسناد غريب with a rare chain. ↩︎

112. al-Albānī, Aṣl Ṣifat Ṣalāt al-Nabī ﷺ, 1/276. ↩︎

113. Abū Shāma, Ibrāz al-Maʿānī min Ḥirz al-Amānī, p. 63: وَذَلِكَ أَنَّ آيَةَ النَّحْلِ لَا تَقْتَضِي إِلَّا طَلَبَ أَنْ يَسْتَعِيذَ الْقَارِئُ بِاللهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ فَبِأَيِّ لَفْظٍ فَعَلَ الْمُخَاطَبُ فَقَدْ حَصَلَ الْمَقْصُودُ, "the verse of al-Naḥl requires nothing but that the reciter seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan; so by whatever wording the one addressed does it, the aim has been achieved." On the term: فَفِي الْآيَةِ إِطْلَاقٌ عُبِّرَ عَنْهُ بِالْإِجْمَالِ وَكِلَاهُمَا قَرِيبٌ، وَإِنْ كَانَ بَيْنَهُمَا فَرْقٌ فِي عِلْمِ أُصُولِ الْفِقْهِ, "in the verse there is iṭlāq, unrestrictedness, which has been expressed as ijmāl, undetailedness; the two are close, though there is a difference between them in the science of legal theory." ↩︎

114. See note 53 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

115. See note 53 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

116. See note 53 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

117. See note 53 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

118. See note 53 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

119. See note 53 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

120. See note 112 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

121. See note 113 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

122. Abū Shāma, Ibrāz al-Maʿānī, p. 62: فَهَذَا اللَّفْظُ هُوَ أَدْنَى الْكَمَالِ فِي الْخُرُوجِ عَنْ عُهْدَةِ الْأَمْرِ بِذَلِكَ، وَلَوْ نَقَصَ مِنْهُ بِأَنْ قَالَ: أَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ وَلَمْ يَقُلِ الرَّجِيمَ كَانَ مُسْتَعِيذًا، وَلَمْ يَكُنْ آتِيًا بِاللَّفْظِ الْكَامِلِ فِي ذَلِكَ, "this wording is the least degree of completeness in discharging the responsibility of the command; and were he to fall short of it, saying aʿūdhu bi-llāhi mina l-shayṭān without saying al-rajīm, he would be one who has sought refuge, but he would not have produced the complete wording for it." ↩︎

123. Abū Shāma, Ibrāz al-Maʿānī, p. 63: وَكِلَا الْحَدِيثَيْنِ ضَعِيفٌ وَالْأَوَّلُ لَا أَصْلَ لَهُ فِي كُتُبِ أَهْلِ الْحَدِيثِ, "both of the two hadiths are weak, and the first has no basis in the books of the hadith scholars." ↩︎

124. See note 54 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

125. Ibn al-Qayyim, Zād al-Maʿād, ed. al-Risāla, 1/234: وَإِنَّمَا يَكْفِي اسْتِعَاذَةٌ وَاحِدَةٌ؛ لِأَنَّهُ لَمْ يَتَخَلَّلِ الْقِرَاءَتَيْنِ سُكُوتٌ، بَلْ تَخَلَّلَهُمَا ذِكْرٌ، فَهِيَ كَالْقِرَاءَةِ الْوَاحِدَةِ "One seeking of refuge suffices only because no silence came between the two recitations; rather remembrance came between them, so it is as one recitation." The ʿAṭāʾāt al-ʿIlm printing, 1/277, reads وَكَمَا يَكْفِي افْتِتَاحٌ وَاحِدٌ "and as one opening supplication suffices". ↩︎

126. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, pp. 56–57: أكثر أهل العلم، على أن قراءة الصلاة كلها كقراءة واحدة، يكفي فيها الاستعاذة مرة واحدة، في الركعة الأولى "Most of the people of knowledge hold that the recitation of the whole prayer is as one recitation, in which one seeking of refuge, in the first rakʿa, suffices." ↩︎

127. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, pp. 58–59, quoting al-Nawawī, al-Tibyān: ويستحب التعوذ في الصلاة في كل ركعة على الصحيح من الوجهين عند أصحابنا "Seeking refuge in the prayer is recommended in every rakʿa, on the sounder of the two positions among our companions." Al-Albānī takes the same side against Ibn al-Qayyim, Aṣl Ṣifat Ṣalāt al-Nabī ﷺ, 3/826: لا يكفي استعاذة واحدة؛ بل لابد من الاستعاذة في كل ركعة "One seeking of refuge does not suffice; rather seeking refuge in every rakʿa is necessary." ↩︎

128. Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr, 1/113: واختلف قول الشافعي فيما عدا الركعة الأولى: هل يستحب التعوذ فيها؟ على قولين، ورجح عدم الاستحباب، والله أعلم "Al-Shāfiʿī's view differed regarding the rakʿahs after the first: is seeking refuge recommended in them? Two positions; and it was weighed in favour of its not being recommended, and Allah knows best." ↩︎

129. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 59. Also al-Qurṭubī 1/86; Ibn Kathīr 1/113; Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Nashr, 1/258. ↩︎

130. Ibn Juzayy, al-Tashīl li-ʿUlūm al-Tanzīl, 1/47: فَحُجَّةُ مَالِكٍ عَمَلُ أَهْلِ الْمَدِينَةِ وَحُجَّةُ قَوْلِ غَيْرِهِ: قَوْلُ اللهِ تَعَالَى: فَإِذَا قَرَأْتَ الْقُرْآنَ فَاسْتَعِذْ بِاللهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ وَذَلِكَ يَعُمُّ الصَّلَاةَ وَغَيْرَهَا "Mālik's evidence is the practice of the people of Madīna, and the evidence for the view of others is the saying of Allah, exalted is He: when you have recited the Qurʾān, seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan, and that takes in the prayer and other than it." ↩︎

131. Ibn ʿUthaymīn, al-Sharḥ al-Mumtiʿ, 3/141, and Majmūʿ Fatāwā wa-Rasāʾil, 13/110, fatwā no. 457: الذي يظهر لي: أن قراءة الصلاة واحدة، فتكون الاستعاذة في أول ركعة "What appears to me is that the recitation of the prayer is one, so the seeking of refuge falls in the first rakʿa." The rukūʿ case is at 3/141, following al-Rawḍ al-Murbiʿ, which he calls استثناء جيد "a good exception". He records the every-rakʿah view at 3/141 and closes, at the opening of 3/142, والأمر في هذا واسع "and the matter in this is broad". ↩︎

132. See note 131 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

133. Ibn ʿUthaymīn, Majmūʿ Fatāwā wa-Rasāʾil, 13/110, on Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim no. 2203. ↩︎

134. Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Nashr, 1/252. ↩︎

135. Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Nashr, 1/253, following Abū Shāma. ↩︎

136. See note 134 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

137. Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Nashr, 1/254. ↩︎

138. Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Nashr, 1/254. ↩︎

139. Abū Shāma, Ibrāz al-Maʿānī min Ḥirz al-Amānī, in his discussion of al-Shāṭibī’s words وَإِخْفَاؤُهُ فَصْلٌ. For al-Lāḥim’s later survey of the positions, see al-Lubāb, pp. 60–61. ↩︎

140. See note 139 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

141. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 61, and al-Sarakhsī quoted there: لأن الجهر بالتعوذ لم ينقل عن رسول الله ﷺ، ولو كان يجهر به لنقل نقلًا مستفيضًا "Because saying the taʿawwudh aloud was not transmitted from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ; had he said it aloud, it would have been transmitted by widespread transmission." The verdict itself, والصحيح من أقوال أهل العلم، الإسرار بها، وعدم الجهر، إلا لحاجة كتعليم ونحوه, is al-Lāḥim's own sentence on p. 61; only the reason that follows it is introduced قال السرخسي "al-Sarakhsī said". ↩︎

142. See note 34 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

143. Abū Shāma, quoted by Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Nashr fī al-Qirāʾāt al-ʿAshr, 1/253: فَإِنَّ الْمُخْتَارَ فِي الصَّلَاةِ الْإِخْفَاءُ؛ لِأَنَّ الْمَأْمُومَ مُنْصِتٌ مِنْ أَوَّلِ الْإِحْرَامِ بِالصَّلَاةِ "For what is chosen in the prayer is to say it quietly, because the follower is listening in silence from the very opening of the prayer." The sentence lies inside the reasoning opened by قَالَ: "he said:" after وَقَدْ قَيَّدَهُ الْإِمَامُ أَبُو شَامَةَ … بِحَضْرَةِ مَنْ يَسْمَعُ قِرَاءَتَهُ "The imām Abū Shāma restricted it … to the presence of one who hears his recitation", and that reported speech is not closed before وَقَالَ الشَّيْخُ مُحْيِي الدِّينِ النَّوَوِيُّ "And the Shaykh Muḥyī al-Dīn al-Nawawī said". Ibn al-Jazarī's own endorsement of the restriction, وَلَا بُدَّ مِنْ ذَلِكَ "and there is no way around it", stands just before that قَالَ: "he said:", not after the quoted sentence. ↩︎

144. See note 13 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

145. Yāsīn, الصحيح المسبور 1/68, from Aḥmad’s Musnad. Yāsīn reports that al-Albānī grades the Abū Dharr report ṣaḥīḥ. Yāsīn separately quotes Ibn Kathīr’s judgment about the report’s several routes taken together: ومجموعها يفيد قوته وصحته "and the sum of them yields its strength and its soundness." Neither verdict is presented as a grade of every individual route. ↩︎

146. See note 145 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

147. Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, under the interpretation of مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ, transmits the statement through Yūnus b. ʿAbd al-Aʿlā, Ibn Wahb, Hishām b. Saʿd, Zayd b. Aslam, and Zayd’s father from ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb. Yāsīn, الصحيح المسبور 1/69, cites the report from al-Ṭabarī and reports Ibn Kathīr’s judgment on this specific isnād: ذكره ابن كثير وصحح إسناده "Ibn Kathīr mentioned it and declared its chain sound." ↩︎

148. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 33: الشيطان: مأخوذ عند جمهور أهل اللغة ومحققيهم من شطن بمعنى: بعد … والشيطان على وزن فيعال، للدلالة على أنه بلغ الغاية في البعد "Shayṭān: taken, in the view of the generality of the lexicographers and their exacting scholars, from shaṭana, meaning to be far … and shayṭān is on the pattern fayʿāl, to indicate that he has reached the utmost in distance." ↩︎

149. al-ʿUkbarī, al-Tibyān fī Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān, 1/2. ↩︎

150. See note 149 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

151. al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 1/90. ↩︎

152. See note 151 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

153. al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 1/110, printing Umayya's line as أيما شاطن عصاه عكاه … ثم يلقى في السجن والأكبال "Any rebellious one who disobeyed him, he shackled … then he is cast into the prison and the fetters". Al-Qurṭubī 1/90 and Lisān al-ʿArab, 13/239 print الأغلال "the collars" for الأكبال "the fetters". Al-Nābigha’s complete line, including the second hemistich, is also quoted by Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr, 1/115. ↩︎

154. See note 153 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

155. See note 153 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

156. See note 153 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

157. Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr, 1/115. ↩︎

158. Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab, 13/237–239, root ش-ط-ن sh-ṭ-n: والشيطان: فيعال من شطن إذا بعد فيمن جعل النون أصلًا، وقولهم الشياطين دليل على ذلك "Al-shayṭān is fayʿāl from shaṭana, when a thing is far, on the view of one who takes the nūn as radical; and their saying al-shayāṭīn is evidence for that"; قال الأزهري: الأول أكثر "Al-Azharī said: the first is the more common"; قال: والأول أصح "He said: and the first is the sounder." (the last quoting al-Nihāya). ↩︎

159. Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab, 13/239. ↩︎

160. Ibn Barrī, quoted in Lisān al-ʿArab, 13/239, on the line of Ṭufayl وقد منت الخذواء منًّا عليهم … وشيطانُ إذ يدعوهم ويثوّب "Al-Khadhwāʾ had done them a favour, and Shayṭān too, when he calls them and cries out": وشيطانٌ في البيت مصروف، وهذا يدل على أن شيطان فعلان، ونونه زائدة "Shayṭān in the verse takes full inflection, and this indicates that shayṭān is faʿlān and its nūn is additional." ↩︎

161. See note 8 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

162. See note 15 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

163. See note 153 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

164. al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 1/109. ↩︎

165. See note 106 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

166. Ibn ʿAṭiyya, quoted in al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 1/87: وأما المقرئون فأكثروا في هذا من تبديل الصفة في اسم الله تعالى وفي الجهة الأخرى، كقول بعضهم: أعوذ بالله المجيد، من الشيطان المريد، ونحو هذا مما لا أقول فيه: نعمت البدعة، ولا أقول: إنه لا يجوز "As for the reciters, they went to excess in this, altering the attribute in the name of Allah, exalted is He, and on the other side too, as in the saying of some of them: I seek refuge with Allah the Glorious from the obstinate Satan, and the like of this, of which I do not say, what an excellent innovation, nor do I say that it is impermissible." ↩︎

167. See note 66 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

168. See note 66 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

169. See note 66 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

170. See note 87 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

171. See note 90 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

172. al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 1/86. ↩︎

173. See note 172 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

174. See note 151 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

175. See note 22 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

176. See note 128 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

177. See note 72 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

178. See note 79 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

179. See note 92 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

180. Sayyid Quṭb, In the Shade of the Qurʾān, trans. Adil Salahi, vol. 11, pp. 74–75, on 16:98–100. ↩︎

181. See note 60 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

182. See note 65 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

183. Ibn ʿUthaymīn, al-Sharḥ al-Mumtiʿ, 3/53, giving أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم "I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan", then أعوذ بالله السميع العليم من الشيطان الرجيم؛ من همزه ونفخه ونفثه "I seek refuge with Allah, the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing, from the accursed Satan: from his promptings, his puffing and his blowing", then أعوذ بالسميع العليم من الشيطان الرجيم "I seek refuge with the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing, from the accursed Satan". That the short form suffices: Fatḥ Dhī al-Jalāl wa-l-Ikrām, 2/50, فإن اقتصر على "أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم" أجزأ "If he confines himself to I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan, it suffices.". ↩︎

184. See note 133 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

185. Ibn ʿUthaymīn, Fatḥ Dhī al-Jalāl wa-l-Ikrām, 2/50: والقول بوجوب التعوذ عند قراءة القرآن قول قوي لا شك "The view that seeking refuge is obligatory at the recitation of the Qurʾān is a strong view, without doubt." ↩︎

186. Ibn ʿUthaymīn, Majmūʿ Fatāwā wa-Rasāʾil, 13/110: الاستعاذة بالله من الشيطان الرجيم في الصلاة سنة "Seeking refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan in the prayer is a sunna." The same wording at Liqāʾ al-Bāb al-Maftūḥ, 67/10. At al-Sharḥ al-Mumtiʿ, 3/54 he reports the obligation view as the position of others, citing al-Nawawī's al-Majmūʿ, 3/283. ↩︎

187. Al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 72, summarizes the graded sequence and refers it to Ibn al-Qayyim, Badāʾiʿ al-Fawāʾid, 1/260–262. The Arabic passage quoted in the main text is al-Lāḥim’s wording in that summary. It is not presented as a verbatim extract from the cited volume of Ibn al-Qayyim’s work. ↩︎

188. Al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 72, in the same summary of Ibn al-Qayyim, identifies self-admiration, pride, and showing off as a later satanic approach, especially against worshippers, scholars, and people recognized for standing, authority, generosity, or courage. The warning concludes: فَيُحْبِطُ عَمَلَهُ، وَهُوَ لَا يَدْرِي, “His deed is brought to nothing while he does not know.” ↩︎

189. See note 188 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

190. Al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 72. This final paragraph is al-Lāḥim’s own continuation after his summary of Ibn al-Qayyim: فَإِنْ لَمْ يُدْرِكْ مِنْهُ شَيْئًا مِنْ هَذِهِ الْمَرَاتِبِ وَأَعْيَتْهُ فِيهِ الْحِيَلُ سَلَّطَ عَلَيْهِ حِزْبَهُ مِنْ شَيَاطِينِ الْإِنْسِ وَالْجِنِّ يُبَدِّعُونَهُ وَيُفَسِّقُونَهُ لِيُشَوِّشَ عَلَيْهِ قَلْبَهُ وَيَمْنَعَ النَّاسَ مِنَ الِانْتِفَاعِ بِهِ, “If he achieves nothing through these stages and his devices fail, he sets against him his party from the devils of humankind and jinn, who declare him an innovator and a sinner, in order to disturb his heart and prevent people from benefiting from him.” ↩︎

191. See note 190 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

192. See note 149 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

193. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 32: بالله: الباء للاستعانة، وقيل للإلصاق … وجملة أعوذ بالله خبرية تتضمن طلب الإعاذة "Bi-llāh: the bāʾ is for seeking help, and it has been said, for adherence … And the sentence I seek refuge with Allah is declarative in form, containing within it the request for protection." ↩︎

194. See note 193 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

195. See note 66 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

196. See note 76 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

197. See note 78 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

198. See note 79 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

199. See note 78 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

200. See note 149 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

201. Ibn Khālawayh, Iʿrāb Thalāthīn Sūra, p. 3: وَالْأَصْلُ أَعْوُذُ فَاسْتَثْقَلُوا الضَّمَّةَ عَلَى الْوَاوِ، فَنُقِلَتْ إِلَى الْعَيْنِ فَصَارَتْ أَعُوذُ، وَكَذَلِكَ أَقُولُ وَأَزُولُ "The root form is aʿwudhu; they found the ḍamma heavy on the wāw, so it was moved onto the ʿayn and it became aʿūdhu, and likewise aqūlu and azūlu." ↩︎

202. Al-Muntajab al-Hamadhānī, al-Kitāb al-Farīd fī Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān al-Majīd, 1/49–50: وَلَيْسَ قَوْلُ مَنْ قَالَ: اسْتُثْقِلَتِ الضَّمَّةُ فِي الْوَاوِ فَنُقِلَتْ إِلَى الْعَيْنِ ... بِمُسْتَقِيمٍ؛ لِأَجْلِ أَنَّ حَرْفَ الْعِلَّةِ قَدْ سَكَنَ مَا قَبْلَهُ فِيهِ، وَالْحَرَكَةُ فِي حَرْفِ اللِّينِ لَا تُسْتَثْقَلُ عِنْدَ سُكُونِ مَا قَبْلَهُ، وَإِنَّمَا هَذَا الْإِعْلَالُ لِأَجْلِ أَنْ يُشَاكِلَ الْمُضَارِعُ الْمَاضِيَ "The view of one who says the ḍamma was found heavy on the wāw and so was moved onto the ʿayn is not sound, for the reason that the weak letter already has a vowelless letter before it in this word, and a vowel on a soft letter is not found heavy when what precedes it is vowelless. This weakening is rather so that the imperfect verb may match the perfect." ↩︎

203. al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 1/89: وأصل أعوذ نقلت الضمة إلى العين لاستثقالها على الواو فسكنت "The root form of aʿūdhu: the ḍamma was moved onto the ʿayn because it was found heavy on the wāw, and so the wāw took a vowelless form." ↩︎

204. See note 6 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

205. See note 149 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

206. See note 7 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

207. al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, Mufradāt Alfāẓ al-Qurʾān, pp. 594–595, root ع-و-ذ ʿ-w-dh. ↩︎

208. See note 17 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

209. Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, 1/116. ↩︎

210. See note 149 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

211. See note 149 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

212. See note 209 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

213. Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab, 12/227, root ر-ج-م r-j-m. ↩︎

214. See note 213 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

215. See note 213 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

216. al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, Mufradāt Alfāẓ al-Qurʾān, p. 346: والشيطان الرجيم: المطرود عن الخيرات، وعن منازل الملإ الأعلى "And the accursed Satan: the one driven off from good things and from the stations of the highest assembly." ↩︎

217. See note 148 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

218. See note 158 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

219. Al-Ālūsī, Rūḥ al-Maʿānī, 7/464. ↩︎

220. Abū al-Suʿūd, Irshād al-ʿAql al-Salīm, 5/139: عَبَّرَ بِهَا عَنْ إِرَادَتِهَا عَلَى طَرِيقَةِ إِطْلَاقِ اسْمِ الْمُسَبَّبِ عَلَى السَّبَبِ إِيذَانًا بِأَنَّ الْمُرَادَ هِيَ الْإِرَادَةُ الْمُتَّصِلَةُ بِالْقِرَاءَةِ "He expressed the intending of it by it, in the manner of applying the name of the effect to the cause, as notice that what is meant is the intention joined to the recitation." ↩︎

221. Al-Zamakhsharī, al-Kashshāf, 2/633: فَإِنْ قُلْتَ: لِمَ عَبَّرَ عَنْ إِرَادَةِ الْفِعْلِ بِلَفْظِ الْفِعْلِ؟ قُلْتُ: لِأَنَّ الْفِعْلَ يُوجَدُ عِنْدَ الْقَصْدِ وَالْإِرَادَةِ بِغَيْرِ فَاصِلٍ وَعَلَى حَسَبِهِ، فَكَانَ مِنْهُ بِسَبَبٍ قَوِيٍّ وَمُلَابَسَةٍ ظَاهِرَةٍ "If you ask: why did He express the intending of the act by the wording of the act? I say: because the act comes into being at the aiming and the intending, with no interval, and in accordance with it; so it stood to it in a strong causal tie and a manifest connection." ↩︎

222. Ibn ʿĀshūr, al-Taḥrīr wa-l-Tanwīr, 14/275: وَإِظْهَارُ اسْمِ الْقُرْآنَ دُونَ أَنْ يُضْمَرَ لِلْكِتَابِ لِأَجْلِ بُعْدِ الْمَعَادِ "And the noun al-Qurʾān is shown outright rather than a pronoun being used for the Book, on account of the distance of what it refers back to." ↩︎

223. Al-Ṭībī, Futūḥ al-Ghayb, 9/192: وَيَظْهَرُ بِهَذَا فَائِدَةُ وَضْعِ الْقُرْآنِ مَوْضِعَ الْمُضْمَرِ؛ لِأَنَّ الْقُرْآنَ: الْجَمْعُ وَالضَّمُّ "By this the benefit of putting al-Qurʾān in the place of the pronoun appears, because al-Qurʾān is the gathering and the joining." ↩︎

224. Ibn ʿĀshūr, al-Taḥrīr wa-l-Tanwīr, 14/276: وَمِنْ أَحْسَنِ الِامْتِثَالِ مُحَاكَاةُ صِيغَةِ الْأَمْرِ فِيمَا هُوَ مِنْ قَبِيلِ الْأَقْوَالِ "Among the finest forms of compliance is mirroring the form of the command in what is of the kind of things said", then فَاخْتِيرَ لَفْظُ أَعُوذُ لِأَنَّهُ مِنْ صِيَغِ الْإِنْشَاءِ "So the wording aʿūdhu was chosen because it is one of the forms of performative speech", closing وَهَذَا أَبْدَعُ الِامْتِثَالِ "and this is the most exquisite form of compliance". ↩︎

225. Al-Ālūsī, Rūḥ al-Maʿānī, 7/464: لِأَنَّ لَفْظَ اسْتَعِذْ طَلَبُ الْعَوْذَةِ وَقَوْلُهُ: أَعُوذُ امْتِثَالٌ مُطَابِقٌ لِمُقْتَضَاهُ "Because the wording istaʿidh is a request for protection, and his saying aʿūdhu is a compliance matching what it calls for." He reports at 7/464 the contrary preference for أَسْتَعِيذُ astaʿīdhu from al-Hidāya, on the ground that it is closer to the Qurʾān's own wording, and answers that closeness of wording is not the criterion. ↩︎

226. Abū al-Suʿūd, Irshād al-ʿAql al-Salīm, 5/139–140: وَتَخْصِيصُ قِرَاءَةِ الْقُرْآنِ مِنْ بَيْنِ الْأَعْمَالِ الصَّالِحَةِ بِالِاسْتِعَاذَةِ عِنْدَ إِرَادَتِهَا لِلتَّنْبِيهِ عَلَى أَنَّهَا لِغَيْرِهِ ﷺ وَفِي سَائِرِ الْأَعْمَالِ الصَّالِحَةِ أَهَمُّ "The singling out of the recitation of the Qurʾān from among righteous deeds for the seeking of refuge at the intending of it is to draw attention to the fact that it is, for other than him ﷺ and in every other righteous deed, more important still." ↩︎

227. Ibn ʿĀshūr, al-Taḥrīr wa-l-Tanwīr, 14/276: وَإِنَّمَا شُرِعَتِ الِاسْتِعَاذَةُ عِنْدَ ابْتِدَاءِ الْقِرَاءَةِ إِيذَانًا بِنَفَاسَةِ الْقُرْآنِ وَنَزَاهَتِهِ، إِذْ هُوَ نَازِلٌ مِنَ الْعَالَمِ الْقُدْسِيِّ الْمَلَكِيِّ "Seeking refuge was prescribed at the beginning of the recitation only as notice of the preciousness of the Qurʾān and its purity, since it comes down from the sanctified angelic realm." ↩︎

228. Ibn ʿĀshūr, al-Taḥrīr wa-l-Tanwīr, 14/277: وَإِنَّمَا لَمْ تُشْرَعْ لِذَلِكَ كَلِمَةُ بِاسْمِ اللهِ لِأَنَّ الْمَقَامَ مَقَامُ تَخَلٍّ عَنِ النَّقَائِصِ، لَا مَقَامُ اسْتِجْلَابِ التَّيَمُّنِ وَالْبَرَكَةِ، لِأَنَّ الْقُرْآنَ نَفْسَهُ يُمْنٌ وَبَرَكَةٌ وَكَمَالٌ تَامٌّ "The words in the name of Allah were not prescribed for this only because the situation is one of stripping oneself of defects, not one of drawing down good fortune and blessing, since the Qurʾān is itself good fortune, blessing and complete perfection." ↩︎

229. See note 55 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

230. Al-Bayḍāwī, Anwār al-Tanzīl, 3/240: فَذَكَرَ السَّلْطَنَةَ بَعْدَ الْأَمْرِ بِالِاسْتِعَاذَةِ لِئَلَّا يُتَوَهَّمَ مِنْهُ أَنَّ لَهُ سُلْطَانًا "So He mentioned the authority after the command to seek refuge, lest it be imagined from it that he has any authority." ↩︎

231. Ibn ʿĀshūr, al-Taḥrīr wa-l-Tanwīr, 14/278: وَجُمْلَةُ إِنَّهُ لَيْسَ لَهُ سُلْطَانٌ ... تَعْلِيلٌ لِلْأَمْرِ بِالِاسْتِعَاذَةِ ... وَبَيَانٌ لِصِفَةِ الِاسْتِعَاذَةِ "And the sentence he has no authority … is a stated cause for the command to seek refuge … and an explication of what seeking refuge is"; وَفِي الْإِعْلَامِ بِالْعِلَّةِ تَنْشِيطٌ لِلْمَأْمُورِ بِالْفِعْلِ عَلَى الِامْتِثَالِ إِذْ يَصِيرُ عَالِمًا بِالْحِكْمَةِ "And in announcing the cause there is a spurring of the one commanded toward compliance, since he comes to know the wisdom"; وَقَدَّمَ الْمَجْرُورَ عَلَى الْفِعْلِ لِلْقَصْرِ "And He put the prepositional phrase before the verb for restriction"; وَجَعَلَ فِعْلَهَا مُضَارِعًا لِإِفَادَةِ تَجَدُّدِ التَّوَكُّلِ وَاسْتِمْرَارِهِ "And He made its verb imperfect to convey a reliance renewed and continuing." ↩︎

232. See note 231 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

233. See note 102 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

234. See note 98 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

235. See note 98 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

236. Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Nashr, 1/249, 1/250, and 1/251, the seventh form being أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم، وأستفتح الله وهو خير الفاتحين "I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan, and I seek an opening from Allah, and He is the best of those who open", transmitted to him through Khalaf from Ḥamza. ↩︎

237. See note 102 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

238. See note 102 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

239. See note 102 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

240. See note 134 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

241. Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Nashr, 1/252–253, including al-Dāraquṭnī's report and al-Ṣafrāwī's statement that both ways are transmitted from him. ↩︎

242. See note 99 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

243. See note 241 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

244. For al-Lāḥim’s report, see note 70. For Ibn al-Jazarī’s assessment of the broken chain, see note 72.↩︎

245. See note 72 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

246. Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Nashr, 1/248 (وفي صحة ذلك عنهما نظر "and in the soundness of that from the two of them there is something to look into", of Ibn Sīrīn and Ḥamza) and 1/246 (وأما أعوذ فقد نقل عن حمزة فيه، أستعيذ، ونستعيذ، واستعذت، ولا يصح "As for aʿūdhu, it has been transmitted from Ḥamza in the forms astaʿīdhu, nastaʿīdhu and istaʿadhtu; and it is not sound", with the Hidāya author's choice and its rejection). Al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 20 n. 3, notes the same: وقد نفى ابن الجزري صحتها عن حمزة "Ibn al-Jazarī denied its soundness from Ḥamza." ↩︎

247. See note 246 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

248. Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, under the interpretation of seeking refuge, report no. 137 (repeated as no. 138), transmits through Abū Kurayb, ʿUthmān b. Saʿīd, Bishr b. ʿUmāra, Abū Rawq, and al-Ḍaḥḥāk from Ibn ʿAbbās that Jibrīl taught the Prophet ﷺ the wording with أَسْتَعِيذُ. Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr, 1/113, grades this report’s chain. ↩︎

249. See note 248 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

250. Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Nashr, 1/247. He first cites al-Ṭabarī’s report and agrees that its weakness and broken chain prevent using it as proof. He then says that Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī transmitted the event correctly from Abū Rawq, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, from Ibn ʿAbbās: Jibrīl taught the Prophet ﷺ seeking refuge and said, يَا مُحَمَّدُ قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ "O Muḥammad, say: I seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the expelled." The displayed imperative is therefore Jibrīl’s wording inside Ibn ʿAbbās’s report, carried here through Ibn al-Jazarī’s report of al-Dānī. ↩︎

251. See note 250 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

252. See note 246 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

253. Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Nashr, 1/252. ↩︎

254. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 6115; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 2610. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, pp. 64–65. ↩︎

255. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 3276; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 134, from Abū Hurayra: فإذا بلغه فليستعذ بالله ولينته "When it reaches him, let him seek refuge with Allah and let him stop." al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 64. ↩︎

256. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 2203, from ʿUthmān b. Abī al-ʿĀṣ: ذاك شيطان يقال له خنزب، فإذا أحسسته، فتعوذ بالله منه، واتفل على يسارك ثلاثًا "That is a devil called Khinzab. When you sense him, seek refuge with Allah from him, and spit dryly to your left three times." al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 64. ↩︎

257. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 3292; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 2261, from Abū Qatāda; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 2262, from Jābir. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 65. ↩︎

258. See note 103 for the source and its qualifications.↩︎

259. Ibn Māja, no. 773, from Abū Hurayra. Al-Albānī grades this Abū Hurayra report ṣaḥīḥ in Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Māja, no. 634. For al-Lāḥim’s later discussion, see al-Lubāb, p. 66. ↩︎

260. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 3303, and Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 2729, from Abū Hurayra, concern hearing a donkey bray. Abū Dāwūd, no. 5103, from Jābir, concerns hearing dogs bark and donkeys bray at night; al-Albānī’s ṣaḥīḥ grade applies to this Abū Dāwūd/Jābir report. For al-Lāḥim’s later discussion, see al-Lubāb, p. 66. ↩︎

261. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 2708, from Khawla bint Ḥakīm: لم يضره شيء حتى يرتحل من منزله ذلك "nothing will harm him until he departs from that halting place". al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, pp. 66–67. ↩︎

262. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 142; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 375, from Anas. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 67. ↩︎

263. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 2202, from ʿUthmān b. Abī al-ʿĀṣ. al-Lāḥim, al-Lubāb, p. 67. ↩︎

264. Abū Dāwūd, no. 5067; al-Tirmidhī, no. 3392 (ت بشار taḥqīq Bashshār, the printing edited by Bashshār ʿAwwād Maʿrūf for دار الغرب الإسلامي Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, the edition this number belongs to); Aḥmad 2/297. Abū Hurayra reports that Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq asked what to say, and the Prophet ﷺ taught him the formula. Al-Albānī grades the Abū Dāwūd no. 5067 report ṣaḥīḥ; al-Tirmidhī calls his no. 3392 version ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ. For al-Lāḥim’s later discussion, see al-Lubāb, p. 67. ↩︎

265. Abū Dāwūd, no. 3893; al-Tirmidhī, no. 3528 (ت بشار taḥqīq Bashshār, the printing edited by Bashshār ʿAwwād Maʿrūf for دار الغرب الإسلامي Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, the edition this number belongs to), from ʿAmr b. Shuʿayb, from his father, from his grandfather. For Abū Dāwūd no. 3893, al-Albānī grades the Prophetic formula ḥasan but expressly excludes the continuation stating that ʿAbdallāh taught it to mature children and wrote and hung it for children who had not reached maturity: حسن دون قوله وكان عبدالله. Al-Tirmidhī calls his version ḥasan gharīb. For al-Lāḥim’s later discussion, see al-Lubāb, p. 68. ↩︎

266. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 3371, Kitāb Aḥādīth al-Anbiyāʾ, Sulṭāniyya printing, 4/147: كَانَ النَّبِيُّ ﷺ يُعَوِّذُ الْحَسَنَ وَالْحُسَيْنَ وَيَقُولُ إِنَّ أَبَاكُمَا كَانَ يُعَوِّذُ بِهَا إِسْمَاعِيلَ وَإِسْحَاقَ أَعُوذُ بِكَلِمَاتِ اللهِ التَّامَّةِ مِنْ كُلِّ شَيْطَانٍ وَهَامَّةٍ وَمِنْ كُلِّ عَيْنٍ لَامَّةٍ "The Prophet ﷺ used to seek protection for al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn, and would say: your father used to seek protection by it for Ismāʿīl and Isḥāq, I seek refuge in the perfect words of Allah from every devil and every venomous creature, and from every harming eye." Al-Bukhārī gives the first person, أَعُوذُ "I seek refuge", as though quoting Ibrāhīm's own words. The second person أُعِيذُكُمَا "I seek protection for you two" is the wording of Ibn Abī Shayba, al-Muṣannaf, 5/47, and Aḥmad 4/20. Also at Abū Dāwūd no. 4737, al-Tirmidhī no. 2060 (ت بشار taḥqīq Bashshār, the printing edited by Bashshār ʿAwwād Maʿrūf for دار الغرب الإسلامي Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, the edition this number belongs to), al-Nasāʾī al-Kubrā no. 10845 and Ibn Māja no. 3525. ↩︎