اللَّهُمَّ عَالِمَ الْغَيْبِ وَالشَّهَادَةِ فَاطِرَ السَّماوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ، رَبَّ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ وَمَلِيكَهُ، أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا أَنْتَ، أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ شَرِّ نَفْسِي، وَمِنْ شَرِّ الشَّيْطَانِ وَشِرْكِهِ، وَأَنْ أَقْتَرِفَ عَلَى نَفْسِي سُوءاً، أَوْ أَجُرَّهُ إِلَى مُسْلِمٍ
O Allah, Knower of the unseen and the evident, Maker of the heavens and the earth, Lord of everything and its Possessor, I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship but You. I seek refuge in You from the evil of my soul and from the evil of Satan and his helpers. (I seek refuge in You) from bringing evil upon my soul and from harming any Muslim
To be recited once
Brief Commentary
- Abu Bakr (RadhiyAllahu anhu) asked the Prophet (SallaAllahu ‘alayhi wasallam) to teach him something to say every morning and evening, so he taught him to say this supplication, and added that it is also to be said when a person goes to bed [1]
- We begin this supplication by glorifying Allah and praising Him so that we can get closer to Him and increase the chances of having our supplication answered
- The praise of Allah begins by acknowledging His infinite knowledge as He knows what is hidden and what is apparent. The knowledge of Allah encompasses the past, the present, and the future. It includes what we can physically see, and that which is hidden from us
- The praise of Allah then moves on to acknowledging His infinite power as He is the one who invented and created the heavens and the Earth. The One who is able to create this magnificent creation is undoubtedly an all-powerful Creator
- As Allah is the one who knows everything and has created everything, it is only right that He is the Lord and King of everything, hence we mention and acknowledge this in the subsequent part of the supplication after praising Him for His knowledge and power
- The Lord is the one who nurtures and looks after, therefore if Allah is the Lord of everything, then this means that everything is dependent upon Allah
- The resultant effect of Allah being the Lord of everything is that He should be worshipped, so we testify that there is none worthy of worship but Him in the following part of the supplication
- After praising Allah and acknowledging our dependency on and relationship with Him, we begin to ask Him our needs
- Our first request is that Allah saves us from the evil of our own soul
- We seek refuge in Allah from our soul though our soul is a part of us so how can it be our enemy? In fact, Ibnul Qayyim said, “Beware of your soul, for you have not been faced with a tribulation except due to it. Do not make peace with it, for by Allah you do not honour it if you do not degrade it. You do not give it respect if you do not humiliate it. You do not give it strength if you do not break it. You do not give it rest if you do not tire it. You do not give it safety if you do not frighten it, and you do not give it happiness if you do not make it sad” [2]
- The statement of Ibnul Qayyim can be understood when one considers our life as a whole, including the Hereafter. If you do not give your soul what it desires in this life and you treat it as Ibnul Qayyim advises, then you will have given it peace, honour, strength, happiness, and all that is good in the Hereafter
- The evil we commit is either due to our own souls, or due to the whispers of Shaytan, so in this supplication we see refuge in Allah from both sources of evil
- The evil we commit can either bring harm to ourselves, or to others, therefore in the last part of the hadith we seek refuge in Allah from bringing harm to either recipient
Action Points
- As this supplication begins with a lengthy praise of Allah, this signifies the importance of the request being made so we should focus on what is being requested from Allah and ensure we mean it from our heart
- The main request in this supplication is to ensure we do not commit evil and harm ourselves or others
- The two sources of evil identified in this supplication are our soul and the shaytan. We can avoid the evil of our soul by treating it as Ibnul Qayyim advised us above [2], and we can avoid the evil of the shaytan by ensuring we constantly seek refuge in Allah from him and maintaining the recitation of the morning and evening supplications
- Ensure you also say this supplication before you go to sleep [1]
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- Hadith, reported by Tirmidhi, hadith number 3529, and Abu Dawud, hadith number 5067
- Al Fawa’id by Ibnul Qayyim
Hadith Commentary 