Daily Azkar and Duas for Protection From Sihr, Jinn, and Evil Eye

Ubay ibn Ka’b once told the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ which verse of the Quran he considered greatest, and the Prophet ﷺ approved of the answer twice over – “Congratulations on your knowledge, Abu al-Mundhir,” he said, according to the account in Sahih Muslim, before adding that the verse, Ayat al-Kursi, “has a tongue and two lips, and it glorifies the King at the foot of the Throne.” It is this same verse, recited before sleep, that sits at the center of the everyday protective practice Islamic teaching calls azkar – ordinary, repeatable acts of worship rather than treatment reserved for when something has already gone wrong.

Before Sleep: Ayat al-Kursi and the Devil Who Told the Truth

Abu Hurairah (RA) narrated, in a hadith recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari, that the Prophet ﷺ once assigned him to guard the stored dates of charity. A figure came to steal from it three nights running, and on the third night the thief – a devil, as it turned out – offered Abu Hurairah a trade: let him go, and he would teach him to recite Ayat al-Kursi before sleeping, promising that whoever did so would keep a protector from Allah at their side, with no devil able to approach until morning. Abu Hurairah reported the exchange to the Prophet ﷺ the next day, who confirmed it was true and added, of the creature, that it was a habitual liar who had for once told the truth.

The Closing Verses of Al-Baqarah

Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim both preserve the Prophet’s ﷺ statement that whoever recites the final two verses of Surah al-Baqarah (2:285-286) at night, they will be sufficient for him – understood by scholars as protection through the night and specifically against the intrusion of Shaytan. Affirming belief in Allah, His angels, His books, and His messengers, and closing with a direct request that Allah not burden the believer beyond what they can bear, the two verses function as a nightly companion to Ayat al-Kursi rather than a replacement for it.

Al-Mu’awwidhatayn in the Prophet’s Final Illness

Aisha (RA) described how, during his final illness, the Prophet ﷺ would recite Surah al-Falaq and Surah an-Nas – together, al-Mu’awwidhatayn, “the two surahs of refuge” – blow gently onto his own hands, and wipe them over his body; once too weak to manage it himself, Aisha performed the same motion for him using his own hand. Between them, the final two chapters of the Quran name the harms they guard against with unusual specificity: the evil of what He created, the darkness of night, those who blow on knots in witchcraft, the envier, and the whispering of Shaytan – the single most concentrated protective recitation in the Quran, and the core of the ruqyah a person performs on themselves morning and evening.

Fuller Morning and Evening Remembrance

Beyond the bedtime recitations, the Prophet ﷺ taught a broader set of remembrances for after Fajr and after Asr, later gathered into collections still circulated as “Hisn al-Muslim,” the Fortress of the Muslim: Ayat al-Kursi, the three protective surahs recited three times each, and a supplication narrated by Uthman ibn Affan (RA) in a hadith recorded by Abu Dawud and al-Tirmidhi – “In the name of Allah, with whose name nothing on earth or in the heaven can cause harm, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing” – said three times each morning and evening, with the promise that nothing would harm the one who said it until the next such recitation.

A Single Word for Ordinary Moments

Protection in Islamic teaching is not confined to formal recitation sessions; it runs through the smallest daily actions. Saying “Bismillah” before entering a home, the Prophet ﷺ taught, keeps Shaytan from entering with the household; before eating, it keeps a devil from sharing the meal; before marital relations, it anchors the specific supplication asking Allah to keep Shaytan away from the couple and from any child that may be conceived. The same protection sought through lengthy nightly recitation is, in smaller doses, available through one word said consistently through the ordinary business of the day.

Leaving and Returning Home

Hadith preserve a distinct supplication for the moment a person steps outside: “In the name of Allah, I place my trust in Allah, and there is no might nor power except with Allah,” recorded by Abu Dawud and al-Tirmidhi, with the added promise that the one who says it will be told he is guided, protected, and sufficed, while a devil moves away from him. A shorter supplication covers entering the home, invoking Allah’s name on entry and again over the meal – described in a hadith recorded in Sahih Muslim as leaving Shaytan no place to spend the night in that household once both invocations are made.

Why the Prophet ﷺ Was Still Affected by Sihr

None of this azkar functions as a one-time inoculation. The Prophet ﷺ himself, despite reciting these same protections, was still affected for a time by the sihr worked against him by Labid ibn al-A’sam – which is precisely why scholars teach azkar as a means of seeking Allah’s protection, repeated daily out of worship and reliance on Him, rather than a mechanical guarantee performed once and set aside. It is the regularity – morning, evening, and before sleep, every day – that Islamic teaching treats as the real safeguard, far more than any single recitation on its own, a discipline that carries over into how the tradition frames other daily obligations, including the rights owed to parents in our piece on Birr al-Walidayn: The Rights of Parents in Islam.