Seeking The Best Refuge – Mu’awadhatain

In his Sahih, Muslim recorded on the authority of ‘Uqbah bin ‘Amir that the Messenger of Allah said, “Do you not see that there have been verses revealed to me tonight the like of which has not been seen before. They are (Surah Al-Falaq and Surah An-Naas).”

We, Muslims – who are blessed with this beautiful religion Islam, were gifted with a book of guidance The Holy Quran 1400 years ago. Its words are timeless and eternally valid. Each and every word of this Book is relevant to our concerns and daily life. We have dual benefits with this Quran, we get reward by reciting this Holy Book and we also find instructions to live our lives in a better way. Each Surah in Quran had a specific purpose behind its revelation. There are different Surahs that come with special virtues. Two of those renowned Surahs are Surah Al Falaq and Surah An Naas, which are referred as Mu’awadhatain.

Mu’awadhatain is an Arabic word which means to seek protection, so it is clear that these two Surahs were revealed to seek protection and help from Allah from various known and unknown dangers in our lives. Abu Saeed al-Khudri said: “The Messenger of Allah (S.A.W.S.) used to seek refuge with Allah from the jinn and from the evil eye until the Mu’awadhatain were revealed, and when they were revealed he started to recite them and not anything else”.

Hazrat Aisha (R.A.) reported that: “Before sleeping Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) would recite the last three Surahs of Quran and then would blow it onto His hands and then wipe the hands all over His body.” (Bukhari). So this Hadith shows that the recitation of these Surahs was a Sunnah of our Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.S.). If we ponder over the verses of these two Surahs we can easily understand that through these ayahs we are seeking protection of Allah (S.W.T.) from all sorts of evils. We all believe that people cast magic to harm others using devilish words and satanic spells, so when we recite ayah number 4 of Surah Al Falaq we are seeking protection from magic, similarly with ayah number 4 we seek refuge from people who envy, because jealousy and envy is one of the most common trait in humans and they do much harm to others in its spell. When we recite Surah An Naas ayah number 4 and 5, we are seeking refuge from evil whispers of Shaitan, waswas are the whispers he does secretly to take us off from the right path, just like he deceived Hazrat Adam (A.S.). And when we recite ayah number 6 we seek protection from shayateen that have entered Jinn and the mankind to divert us from the right path.

Whenever Our Last Prophet (S.A.W.S.) used to get ill, he would recite these two Surahs and then blow his breath over his body. Hazrat Aisha (R.A.) said that when he got seriously ill, she used to recite these two Surahs and rub his hands over his body for its blessings (Saheeh Al-Bukhari). Once a Yahudi did black magic over our Prophet (S.A.W.S.), Jibrael (A.S.) came and informed him that he should recite these two Surahs. One of the Sahaba went to the well and brought the doll with needles and comb with hairs having knots, Hazrat Muhammad (S.A.W.S.) started reciting the Surahs and with every ayah he loosened one knot and in this way he was free from the spell of black magic.

In a nutshell, we can say that these two most renowned and easy to memorize Surahs are every bit beneficial, we should recite them daily in order to seek the best refuge i.e. Allah (S.W.T.) from all sorts of evil.