Selected Invocations / Dua " دُعا " from Quran: Refuge from Whisperings of Shayatin (Satan / Evil)

Iblis or Shaitan (Satan/Devil) is an ex angel who disobeyed Allah to prostrate Adm due to his pride and superiority that he felt over an object made from clay while he being made from fire. For this disobedience, Allah expelled him from the Heave. However, the Devil requested Allah to give him free hand to mislead the man till the Day of Judgement. Allah allowed him, saying that he will be the ultimate loser as all Godly creations will reject his provocations.

However, Allah knew the weakness of the man He created and their vulnerability to lewdness and sin, so Allah promised that those who would invoke His mercy after sinning, will be forgiven.

We have published a number of invocations / verses from Qur'an in which subject of forgiveness and repentance is mentioned. Today we share an invocation from the Surah 23. Al-Muminun (verses 97-98) in which Allah commands Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to seek refuge from the whisperings of the Shayatin: 

وَقُلْ رَّبِّ اَعُوۡذُ بِكَ مِنۡ هَمَزٰتِ الشَّيٰطِيۡنِۙ وَاَعُوۡذُ بِكَ رَبِّ اَنۡ يَّحۡضُرُوۡنِ‏ 

(23:97) And pray: "My Lord! I seek Your refuge from the suggestions of the evil ones; (23:98) I even seek Your refuge, my Lord, lest they should approach me."

Tafsir Ibn-Kathir: 

(And say: "My Lord! I seek refuge with You from the whisperings of the Shayatin.'') Allah commanded him to seek refuge with Him from the Shayatin, because no trick could help you against them and you cannot protect yourself by being kind to them. 

When discussing Isti`adhah (seeking refuge), that the Messenger of Allah used to say:

(أَعُوذُ بِاللهِ السَّمِيعِ الْعَلِيمِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ مِنْ هَمْزِهِ وَنَفْخِهِ وَنَفْثِه  (I seek refuge with Allah, the All-Hearing, All-Seeing, from the accursed Shayatin, from his whisperings, evil suggestions and insinuations.) 

His saying: ( وَأَعُوذُ بِكَ رَبِّ أَن يَحْضُرُونِ ("And I seek refuge with You, My Lord! lest they should come near me.'') means, in any issue of my life. So we are commanded to mention Allah at the beginning of any undertaking, in order to ward off the Shayatin at the time of eating, intercourse, slaughtering animals for food, etc. 

Abu Dawud recorded that the Messenger of Allah used to say: ( اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ الْهَرَمِ، وَأَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ الْهَدْمِ وَمِنَ الْغَرَقِ، وَأَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ أَنْ يَتَخَبَّطَنِي الشَّيْطَانُ عِنْدَ الْمَوْت (O Allah, I seek refuge with You from old age, I seek refuge with You from being crushed or drowned, and I seek refuge with you from being assaulted by the Shayatin at the time of death.))

Yusuf Ali  Explanation: In these verses Prophet of Allah has been commanded to shun evil for himself, and that he cannot do this without seeking the help and protection of Allah. That is not only must you shun all promptings of evil, but you must shun its proximity. It may be that in retaliating on evil, or even in your curiosity to discover what evil is, you may fall into evil yourself. You should avoid going near it or anything which brings it near to you. And in this matter you should seek Allah's help.

Javed Ahmad Ghamidi Explanation: This refers to both devils among mankind and among jinn-kind who whisper suggestions into the hearts of people. Their attitude is under discussion here. If the devils among mankind make these suggestions, he seeks refuge from them before God that they come to him for debate and argument.

Qur'an Wiki: The Prophet was certainly immune to any promptings or persuasion by evil ones. However, here he is instructed to pray for protection against all this in an urgent appeal for further immunity against their evil.

Being the perfect role model for all Muslims in all generations, his appeal provides a lead for them to follow. They should also seek refuge with God against all temptation put in their way by the evil ones. Indeed the Prophet is instructed to appeal to God for protection against such evil people corning near him in any way. “I seek refuge with You, my Lord, lest they come near me.”

May Allah help from the whisperings of the Satan and his associates and help us understand Qur'ān and help us to act upon the commandments of Allah contained therein. Aameen.

For more Selected Verses, please refer to our reference page: Selected Invocations / Dua " دُعا " from the Qur'an. You may also refer to our Reference Pages for knowing more about Islam and Qur'ān.

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Reading the Qur'ān should be a daily obligation of a Muslim - Reading it with translation will make it meaningful. But reading its Exegesis / Tafsir will make you understand it fully.

An effort has been made to gather explanation / exegesis of the surahs of the Qur'ān from authentic sources and then present a least possible condensed explanation of the surah. In that the exegesis of the chapters of the Quran is mainly based on the "Tafhim al-Qur'an - The Meaning of the Qur'an" by one of the most enlightened scholars of the Muslim World Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi.  

In order to augment and add more explanation as already provided, additional input has been interjected from following sources: 

• Towards Understanding the Quran
• Tafsir Ibn Khatir
• Muhammad Asad Translation
• Javed Ahmad Ghamidi / Al Mawrid
• Al-Quran, Yusuf Ali Translation
• Verse by Verse Qur'an Study Circle

In addition the references of  other sources which have been explored have also been given above. Those desirous of detailed explanations and tafsir (exegesis), may refer to these sites.

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Posted in: Chapter 23,Selected Invocations from Quran,Surah Al-Muminun,Verse 97-98