from it, and from the evil of what rises up into the sky and what comes down from it; and from the evil of every night-visitor except a visitor (1) who calls at the door with good, O All-Merciful.’
So I uttered it, and Allah drove the shayṭān away from me (2).
Hayyān ibn Abī Jabalah also relates—from ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ—that he said:
‘Since we accepted Islam, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ has never considered anyone in warfare the equal of me and Khalid (3).’
Yūnus ibn Abī Isḥāq reports—from al-ʿAyzar ibn Ḥurayth—that Khalid ibn al-Walid passed by al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā and proclaimed:
‘O ʿUzzā, I renounce you, I do not glorify you… I have seen that Allah has humbled you!’
Zakariyyā ibn Abī Zāʾidah likewise transmits—from Abū Isḥāq, from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī—that Khalid said the same.
Qatādah said: Khalid went up to al-ʿUzzā and smashed her nose with an axe.
Sufyān ibn Ḥusayn relates—from Qatādah—that the Prophet ﷺ dispatched Khalid to al-ʿUzzā. It belonged to the tribe of Hawāzin, and its caretakers were Banū Sulaym. He said, ‘Go, for a woman will come out to confront you…’
(1) The words illa tariqan (“except for a night-visitor”) are absent from the printed copy.
(2) All the transmitters are trustworthy, but the chain is mursal (it omits the Companion link).
Ahmad also records it (Musnad, 3/419) through Siyyar b. Hatim – Jaʿfar b. Sulayman – Abu al-Tiyah, who said: “I asked ʿAbd al-Rahman b. Khunaysh al-Tamimi—he was an old man—‘Did you meet the Messenger of Allah?’ He replied, ‘Yes.’ I asked, ‘What did the Messenger of Allah do on the night when the devils tried to harm him?’ He said: ‘That night the devils poured down upon the Messenger of Allah from every valley and mountain pass. One of them carried a flame of fire intending to burn the Prophet’s face. Then Jibril descended and said, “O Muhammad, say.” He asked, “What shall I say?” He replied: “I seek refuge in the perfect words of Allah from the evil of what He created, brought forth and fashioned; from the evil of what descends from the sky and the evil of what ascends therein; from the trials of night and day; and from the evil of every night-visitor, except a night-visitor who comes with good, O Most-Merciful.”’ Their fire was immediately extinguished and Allah routed them.’ The chain is sound.
(3) Al-Haythami cites this report in Majmaʿ al-zawaʾid, 9/350, noting that al-Tabarani transmitted it in both al-Awsat and al-Kabir, and that all its narrators are trustworthy.