so I let him go.” He asked, “What are they?” I replied, “He told me, ‘When you retire to bed, recite Āyat al-Kursī from its beginning to the end of the verse: “Allah—there is no deity except Him, the Ever-Living, the All-Sustaining.” He also told me, “A guardian from Allah will remain over you, and no devil will approach you until morning.”’” They were the keenest of all people to pursue good. The Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—then said, “Indeed, he told you the truth, though he is an inveterate liar. Do you know whom you have been speaking to these past three nights, Abū Hurayra?” He replied, “No.” He said, “That was a devil.”1.

This hadith demonstrates the virtue of this noble verse, its immense benefit, and its powerful effect in guarding against the devil and protecting oneself from his evil. Whoever recites it upon retiring to sleep will be protected and spared harm, and no devil will approach him until morning. This is because this noble verse contains such affirmations of Allah’s oneness, glorification and greatness, and His exclusive possession of perfection and majesty that whoever recites it is granted protection and sufficiency.

It contains five of Allah’s Most Beautiful Names and more than twenty of His attributes. It begins by affirming that Allah alone is worthy of worship and that the worship of everything besides Him is false. It then mentions Allah’s perfect life, which is never overtaken by extinction, and His self-subsistence—glorified is He—meaning that He subsists in Himself and governs the affairs of His creation. It declares Him exalted above such attributes of imperfection as drowsiness and sleep, and demonstrates the vastness of His dominion: all who are in the heavens and on earth are His servants, subject to His irresistible might and authority. Among the proofs of His greatness mentioned in the verse is that no creature can intercede with Him—glorified is He—except by His permission. The verse also affirms Allah’s attribute of knowledge and that His knowledge—glorified is He—encompasses everything knowable. He knows what has occurred, what will occur, and how that which has not occurred would have been had it occurred. It also sets forth