—the very wording of the Book of Allah, exalted be He.

It is related from Ibn Masʿūd that he said: “I once declared, ‘I seek refuge in Allah, the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing, from Satan, the accursed.’ The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—then said to me, ‘O son of Umm ʿAbd, say: “I seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the accursed”; this is how Gabriel taught it to me from the Preserved Tablet through the Pen.’ ”

Fourth issue. Abū Dāwūd and Ibn Mājah record in their Sunan, on the authority of Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim, that he saw the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—performing a prayer. ʿAmr (the sub-narrator) said, “I do not know which prayer it was.” The Prophet said:

“Allāhu akbar kabīrā, Allāhu akbar kabīrā” three times;
“al-ḥamdu lillāhi kathīrā, al-ḥamdu lillāhi kathīrā” three times;
“subḥānallāhi bukratan wa aṣīlā” three times;
“I seek refuge in Allah from Satan, from his puffing, his spittle, and his whispering.”

ʿAmr explained: “His whispering (hamz) is al-mawtah; his spittle (nafth) is poetry; his puffing (nafkh) is arrogance.” Ibn Mājah adds, “al-mawtah—that is, madness.”

Nafth is a man’s blowing from his mouth without expelling saliva, and kib r means haughtiness.

Abū Dāwūd also reports from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī: When the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—rose for the night prayer, he would pronounce the takbīr and then say:

“Glory be to You, O Allah, and with Your praise; blessed is Your Name, exalted is Your Majesty, and none is worthy of worship but You.”

He would then say, “There is no god but Allah” three times, followed by, “Allāhu akbar kabīrā” three times, and then:

“I seek refuge in Allah, the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing, from Satan, the accursed—from his whisper, his puffing, and his spittle,”

after which he would begin the recitation.

Sulaymān ibn Sālim relates from Ibn al-Qāsim—may Allah have mercy on him—that the formula of istiʿādhah is:

“I seek refuge in Allah the Magnificent from Satan the accursed. Indeed Allah is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.”

Ibn ʿAṭiyyah remarked: “Many of the professional reciters have added variations here, altering the Divine attribute in Allah’s Name and, on the other side, the description of Satan, as when some say, ‘I seek refuge in Allah the Glorious from Satan the Rebellious,’ and the like. Of this I do not say, ‘What an excellent innovation,’ yet neither do I declare it impermissible.”

Fifth issue. Al-Mahdawī said: All the Qurʾanic reciters agree that the istiʿādhah is to be pronounced aloud at the start of the recitation of Sūrat al-Ḥamd, except for Ḥamzah, who recites it silently. Al-Suddi reported that the people of Medina would begin their recitation with the basmalah. Abū ʼl-Layth al-Samarqandī relates from certain exegetes that seeking refuge is obligatory; thus, if one forgets it