painful in itself or a cause that leads to pain. Thus, at the end of the prayer, he would seek refuge from four things and instructed others to seek refuge from them: “the punishment of the grave and the punishment of the Fire”—these are the greatest sources of pain—“the trials of life and death, and the trial of the False Messiah.” These latter two cause painful punishment, for trials lead to punishment. He specifically mentioned trials and their two kinds, since they occur either during life or after death. The punishment resulting from trials during life may be delayed for a time, whereas punishment follows trials after death without delay.

Thus, this supplication amounts to seeking refuge from pain and punishment and their causes.

This is among the most strongly emphasized supplications in prayer. Indeed, some earlier and later scholars required anyone who omitted it in the final tashahhud (testimony of faith) to repeat the prayer. Ibn Hazm held it obligatory in every tashahhud, ruling that omitting it invalidates the prayer.

Another example is his ﷺ supplication:

“O Allah, I seek refuge in You from anxiety and sorrow, inability and laziness, cowardice and miserliness, the crushing burden of debt and being overpowered by men.”

He sought refuge from eight things, each two forming a pair.

Anxiety and sorrow form a pair. Both are sources of pain and torment for the soul. The difference is that anxiety is the anticipation of future harm, whereas sorrow is the pain felt over something unwelcome that happened in the past, or over the loss of something cherished. Both are pain and torment that afflict the soul: when this concerns the past, it is called sorrow; when it concerns the future, it is called anxiety.

Inability and laziness form a pair. Both are causes of pain because they entail missing out on what one desires. Inability entails lacking the capacity to attain it, while laziness entails lacking the will to do so. The soul suffers from missing it in proportion to its attachment to it and the pleasure it would have found in attaining it.

Cowardice and miserliness form a pair, for they entail a failure to offer benefit through wealth and physical effort. Both are causes of pain, because the coward misses out on greatly cherished things, joys, and pleasures that can only be attained through generosity and courage. Miserliness likewise stands between a person and these things. These two traits are therefore among the greatest causes of pain.