Imām Aḥmad, as well as the compilers of the Sunan, transmit—through the chain of Abū l-Mutawakkil from Abū Saʿīd—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to say:

“I seek refuge in Allah, the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing, from the accursed Satan—against his whisperings, his puffing, and his spitting.”

The same wording is also reported from Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, and Abū Umāmah al-Bāhilī.

The ḥadīth itself explains the terms: his “whispering” (hamz) is al-mawtah—that strangulation which manifests as epilepsy; his “puffing” (nafkh) is arrogance; and his “spitting” (nafth) is poetry.

It is authentically recorded in the two Ṣaḥīḥs, from Anas, that when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ entered the lavatory he would say:

“I seek refuge in Allah from the male and female unclean spirits.”

Many scholars have explained that this is a plea for protection from the male and female devils.

Imām Aḥmad also relates—through the chain of Surayj, ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus, Thawr, al-Ḥuṣayn, Abū Saʿd al-Khayr (one of ʿUmar’s companions), and Abū Hurayrah—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“When any of you goes to relieve himself, let him screen himself. If he finds nothing except to heap up a mound of sand and turn his back to it, let him do so, for Satan toys with the posteriors of the children of Adam. Whoever does so has done well; whoever does not, there is no blame upon him.”

Abū Dāwūd and Ibn Mājah likewise recorded it through Thawr ibn Yazīd.

Al-Bukhārī reports—through ʿUthmān ibn Abī Shaybah, Jarīr, al-Aʿmash, and ʿAdī ibn Thābit—that Sulaymān ibn Ṣurad said: Two men were trading insults in the presence of the Prophet ﷺ while we sat with him. One of them reviled the other in anger until his face turned red. The Prophet ﷺ said:

“I know a word which, if he were to say it, what he feels would leave him. He should say, ‘I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan.’”

They said to the man, “Do you not hear what the Prophet ﷺ is saying?” He replied, “I am not mad.” Muslim, Abū Dāwūd, and al-Nasāʾī also narrated it through several routes from al-Aʿmash.

Imām Aḥmad further relates—through Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, Nāfiʿ, and Ibn ʿUmar—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“None of you should eat with his left hand or drink with his left hand, for Satan eats with his left hand and drinks with his left hand.”