return, yet you keep coming back again and again!’

He responded, ‘Let me go, and I will teach you some words by which Allah will benefit you.’ I asked, ‘What are they?’ He said, ‘When you lie down in your bed, recite Ayat al-Kursi—“Allah, there is no deity but Him, the Ever-Living, the Self-Sustaining.” A protector from Allah will remain with you, and no devil will come near you until dawn.’ So I set him free.

At daybreak the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to me, ‘Abu Hurayrah, what became of your captive last night?’ I replied, ‘O Messenger of Allah, he claimed he would teach me some words by which Allah would benefit me, so I released him.’ He asked, ‘What were they?’ I answered, ‘He told me: When you go to bed, recite Ayat al-Kursi from its beginning to the end—“Allah, there is no deity but Him, the Ever-Living, the Self-Sustaining”—and he said that a guardian from Allah would remain with you and no devil would approach you until morning.’ The Prophet ﷺ remarked, ‘He has told you the truth, though he is a persistent liar. Do you know, Abu Hurayrah, with whom you have been speaking these last three nights?’ I replied, ‘No.’ He said, ‘That was Satan.’ Narrated by al-Bukhari.

[Commentary]

This account is astonishing and profound. The Prophet ﷺ assigned Abu Hurayrah—may Allah be pleased with him—to guard the charity of Ramadan, meaning zakat al-fitr. They would collect it a day or two before the festival, and Abu Hurayrah served as its trustee. One night a man came and began scooping up some of the food, so Abu Hurayrah seized him and said, ‘I will take you to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.’ The man grew frightened and said, ‘I am…’