it can be equivalent in reward yet still not fulfil the same legal function. Do you not see that when a person says, “There is no god but Allah alone, without partner; to Him belongs the dominion and to Him belongs all praise, and He is capable of all things,” he receives the reward of freeing four slaves from the descendants of Ishmael—yet that does not absolve him of the obligation to free a single slave? Thus, equivalence in merit is one thing, while sufficiency in expiation is another. For this very reason, if someone were to recite “Say: He is Allah, the One” three times during prayer, it would still not replace Sūrat al-Fātiḥah, even though reciting it three times carries the reward of reading the whole Qur’an, for it equals one-third of the Qur’an in reward.

As for “Say: I seek refuge with the Lord of the daybreak” and “Say: I seek refuge with the Lord of mankind,” these are the two sūrahs that were revealed to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when the wicked Jew Labīd ibn al-Aʿṣam cast a spell on him. Allah revealed these two chapters, and Gabriel performed ruqyah over him with them until Allah removed the sorcery. The Prophet ﷺ said, “No one seeking refuge has ever sought refuge with anything like them.” In them you seek protection with “the Lord of the daybreak.” Daybreak (al-falaq) is the splitting of the dawn; He—glorified and exalted—is the One who splits the grain and the date-stone.
“From the evil of what He has created”—that is, from every created thing;
“and from the evil of darkness when it settles”—meaning the night when it descends, for in the night insects, beasts, and other harms are most active. Thus you seek Allah’s protection from the evil of darkness when it settles.
“And from the evil of the blowers in knots”—namely the female sorcerers who tie knots for witchcraft and blow into them with incantations, charms, and words of reliance upon the devils—may Allah protect us.
“And from the evil of an envier when he envies”—this refers to the one who strikes with the evil eye, for both the sorcerer and the envier can cause real harm. Therefore you have been commanded to seek refuge with “the Lord of the daybreak,” majestic and exalted, “from the evil of what He has created, from the evil of darkness when it settles, and from the evil of the blowers in knots…”