2763 — “The Messenger of Allah, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, instructed us to say, when we enter the morning, when we enter the evening, and when we lie down upon our beds: ‘O Allah, Originator of the heavens and the earth, Knower of the unseen and the witnessed, You are the Lord of all things, and the angels testify that none has the right to be worshipped but You. We seek refuge in You from the evil within ourselves, from the evil of Satan the accursed and his associationism, and from committing a wrong against ourselves or bringing it upon a Muslim.’”

It was recorded by Abu Dawud (5083), al-Tabarani in al-Kabir (3/295/3450) and in Musnad al-Shamiyyin (p. 332), through Muhammad ibn ‘Awf: Muhammad ibn Isma‘il ibn ‘Ayyash narrated to us; his father narrated to me—Abu Dawud added: Ibn ‘Awf said, “I saw it in Isma‘il’s original manuscript”—Damdam ibn Zur‘ah narrated to me, from Shurayh ibn ‘Ubayd, from Abu Malik al-Ash‘ari, that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, instructed us… and so forth.

I say: In my view, this is a sound chain, owing to Abu Dawud’s addition, were it not interrupted between Shurayh and Abu Malik, as Abu Hatim indicated. However, it is strengthened by two corroborating reports. The first is the hadith of Abu Hurayrah, up to the words, “and his associationism.” It was recorded by Abu Dawud (5067), al-Tirmidhi (3389), al-Bukhari likewise in al-Adab al-Mufrad (1202) and Af‘al al-‘Ibad (p. 74), al-Nasa’i in ‘Amal al-Yawm wa al-Laylah (no. 11), al-Darimi (2/292), Ibn Hibban (2349), al-Hakim (1/513), Ibn al-Sunni (43), Ibn Abi Shaybah (10/237/9323), al-Tayalisi (2582), and Ahmad (2/297)—all through Shu‘bah, from Ya‘la ibn ‘Ata, who said: I heard ‘Amr ibn ‘Asim al-Thaqafi narrate from Abu Hurayrah, who said: