Seeking Refuge with Allah: The Prophet’s Refuge Duas
Every believer knows the feeling of being exposed: a worry that will not lift, a debt that keeps growing, a heart that feels hard, a night that feels unsafe. Islam does not leave the believer alone with those feelings. Running through the Quran and the daily practice of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is one repeated movement of the heart — turning to Allah for refuge. The Arabic word is a’udhu: “I seek refuge.” It is the word of someone who knows he cannot protect himself and runs, deliberately, to the only One who can protect him.
Seeking refuge with Allah is not a vague comfort. It is something Allah Himself commands in the Quran, and it is something His Messenger ﷺ did every single day and night of his life — before sleeping, in the morning, in the evening, and in long personal supplications whose exact words have been preserved for us. This article gathers those commands and those duas in one place: the two refuge surahs he recited over himself at night, and his own refuge duas against useless knowledge, an unhumbled heart, grief, anxiety, laziness, miserliness, debt and the punishment of the grave — each one quoted exactly as it is recorded, with its reference, so you can take the Prophet’s own words onto your own tongue.
1. Allah Himself Commands Us to Seek Refuge
The starting point is that seeking refuge is not our invention. It is a command. When the whisper and provocation of Satan reach a believer, Allah does not tell him to fight alone; He tells him exactly where to run:
“And should a stroke from ShaiTān (Satan) strike you, seek refuge with Allah. Surely, He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing.” (Quran 41:36)
Notice the two names of Allah that close the verse: the All-Hearing and the All-Knowing. The One you flee to hears the very words of refuge as you say them, and He knows the thing you are fleeing from better than you do. Refuge is never spoken into emptiness; it is spoken to a Lord who hears and knows.
Allah even teaches His Prophet ﷺ the very wording of the refuge to use against the devils, and the teaching is recorded for every believer who recites the Quran after him:
“And say, “My Lord, I seek refuge in You from the strokes of the satans (devils),” (Quran 23:97)
“and I seek refuge in You, my Lord, even from their coming near me.”” (Quran 23:98)
The refuge in these verses is twofold: refuge from the strokes and promptings of the devils, and refuge even from their nearness — from their presence around a person at all. The lesson is simple and profound at once. The first response of a believer to evil, whether it comes as a whisper, a temptation or a fear, is not panic and not self-reliance. It is a sentence spoken to Allah: I seek refuge in You.
2. The Two Refuge Surahs: Al-Falaq and An-Nas
From the command, the Quran moves to the words themselves. The last two surahs of the Quran both open with the same command — “Say: I seek refuge” — and together they are known as the Mu’awwidhat, the two surahs of seeking refuge. Surah Al-Falaq opens:
قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِرَبِّ ٱلْفَلَقِ
Qul a’udhu bi rabbil-falaq
“Say, “I seek refuge with the Lord of the daybreak” (Quran 113:1)
Surah An-Nas, the final surah of the Quran, opens:
قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِرَبِّ ٱلنَّاسِ
Qul a’udhu bi rabbin-nas
“Say, “I seek refuge with the Lord of mankind,” (Quran 114:1)
Look at how personal these openings are. Allah does not merely inform us that He is a refuge; He places the words in our mouths — “Say” — so that the seeking itself becomes an act of worship we perform with our own tongues. In the first, we flee to the Lord of the daybreak, the One who splits the darkness with light every morning. In the second, we flee to the Lord of mankind himself: there is no human being, no fear and no harm that stands outside the lordship of the One we run to. These are short openings, a single verse each, yet the Prophet ﷺ treated these two surahs as a nightly protection, as the next section shows.
3. How the Prophet ﷺ Used Them Every Night
The surahs of refuge were not, for the Prophet ﷺ, words for emergencies only. They were part of his every night. Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) narrated his settled habit at bedtime:
“Whenever the Prophet (ﷺ) went to bed every night, he used to cup his hands together and blow over it after reciting Surat Al-Ikhlas, Surat Al-Falaq and Surat An-Nas, and then rub his hands over whatever parts of his body he was able to rub, starting with his head, face and front of his body. He used to do that three times.” (Sahih al-Bukhari 5017 — Sahih)
Every element of this deserves attention. He did it every night — refuge-seeking was a routine of devotion, not an occasional reaction. He recited three surahs together: Al-Ikhlas, Al-Falaq and An-Nas. He cupped his hands, blew into them after reciting, and then passed his hands over his head, his face and the front of his body — as though drawing the protection of those words over himself. And he repeated the whole act three times before he slept.
This is one of the most practical gifts the Sunnah gives a believer: a refuge routine of two minutes at the edge of the night, performed by the Prophet ﷺ himself in exactly this form. If you want the complete set of words he used around sleep, our guide to the dua before sleeping gathers them in one place, and our article on the virtues of Ayat al-Kursi covers the other great verse of night-time protection.
4. Refuge from Useless Knowledge and an Unhumbled Heart
Beyond the surahs, the Prophet ﷺ had personal refuge duas of remarkable depth — duas that name, one by one, the inner dangers a believer faces. The fullest of them is recorded in Sahih Muslim, among the supplications he used to make:
“O Allah, I seek refuge in Thee from incapacity, from sloth, from cowardice, from miserliness, decrepitude and from torment of the grave.” (Sahih Muslim 2722 — Sahih)
“O Allah, grant to my soul the sense of righteousness and purify it, for Thou art the Best Purifier thereof. Thou art the Protecting Friend thereof, and Guardian thereof.” (Sahih Muslim 2722 — Sahih)
“O Allah, I seek refuge in Thee from the knowledge which does not benefit, from the heart that does not entertain the fear (of Allah), from the soul that does not feel contented and the supplication that is not responded.” (Sahih Muslim 2722 — Sahih)
Here is the complete dua in Arabic, as the Prophet ﷺ spoke it:
اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ الْعَجْزِ وَالْكَسَلِ وَالْجُبْنِ وَالْبُخْلِ وَالْهَرَمِ وَعَذَابِ الْقَبْرِ اللَّهُمَّ آتِ نَفْسِي تَقْوَاهَا وَزَكِّهَا أَنْتَ خَيْرُ مَنْ زَكَّاهَا أَنْتَ وَلِيُّهَا وَمَوْلاَهَا اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ عِلْمٍ لاَ يَنْفَعُ وَمِنْ قَلْبٍ لاَ يَخْشَعُ وَمِنْ نَفْسٍ لاَ تَشْبَعُ وَمِنْ دَعْوَةٍ لاَ يُسْتَجَابُ لَهَا
Allahumma inni a’udhu bika minal-‘ajzi wal-kasal, wal-jubni wal-bukhl, wal-haram, wa ‘adhabil-qabr. Allahumma ati nafsi taqwaha, wa zakkiha, anta khayru man zakkaha, anta waliyyuha wa mawlaha. Allahumma inni a’udhu bika min ‘ilmin la yanfa’, wa min qalbin la yakhsha’, wa min nafsin la tashba’, wa min da’watin la yustajabu laha.
Consider what he sought refuge from in the final part of this dua. Not from poverty or sickness first, but from knowledge which does not benefit — learning that fills the mind while leaving the life untouched. From the heart that does not entertain the fear of Allah — a heart that hears and remains unmoved and unhumbled. From the soul that does not feel contented — an inner restlessness that no amount of getting ever satisfies. And from the supplication that is not responded — the fear that one’s own calling upon Allah might go unanswered. Between these, the dua turns to a request: that Allah grant the soul its righteousness and purify it, for He is the best of those who purify it, its Protecting Friend and its Guardian.
This is a dua to memorise and to live with. It teaches a believer to fear the diseases of the inner life — useless learning, a hard heart, a greedy soul — with the same seriousness as the dangers of the grave, because in the Prophet’s own words the two stand side by side in a single supplication.
5. Refuge from Grief, Anxiety, Laziness and Debt
A second comprehensive refuge dua turns to the pressures of daily living. Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Prophet ﷺ used to say:
“O Allah! I seek refuge with You from worry and grief, from incapacity and laziness, from cowardice and miserliness, from being heavily in debt and from being overpowered by (other) men.” (Sahih al-Bukhari 6369 — Sahih)
اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ الْهَمِّ وَالْحَزَنِ، وَالْعَجْزِ وَالْكَسَلِ، وَالْجُبْنِ وَالْبُخْلِ، وَضَلَعِ الدَّيْنِ، وَغَلَبَةِ الرِّجَالِ
Allahumma inni a’udhu bika minal-hammi wal-hazan, wal-‘ajzi wal-kasal, wal-jubni wal-bukhl, wa dala’id-dayn, wa ghalabatir-rijal.
Every pair in this dua describes a real and common human condition. Worry about what is coming and grief over what has passed. Incapacity — wanting to act and being unable — and laziness, the inner heaviness that stops a person beginning at all. Cowardice and miserliness, the two traits that shrink a person’s courage and a person’s generosity. Being heavily in debt, named in its own right as something to flee to Allah from. And being overpowered by other men — crushed under the dominance of people. The Prophet ﷺ did not treat these struggles as things a believer should simply endure in silence; he carried them, by name, to Allah in refuge.
Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) also reported a companion form of this refuge, in which the trial of life and death is named explicitly:
“O Allah, I seek refuge in Thee from incapacity, from indolence, from cowardice, from senility, from miserliness, and I seek refuge in Thee from the torment of the grave and from trial of the life and death.” (Sahih Muslim 2706a — Sahih)
Read together, these duas give the anxious, the indebted, the lazy-struggling and the overwhelmed a script written by the Prophet ﷺ himself. Whatever of these eight or nine conditions touches your life, there is a phrase in his dua that names it — and the refuge he sought is the refuge open to you.
6. A Shield for Morning and Evening: “Bismillah Alladhi La Yadurru”
The refuge duas include one short sentence of protection for the two edges of the day. Uthman ibn Affan (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ taught these words:
“In the name of Allah, when Whose name is mentioned nothing on Earth or in Heaven can cause harm, and He is the Hearer, the Knower” (Sunan Abu Dawud 5088 — Sahih)
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الَّذِي لاَ يَضُرُّ مَعَ اسْمِهِ شَىْءٌ فِي الأَرْضِ وَلاَ فِي السَّمَاءِ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ
Bismillahil-ladhi la yadurru ma’a ismihi shay’un fil-ardi wa la fis-sama’, wa huwas-sami’ul-‘alim.
The promise attached to the words is as clear as the words themselves: whoever says them three times in the evening will not suffer sudden affliction until the morning, and whoever says them three times in the morning will not suffer sudden affliction until the evening. Notice again the closing names — the Hearer, the Knower — the same pairing that ended the Quranic command to seek refuge in Surah Fussilat. The believer speaks, and the One who hears and knows is the One in whose name nothing in earth or heaven can cause harm.
This dua belongs to the fixed rhythm of the day, said at its two thresholds. You will find it among the morning azkar and the evening azkar on DeenHub, and our dedicated guide to the dua for protection from harm gathers the wider set of protection duas from the Quran and Sunnah.
7. Building These Refuges into Your Day
Gather the texts together and a pattern emerges, drawn entirely from what the Prophet ﷺ himself did and taught. Refuge-seeking is, first, a response: when a stroke from Satan strikes — a whisper, a provocation, a sudden pull towards evil — the Quran’s instruction is immediate, seek refuge with Allah (41:36). It is, second, a routine: the Mu’awwidhat over cupped hands every night before sleep, exactly as he did them, three times, every night (Bukhari 5017). It is, third, a guard at the day’s two doors: Bismillah alladhi la yadurru three times in the morning and three times in the evening (Abu Dawud 5088). And it is, fourth, a deep personal prayer for the inner life — against useless knowledge, an unhumbled heart, a discontented soul, grief, laziness, debt and the torment of the grave (Muslim 2722; Bukhari 6369; Muslim 2706a).
None of this requires anything from us but a tongue, a present heart, and the conviction the texts themselves build: that the Lord we flee to is the Lord of the daybreak and the Lord of mankind, the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing, the Hearer, the Knower. Start where he started. Tonight, cup your hands, recite Al-Ikhlas, Al-Falaq and An-Nas, blow into them, and pass them over yourself as he did. In the morning and the evening, say the words of Uthman’s narration three times. And in your own supplications, borrow his sentences — for grief, for debt, for laziness, for a heart you fear is hardening — and seek refuge with Allah in the very words of His Prophet ﷺ.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What does “seeking refuge with Allah” mean? It means turning to Allah for protection by saying a’udhu billah — “I seek refuge with Allah” — and its fuller forms. The Quran commands it directly: “seek refuge with Allah. Surely, He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing” (Quran 41:36), and teaches the wording itself in Surah Al-Mu’minun 23:97–98.
Q2. What are the Mu’awwidhat? They are the last two surahs of the Quran, Al-Falaq (113) and An-Nas (114), both of which open with the command “Say: I seek refuge.” The Prophet ﷺ recited them — together with Surah Al-Ikhlas — into his cupped hands every night before sleeping, blew into his hands, and rubbed them over his body, three times (Sahih al-Bukhari 5017).
Q3. Which dua did the Prophet ﷺ say against grief and debt? Anas bin Malik narrated that he used to say: “O Allah! I seek refuge with You from worry and grief, from incapacity and laziness, from cowardice and miserliness, from being heavily in debt and from being overpowered by (other) men” (Sahih al-Bukhari 6369).
Q4. Is there a dua for protection in the morning and evening? Yes. Uthman ibn Affan reported that whoever says three times, “In the name of Allah, when Whose name is mentioned nothing on Earth or in Heaven can cause harm, and He is the Hearer, the Knower,” will not suffer sudden affliction — until the morning if said in the evening, and until the evening if said in the morning (Sunan Abu Dawud 5088).
Q5. What did the Prophet ﷺ seek refuge from in his personal duas? His duas name: incapacity, sloth and laziness, cowardice, miserliness, senility and decrepitude, the torment of the grave, the trial of life and death, knowledge which does not benefit, a heart that does not entertain the fear of Allah, a soul that does not feel contented, and a supplication that is not responded to (Sahih Muslim 2722; Sahih Muslim 2706a).