There are two questions that need to be answered in regards to Ta’awwudh: the first is, “Why is Shaytan referred to as ‘Rajeem’? We refer to him as this in “اعوذ باللہ من الشیطن الرجیم”, and the second thing is “Why do we recite Ta’awwudh before Basmala?” Firstly, “As-Shaytan ur-Rajim” refers to, literally, as “The one who is cast or thrown”. “Rajama” is “to throw or cast something” and is used in the context of something physical, such as throwing a stone. Ibrahim (AS)’s father, Azar, said to him, “If you do not stop, I am going to have you pelted with stones.” Using “rajama” here. It also works in the figurative sense – casting a thought or opinion, what we could also call a conjecture or guess, can also refer to this word. The meaning that is derived is “someone who has been cast out” or “thrown”. Allah (SWT) told Shaytan, “You are banished from here.” Or, “You have been cast out.” “As-Shaytan ur-Rajim” can be translated, then, as “That Shaytan who has been rejected” or “cast out by Allah (SWT).” Often, this is translated as “the accursed one”, but this expands the translation a little bit. Yes, he is cursed by Allah (SWT) and there is no doubt of this, but the translation here is more of “the rejected one”. The next question is, “Why was he rejected?” The long answer to this is mentioned in the whole Qur’an. It explains what Iblis did to get rejected and now what effort he is making upon people to get them rejected. The shorter answer to this is summarized in those verses of the Qur’an which are in surah Al-Baqarah and surah Araf, Hijr, Kahf, Saad, and Taha, where the story of Adam (AS) is mentioned. The summary of this is that Allah (SWT) commanded him, along with all of the other angels, to bow to Adam (AS). Shaytan, because of his close company with the angels, was also ordered to bow to Adam (AS). This was a mark of acknowledgement of this special creation of Allah (SWT). Allah (AWJ) declared, “This will be my representative in the world.” Iblis had a problem with this, and the response of him is mentioned in the Qur’an: “He refused, and he became arrogant.” Refusal is a serious thing. It is one thing to not comply and obey, and it is another thing to refuse to obey. Disobedience could be because of laziness or weakness and it could be because of different things – a person tells their child to get something, and they would perhaps like to, but they became distracted and did not do it at the time – this is, we could say, an act of disobedience, but the child has not refused. Refusal is a mark of disbelief and is the first and most powerful indication of disbelief. When a person refuses to obey a command, it means that they have now put themselves on par with the person instructing them or they have put themselves at odds with the person who is instructing them.
Iblis refused, and refusal is a dangerous thing. His refusal is mentioned before his arrogance, and, even though you will find in the literature that his refusal was based on arrogance and that was the first crime that was committed, refusal may or may not be based on arrogance. In the case of Iblis, it was arrogance, and that arrogance and pride that the prophet (SAW) has explained that bars a person from entering Jannah – this is where a person refuses to accept the truth and acknowledge the truth and a person refuses to admit an error. They do not want to comply with what is the truth. The second thing is to look down at people. Looking down could mean either they consider themselves to be very high in status or they consider the other party to be so low and inferior that they have no worth or value. Both things are included in this. Both of these are included in the case of Iblis – he considered himself to be very high and he considered Adam (AS) to be inferior. As the Qur’an describes, he turned to his origins and said, “I am from a greater origin than this human being. You have created me from fire; a mighty force, and you have created him from soil; dirt, clay. What is the importance of this clay? Fire is something that should not be reckoned with and is mighty. Soil has no importance.” Often enough, what happens is that people get caught up in their reasoning to identify the outcome of that reasoning. The reasoning in and of itself may be very compelling and powerful and all of the arguments that form a part of that discussion all make sense. Because it appeals to someone, they understand it, it is logical and they go ahead with it, just because it is a compelling argument when put together. The validity of an argument and power of an argument is only as good as the outcome. If the argument, as logical as it seems, leads to an outcome that is catastrophic and detrimental, this argument was just a logical way of explaining something that will lead a person or group to doom. This is what happens today. We look at the argument itself without looking at its outcomes and implications and we are swept away with the logic of that argument. Arguments are only as good as their outcomes, and when the outcome is going to challenge something that Allah (SWT) wants, that outcome will always be an outcome of failure. Though this may have made sense to Iblis, he did not realize that this led to rejecting not Adam (AS), but the command of Allah (SWT). Because he was not able to see that, he ended up not disrespecting Adam (AS), but Allah (SWT) by not fulfilling his command.
When Allah (SWT) fixes a status for someone or something and asks us to mind that status, we are, in fact, being told to uphold a command of Allah (SWT) and something that he has declared as important. What our relationship is with that person or engagement with that person is secondary; Allah (SWT) wants us to honor that thing. An example of this is parents – Allah (SWT) has fixed a position for the parents which is not conditional to what those parents are doing for us or even the beliefs of those parents. They were the means of us coming into the world, so they have a certain status. Allah (SWT) requires from us that we uphold that status and we never treat them lesser than that status. What happens, though, is that the parents might not always be what Allah (SWT) wants them to be and the children will raise this argument. This logic has its own place and may seem to make sense from the perspective of the child, and there is a place for that argument, but however strong that argument may be, it does not mean that the status of the parent has come down. It is still where Allah (SWT) has kept it. They have to answer to Allah (SWT) for what they are doing, and we have to answer to Allah (SWT) for how we treat them. This will also happen in other settings; it could be a figure of authority that Allah (SWT) has put that person in a position of authority. There are many husbands that are not playing their role; someone may go through some affliction or illness and they are not able to provide for their family and the wife steps up. Allah (SWT) gives her the strength and she looks after the whole family. In this case, it is not the husband’s fault and is not something he has done out of negligence, but she is effectively doing everything. Does this mean that she is now the head of the family and the husband has now lost his place as the head? He has not. What if the husband is negligent and he has walked away from his responsibilities? As long as he is in that family, his position will still stay as the head. That position is the honorary position and a chance for him to come back and play that role. If a wife is obeying her husband in permissible things, it is not her dealing with him – she is doing it for the sake of Allah (SWT) because she has to answer to Allah (SWT) for the way she treated him, and so does husband, to an even greater extent, because he was put in a position of responsibility.
Coming back to Iblis, Iblis lost sight of this fact that he was answerable to Allah (SWT) for the way he was treating Adam (AS). That led to another story where Iblis, because of his refusal, puts himself at odds with Allah (SWT). Allah (SWT) rejected him, banishing him from his mercy because he directly and openly refused to fulfill his command, and his sense of arrogance and pride overwhelmed him and he became a disbeliever. This is, essentially, why he was rejected. When we recite the ta’awwudh, it is a chance for us to think of why Iblis was rejected and ask Allah (SWT) for protection from all of those things that got Iblis rejected by Allah (SWT) so we never have to face such a thing. It also gives us an opportunity to realize that the harm that Iblis inflicted was not limited to himself – in fact, he undertook to bring harm to every single human being until the Day of Judgment. There is harm that is contained within one person and there is harm within Iblis, and he became the propagator of harm. He became the leader of the cause of harm, and it was all fuelled by these inner tendencies that he was not able to control for the sake of Allah (SWT). The second question of why we recite this before Basmala, even before it is the names and attributes of Allah (SWT), someone might say, “Ta’awwudh has the name of Shaytan. Why should I take the name of Shaytan before Allah (SWT)?” This question is not well-founded. Why? First of all, ta’awwudh also has the name of Allah (SWT), and second, protection is necessary, as before we can go to something of benefit, we must save ourselves from the harm that is impending. A person that is being attacked by someone holding a knife and is hungry will first escape the attacker before going and having a bite to eat. The food is a mercy of Allah (SWT) and is a thing of benefit, and the attacker is a thing of harm. If they do not save themselves from this, they will never live to see that food. In the terms of Shari’a, they say, “The removal of harm comes before doing something of benefit.” We remove ourselves from the harm that Iblis has sworn to bring to us and then we turn to Allah (SWT) and we begin that task of taking his blessed name and attributes. If we do not get protection against Shaytan like that attacker, we may never get to the good deeds. May Allah (SWT) give us tawfiq.
