We spoke a little bit about the essence of ta’awwudh and what we are doing when we say “اعوذ” – taking protection in Allah (SWT) and getting refuge from our enemy. We mentioned that taking the protection, when we look at the words of the prophet (SAW) and his acts, he (SAW) would take protection in Allah (SWT) and his attributes. “I seek refuge in Allah (SWT), and I seek refuge in your undefeatable power and ability.” In one riwayah, “I seek protection in the light of your face.” These are attributes from Allah (SWT) which are not created. All of this teaches us that we do not turn for protection towards created things, and we instead turn towards the creator of all things. When we say, “اعوذ باللہ”, we are asking Allah (SWT) to give us protection from his side for whatever it is that we need protection from. We are coming to him with complete confidence and trust that he is the only one who can give us that protection. Then comes the next part of ta’awwudh: what we are seeking protection from. There are different types of things that we seek protection from – that which is within us and that which is external. From those things that are external, it could be a person, a person in the form of a jinn, some element such as a harmful element or accident – there are different things that we seek protection from in our daily lives. Here, specifically, when Allah (SWT) teaches us how to seek protection when reading the Qur’an, we seek protection directly from “الشیطن الرجیم”. There are many different evils and different things that can cause us harm, but specifically, we seek protection against “الشیطن” who is “الرجیم”. Why is this so specific, even if a person has things inside of them that can harm them? The reason is because if a person has tawfiq to reach this point, it means they have conquered many of the elements that would normally stop them, including their nafs. Now, someone is ready to read and they have the mushaf in front of them and it means that they have come a long ways. Now, Shaytan will try to use his other tactic, which is how he attacks a person after he starts a deed. The first effort of Shaytan is to try and stop a person from getting to a deed. The next effort is to somehow attack the deed, and he attacks it in many different ways. One is, for example, by changing the intention of the person. At first, the person was reading for the sake of Allah (SWT), and now they want to read for the sake of that person’s happiness – this is one example. Another example would be where he makes the person careless in their recitation or he makes a person lose their focus in what they are saying. Another way that Shaytan would attack is by bringing such things in front of a person which would make them lose their focus and interest in reading, or something else comes along and all of a sudden, you get so engaged in that thing. Shaytan does this in many different ways. Remember that Shaytan has a huge arsenal at his disposal – he can come and put whispers in our hearts, and sometimes, he will use other people and other things to distract us. He can put it in the mind of someone who has no intention to do or say anything negative, but he will use them as a means of distracting you and a means of taking you away from what you are about to do.
There are many things that Shaytan does to attack the human being specifically when they are reading the Qur’an. Another one of the dangerous ones is putting doubts in a person’s mind about what they are reading. “Is this true or not? Did this really happen? If this is like this, why is this like that?” These kinds of objections that come are another ploy of Shaytan to stop us from following along with the Qur’an. A person came so far, but now, Shaytan is putting a block between them and benefitting from the knowledge of the Qur’an. These are some of the things that we are taking protection from when we say ta’awwudh. When we say it, we should think about what it really means; Allah (SWT) is giving protection and preparing you for a battle that is about to commence. This battle is mentioned in numerous places in the Qur’an. What would happen when the prophet (SAW) would recite the Qur’an? What would the disbelievers say? Sometimes, when we are reciting the Qur’an, our minds, eyes and ears are actually somewhere else. This is also sometimes what happens when we hear the recitation of the Qur’an. Someone is reciting the Qur’an or we are listening to a recording of it, but if we are listening to the Qur’an, Allah (SWT) has a strong commandment; “This Qur’an is a mercy from Allah (SWT). If you want that mercy, you must do two things: listen closely and do not start your own discussions.” We see this – Qur’an is playing in the background, and we have a chat while it is playing. We put the Qur’an on in our homes and it is beautiful, but what are we doing at that time? We are sitting down and talking with others. Sometimes, Qur’an is playing and someone is watching something else on their phone.
These are things that we are being alarmed about. When Qur’an is in recitation, a lot of things are in movement. On one side, the angels come rushing to you, but on the other side, the system of Shaytan kicks into action to try and somehow impend, stop, block, affect, hamper and hinder this process in some way or another. We ask Allah (SWT) to protect us from all of that. May Allah (SWT) give us tawfiq.
