Isti'adhah/ Taa'wudh: Safety first ...
Imagine if someone calls us and says that I will attack you as soon as you step out of your home. They promise it and are always lurking by the corner of the street to attack us. What will be our reaction? Won't we get some security established for ourselves and our dear ones?
Quran teaches us who our enemy is and teaches us how to secure ourselves from our enemy. Allah ﷻ says in Surah An-Nahl 16:98,
We must seek protection from the shaytaan. We are unsafe as he is ar-rajeem (the cursed one) and wants us to follow him and become like him. But Allah ﷻ has provided us with a powerful weapon – the Ta’awwudh which covers us from all sides and wraps us in protection. This is like our seat belt, our protection. It is not written in the beginning of our Quranic text, but we recite it every time before we start reading, studying or engaging with the Quran.
Quran teaches us who our enemy is and teaches us how to secure ourselves from our enemy. Allah ﷻ says in Surah An-Nahl 16:98,
فَإِذَا قَرَأْتَ الْقُرْآنَ فَاسْتَعِذْ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ
الرَّجِيمِ
So when you recite the Qur'an, [first] seek refuge in
Allah from Satan, the expelled [from His mercy].
Ta’awwudh (or Isteaadha) is a simple but powerful tool through
which we ask Allah ﷻ to protect us from shaytaan. Shaytaan is our biggest and
most dangerous enemy. He has huge experience in making people sin right from
the time of Adam AS. Moreover, shaytaan has promised Allah ﷻ that he is going
to attack us human beings from left, right, front and back. When shaytaan makes the duniya so big and near us then this small duniya seems big and magnified and then our Hereafter fades in comparison.
We must seek protection from the shaytaan. We are unsafe as he is ar-rajeem (the cursed one) and wants us to follow him and become like him. But Allah ﷻ has provided us with a powerful weapon – the Ta’awwudh which covers us from all sides and wraps us in protection. This is like our seat belt, our protection. It is not written in the beginning of our Quranic text, but we recite it every time before we start reading, studying or engaging with the Quran.
أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم
أعوذ: I seek refuge
The word comes from root letters: ع و ذ
These are same root letters as taweedh. It reminds us
automatically that protection and refuge is being sought.
The first letter of the present tense represents the attached
pronoun
أعوذ >>> I
seek protection
يعوذ >>> He seeks protection
تعوذ >>> She seeks protection
نعوذ >>> We seek protection
بالله : in Allah
Is made of two words بِ + الله
من : from
الشيطان : the shaytaan
الرجيم: The Outcast/ the cursed
(The prefix ال works like “the” in the English language, and
changes a word from general (nakira) to specific (maa’rifa))
أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم
I seek protection in Allah from the shaytaan, the cursed
one.
Allah ﷻ did not overwhelm us with fear that shaytaan is there
and he will mess us up. In fact, right after reminding us to seek Allah’s refuge
against the shaytaan, Allah ﷻ told us in Surah An-Nahl 16:99-100,
إِنَّهُ لَيْسَ لَهُ سُلْطَانٌ عَلَى الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَلَىٰ
رَبِّهِمْ يَتَوَكَّلُونَ
Indeed, there is for him no authority over those who have
believed and rely upon their Lord.
إِنَّمَا سُلْطَانُهُ عَلَى الَّذِينَ يَتَوَلَّوْنَهُ وَالَّذِينَ
هُم بِهِ مُشْرِكُونَ
His authority is only over those who take him as an ally
and those who through him associate others with Allah.
When we trust Allah ﷻ and say “Audhu billahi minash
shaytaanir rajeem” then we understand that Allah ﷻ is enough to guard us and to
protect us.
For more about the Isti'adhah, please watch this video,
For more about the Isti'adhah, please watch this video,