He told how Abu Bakr said he had asked God’s messenger to command him something to say in the morning and the evening, and he had told him to say, “O God, who knowest the unseen and the seen, Creator of the heavens and the earth, Lord and Possessor of everything, I testify that there is no god but Thee; I seek refuge in Thee from the evil within myself, from the evil of the devil and his .”* He instructed him to say it morning and evening, and when he went to bed.
*The Arabic word may be read either as shirk (attributing a partner to God), or as sharah
(snare). The former is preferred. Cf. Mirqat, ili, 99.
Abu Huraira said that God’s messenger would say in the morning, "O God, by, Thee we come to the morning, by Thee we come to the evening, by Thee we live, by Thee we die, and to Thee do we come." In the evening he said, “O God, by Thee we come to the evening, by Thee we come to the morning, by Thee we live, by Thee we die, and to Thee are we resurrected.”
Aban b. ‘Uthman said he heard his father quoting God’s messenger as saying that if anyone says three times every morning and evening, “In the name of God, when whose name is mentioned nothing in earth or heaven can cause harm, and He is the Hearer, the Knower,” he will not be harmed by anything. Aban was afflicted by some paralysis, and when a man began to look at him Aban would say, “Why are you looking at me? The tradition is as I told it to you, but I did not say the words that day in order that God might carry out what He had decreed for me.”
Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah and Abu Dawud transmitted it. Abu Dawud’s version has, “He will not suffer sudden affliction till the morning, and if anyone says it in the morning he will not suffer sudden affliction till the evening.”
Abu Huraira said that when Fatima went to the Prophet and asked him for a servant, he said, “Let me guide you to something which is better than a servant. You should say ‘Glory be to God thirty-three times, ‘Praise be to God" thirty-three times, and ‘God is most great’ thirty-four times at each time of prayer and when you go to bed.”
