Protection

What to Do After a Bad Dream

A protection supplication from the Sunnah, narrated in Sahih Muslim.

أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ

A'udhu billahi minash-shaytanir-rajeem

Meaning

I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan. (Practice: spit lightly to the left side 3 times, recite this refuge 3 times, then turn over to the other side from the side one was sleeping on.)

Reference

Source: Sahih Muslim 2262. This narration appears in Sahih Muslim, alongside Sahih al-Bukhari among the highest-authenticity hadith sources.

When to recite

Say this dua any time you feel exposed — entering a new place, before sleep, when anxiety rises. The wording invokes Allah's perfect words against the evil of anything He has created.

About this dua

Sahih Muslim, compiled by Imam Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj (d. 261 AH), is paired with Sahih al-Bukhari as the two most rigorously authenticated hadith collections. Together they form the highest tier of hadith literature. The duas of refuge ('a'udhu...') invoke Allah's protection from named and unnamed harms. They're terse — often a single sentence — because they're meant to be reached for quickly, in moments of unease.

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Arabic text and references are presented as recorded in the source collections. For detailed authenticity grading or in-depth tafsir, consult a qualified scholar.