Prayer of Gabriel – Shaykh Abdurragmaan Khan
In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Specifically Merciful.
I delivered an online presentation on the evening of Isra and Mi’raj which coincides with the 27th Rajab. I dedicated most of the presentation to events that took place during the Prophet’s nocturnal journey from the Haram of Makkah to Masjid al-Aqsa.
After the presentation, I received many requests for the prayer that Gabriel taught the Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace ) when an Ifrit (high-ranking jinn) tried to cast a blaze of fire upon him. In response to these requests, and seeking Allah’s pleasure and protection, I have translated the hadith, which includes the prayer of Gabriel, as it appears in the Muwatta of Imam Malik. However, different versions of the hadith have been transmitted. The version translated below has been transmitted by a successor directly from the Messenger, peace be upon him, (without mentioning the name of a companion), so, on its own, it may be regarded as weak. However, it is important to know that all the different versions of the hadith corroborate this version, and this corroboration raises the status of the hadith to ‘sound’ or ‘hasan’.
The translation is as follows: Yahya bin Said said, “during the nocturnal journey of the Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace) he saw an Ifrit following him with a blaze of fire. Whenever he looked back, he saw him. Angel Gabriel then said, “Should I not teach you a supplication – if you were to recite it, his flame will go out and he will fall on his mouth?” The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) replied in the affirmative. Gabriel then said:
“In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, I seek refuge in Allah, the Most Generous, and by His Perfect Words, the boundaries of which cannot be exceeded by anyone, whether he be devout or a criminal, from the evil that descends from the heavens, or that which ascends to it, and from the evils that are sown within the earth, and that which comes out of it, and from the trials of the night and the day, and from the visitors of the night except those that come in goodness, O Most Gracious.”“
Another version of the hadith reads, “the Prophet, peace be upon him, recited it and the ifrit’s flame died out and he fell on his face.”
The Arabic version of the prayer is:
أَعُوذُ بِوَجْهِ اللهِ الْكَرِيْمِ وَبِكَلِمَاتِ اللهِ التَّامَّاتِ الَّتِي لَا يُجَاوِزُهُنَّ بَرٌّ، وَلَا فَاجِرٌ مِنْ شَرِّ مَا يَنْزِلُ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ وَمَا يَعْرُجُ فِيهَا، وَمِنْ شَرِّ مَا ذَرَأَ فِي الْأَرْضِ وشر ما يَخْرُجُ مِنْهَا، وَمِنْ فِتَنِ اللَّيْلِ والنَّهَارِ، وَمِنْ طَوَارِقِ اللَّيْلِ إِلَّا طَارِقًا يَطْرُقُ بِخَيْرٍ يَا رَحْمَانُ
