Seeking Refuge from Evil: The Power and Portent of the Closing Chapters of the Qur'an

Abstract

Chapters 113 and 114 of the Qur'an, al-mucawwidhatān ‘the two suras of taking refuge from evil’, are said to have been revealed to the Prophet Muḥammad in order to counteract a spell laid on him. These consecutive suras are consequently recited in order to dispel any and all forms of evil. In spite of the fact that they are paired in revelation, paired together at the end of the Qur'anic text, paired in ritual recitation, paired in invocation and appear to be similarly structured, in this short article I argue that the Mucawwidhatān are in actuality very different. They clearly can and do function as a pair, but the linguistic and stylistic differences between them are as striking as the similarities. In Sura 113, for instance, rhyming prose (sajc) is used; in Sura 114, on the other hand, it is not a question of end-rhyme, but of the use of the very same rhyme word five out of six times, or rather – since the one exception incorporates that rhyme word – the use of the same rhyme throughout. As for the thematic, I propose the following heuristic characterisation of the dimensions of evil in Sura 113: Natural Evil, Unnatural Evil, Supernatural Evil and Mortal Evil.