Dua when entering the restroom

When. Before stepping in — said at the threshold, not inside. Where there is no door, it is said before uncovering oneself. Many teach children this one first, because it is short and it attaches to something that happens several times a day.

The words. A'udhu bika is 'I take refuge in You' — the verb pictures someone running to a fortified place, not merely asking from a distance. Then al-khubuth wal-khaba'ith. Both come from the root kh-b-th, which carries filth and malice at once, in the physical sense and the moral sense together. Read with one vowel pattern, al-khubth, the first word means evil itself; read al-khubuth, it is the male among the evil ones and al-khaba'ith the female. Both readings are transmitted, and neither cancels the other: the sentence covers the class and its members.

Why here. The place is described in the reports as one where such creatures are present, and a person there is uncovered and unable to carry the ordinary remembrances. The supplication is what stands in for them.

Leaving. The counterpart on the way out is ghufranak — 'Your forgiveness' — a single word, and a strange one to say after relieving oneself. It has been explained as the servant asking pardon for the gap in which he could not remember Allah, and as gratitude for a bodily ease so routine that no one thanks anyone for it.

A practical note. The Qur'an and the name of Allah are not recited inside; that is why the entering and leaving words are placed at the two doorways rather than within.