Protection from Hellfire (7 times)

When. Seven times after Fajr and seven times after Maghrib, before speaking to anyone — that condition is part of how the practice is transmitted, and it is the part most often dropped.

The words. Four words, and the whole weight sits on ajirni. The root j-w-r gives jar, a neighbour, and ijarah, the grant of protection an Arab tribe extended to someone who sought it: a formal, binding shelter given by the strong to someone with no other claim on them. Ajirni asks for exactly that relationship. English has no verb for it and settles for "protect me", which loses the fact that the one asking has nothing to offer in return.

Minan-nar — from the Fire, with the definite article. Not from punishment in general, not from hardship. One thing is named.

Why the timings. Fajr and Maghrib are the hinges of the day: one opens the working hours, the other closes them. The supplication is placed at both, and the requirement to say it before speaking puts it ahead of everything else that will be said.

Why seven. The number is part of the transmitted practice, not a calculation. Counting on the fingers is the ordinary way people keep it.

What it does not claim. The narration is in Abu Dawud (5079), and al-Albani graded its chain weak (da'if), so the practice rests on a report that is not firmly established. Different wordings of the account attach different descriptions to the practice; what is certain is the words, the count and the two times. Say them as they are, without attaching a guarantee to the number.

Its brevity. Four words, fourteen times a day, under a minute in total. Very few supplications ask for so little effort.