Protection of children

When. Over children, said by a parent or guardian — at bedtime, before they leave the house, in illness. The transmitted wording is dual, u'idhukuma, because it was said over two boys; for one child it becomes u'idhuka (or u'idhuki for a girl), and for several, u'idhukum.

The words. Bikalimatillahit-tammah, 'by the perfect words of Allah'. Tamm is what is complete, lacking nothing — the refuge is not in the speaker's care or vigilance but in something described as having no gap in it. Then three things named. Shaytan, the unseen. Hammah, which is not a devil at all but a crawling, stinging creature: a snake, a scorpion. And aynin lammah, the evil eye. Lammah comes from a root meaning to touch or to strike glancingly — an eye that lands on a thing and leaves a mark.

Why those three together. They span what a parent cannot supervise: the invisible, the physical hazard under a stone, and the harm that arrives through the admiration of other people. Nothing in the list is something a careful adult can simply prevent, which is why they are the ones handed over.

The verb. U'idhu is transitive here — 'I place you in refuge'. Elsewhere a person seeks refuge for himself; this form is one person putting another under protection, which is the whole posture of a parent standing over a sleeping child.

A note. It is said aloud over the child, and there is nothing in it to write, wear or hang. The refuge named is the words themselves.