And prayers and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions.

The reader: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions.
The author (may Allah have mercy on him) transmitted, in the context of the hadiths in the chapter on the virtue of dhikr and the exhortation to it: "From Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

When any one of you utters tashahhud (in prayer) he must seek refuge with Allah from four (trials) and should thus say:" O Allah! I seek refuge with Thee from the torment of the Hell, from the torment of the grave, from the trial of life and death and from the evil of the trial of Masih al-Dajjal" (Antichrist).

إذا تشهد أحدكم فليستعذ بالله من أربع يقول: اللهم إني أعوذ بك من عذاب جهنم ومن عذاب القبر ومن فتنة المحيا والممات ومن شر فتنة المسيح الدجال

Sahih Muslim 588a

Muslim narrated it. And from Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), he said:

and he would then say between Tashahhud and the pronouncing of salutation: Forgive me of the earlier and later open and secret (sins) and that where I made transgression and that Thou knowest better than I. Thou art the First and the Last. There is no god, but Thee.

كان رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم إذا قام إلى الصلاة يكون من آخر ما يقول بين التشهد والتسليم: اللهم اغفر لي ما قدمت وما أخرت وما أسررت وما أعلنت وما أسرفت وما أنت أعلم به مني أنت المقدم وأنت المؤخر لا إله إلا أنت

Sahih Muslim 771a

Muslim narrated it".

The Shaykh : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The author (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned these two hadiths in what one seeks refuge with and remembers Allah with in the prayers. So, in the first, from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: And in a wording: He says: These are four matters that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded us to seek refuge with Allah from when we have finished the tashahhud, meaning before the taslim. I seek refuge with Allah from the punishment of Hell, which is the Fire. So, you seek refuge with Allah from its punishment. This includes what evil you have done, asking Allah to pardon you for it, and what evil you have not done, asking Allah to keep you away from it. Because the grave contains punishment: a permanent punishment for the disbelievers, and a punishment that may cease for the sinners. It is established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he passed by two graves and said: The trial of life is what a person is tried with in his life, and it revolves around two things: either ignorance, doubt, and lack of knowledge of the truth, so the truth becomes confused with falsehood for him, and he falls into falsehood and is destroyed; or desire, meaning inclination, such that the person knows the truth but does not want it, and only wants falsehood. As for the trial of death, it was said that it is the trial of the grave, which is the questioning of the two angels of the person when he is buried about his Lord, his religion, and his Prophet. It was also said that the trial of death is what occurs at the time of a person's death, and that is that Satan is most eager to mislead the children of Adam at their death. He comes to the person at his death and whispers to him and makes him doubt, and perhaps he commands him to disbelieve in Allah, may Allah protect us from that. So this trial is among the greatest of trials. As for the trial of the Dajjal, the Dajjal is the one whom Allah (Mighty and Majestic) will send at the Hour. He is a wicked disbeliever, with "disbeliever" written between his eyes, which the believing writer and non-writer can read. And Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) tests the people with him, because he is given some power in the earth. He remains in the earth for forty days: the first day is the length of a full year, the second is the length of a month, the third is the length of a week—year, month, week—and the fourth is like the other days. He calls people to disbelieve in Allah and to associate partners with Him. He says, "I am your Lord," and he has a Paradise and a Fire, but it is a Paradise as people see it and a Fire as people see it, whereas the reality of his Paradise is that it is Fire, and the reality of his Fire is that it is Paradise, as came in the hadith from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). So people are deceived by him, and whoever Allah wills to be tried is tried by him. And his trial is great, for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: For this reason, he was singled out among the trial of life, because his trial is great. We ask Allah to protect us and you from it. And these four are mentioned by the person before he says the taslim. The scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) differed on whether this is obligatory or a recommended practice? The majority of the scholars are of the opinion that it is a recommended practice, and that if a person leaves it, his prayer is not invalidated. And some of the people of knowledge said: It is obligatory; it is obligatory for the person to seek refuge with Allah from these four before he says the taslim, and if he leaves that, his prayer is invalid and he has to repeat it. And Tawus, who is one of the great of the Tabi'un, commanded his son to repeat his prayer when he did not recite these four seekings of refuge. It is befitting for the person not to leave them, but to strive to do them for the much good in them, and so that he does not lead his prayer to be invalid according to some of the people of knowledge. And Allah is the One who grants success.
The reader: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions.