4 Qul: the four Quls in Arabic, transliteration and meaning

What are the four Quls, and in what order?

In Quran order they are Al-Kafirun, Al-Ikhlas, Al-Falaq and An-Nas. They are not four chapters in a row: chapters 110 and 111 fall between Al-Kafirun and Al-Ikhlas. The group is also called char Qul or 4 Qul, from the Urdu and Hindi word char, four.

Individual lessons: Al-Falaq and An-Nas is built; Al-Ikhlas and Al-Kafirun are built too, and the complete text of all four is below.

What are the four Quls in Arabic, transliteration and English?

Each surah is shown as one block you can copy, then verse by verse with a pronunciation aid and the English. Verse numbers follow the Tanzil count, which does not number the Bismillah. The transliteration helps you follow along; a fluent teacher can help with sounds that English letters cannot carry.

The word qul

Surah Al-Kafirun (109)

1. 1

   قُلْ يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلْكَـٰفِرُونَ

   Qul yā ayyuhal-kāfirūn

   Say: O disbelievers!

2. 2

   لَآ أَعْبُدُ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ

   Lā aʿbudu mā taʿbudūn

   I do not worship that which you worship.

3. 3

   وَلَآ أَنتُمْ عَـٰبِدُونَ مَآ أَعْبُدُ

   Wa lā antum ʿābidūna mā aʿbud

   Nor do you worship that which I worship.

4. 4

   وَلَآ أَنَا۠ عَابِدٌ مَّا عَبَدتُّمْ

   Wa lā ana ʿābidum mā ʿabattum

   And I shall not worship that which you worship.

5. 5

   وَلَآ أَنتُمْ عَـٰبِدُونَ مَآ أَعْبُدُ

   Wa lā antum ʿābidūna mā aʿbud

   Nor will you worship that which I worship.

6. 6

   لَكُمْ دِينُكُمْ وَلِىَ دِينِ

   Lakum dīnukum wa liya dīn

   To you your religion, and to me my religion.

Surah Al-Ikhlas (112)

1. 1

   قُلْ هُوَ ٱللَّهُ أَحَدٌ

   Qul huwallāhu aḥad

   Say: He is Allah, the One!

2. 2

   ٱللَّهُ ٱلصَّمَدُ

   Allāhuṣ-ṣamad

   Allah, the Eternal Refuge of all!

3. 3

   لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ

   Lam yalid wa lam yūlad

   He does not beget, nor was He begotten.

4. 4

   وَلَمْ يَكُن لَّهُۥ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌۢ

   Wa lam yakul-lahū kufuwan aḥad

   And there is none comparable to Him.

Surah Al-Falaq (113)

1. 1

   قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِرَبِّ ٱلْفَلَقِ

   Qul aʿūdhu birabbil-falaq

   Say: I seek refuge in the Lord of the Daybreak.

2. 2

   مِن شَرِّ مَا خَلَقَ

   Min sharri mā khalaq

   From the evil of that which He created.

3. 3

   وَمِن شَرِّ غَاسِقٍ إِذَا وَقَبَ

   Wa min sharri ghāsiqin idhā waqab

   From the evil of the darkness when it is intense.

4. 4

   وَمِن شَرِّ ٱلنَّفَّـٰثَـٰتِ فِى ٱلْعُقَدِ

   Wa min sharrin-naffāthāti fil-ʿuqad

   And from the evil of malignant witchcraft.

5. 5

   وَمِن شَرِّ حَاسِدٍ إِذَا حَسَدَ

   Wa min sharri ḥāsidin idhā ḥasad

   And from the evil of the envier when he envies.

Surah An-Nas (114)

1. 1

   قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِرَبِّ ٱلنَّاسِ

   Qul aʿūdhu birabbin-nās

   Say: I seek refuge in the Lord of mankind.

2. 2

   مَلِكِ ٱلنَّاسِ

   Malikin-nās

   The King of mankind.

3. 3

   إِلَـٰهِ ٱلنَّاسِ

   Ilāhin-nās

   The God of mankind.

4. 4

   مِن شَرِّ ٱلْوَسْوَاسِ ٱلْخَنَّاسِ

   Min sharril-waswāsil-khannās

   From the evil of the sneaking whisperer.

5. 5

   ٱلَّذِى يُوَسْوِسُ فِى صُدُورِ ٱلنَّاسِ

   Alladhī yuwaswisu fī ṣudūrin-nās

   Who whispers in the hearts of mankind.

6. 6

   مِنَ ٱلْجِنَّةِ وَٱلنَّاسِ

   Minal-jinnati wan-nās

   Of the jinn and of mankind.

Which surahs do the morning and bedtime reports name?

Reports from the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, name particular surahs for particular occasions. Two reports name Al-Ikhlas, Al-Falaq and An-Nas, one for evening and morning and one for bedtime, and a third names Al-Kafirun alone. The table keeps the occasions apart.

Evening and morning

Abdullah ibn Khubayb, may Allah be pleased with him, said that on a night of rain and deep darkness they went out looking for the Prophet to lead them in prayer. The Prophet kept telling him "Say" until Abdullah asked what to say. In Sunan Abi Dawud 5082 (graded hasan, hasan sahih or sahih) the answer is Qul huwa Allahu ahad (Al-Ikhlas) and al-mu'awwidhatayn, at evening and at morning, three times, and they will suffice against everything. In Sahih Muslim 814 (the wording of Ibn Numayr's chain) the Prophet calls Al-Falaq and An-Nas al-mu'awwidhatayn.

1AuthenticSunan Abi Dawud 5082

2AuthenticJami' at-Tirmidhi 3575

7AuthenticSahih Muslim 814

Going to bed

'Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, reported that every night, when the Prophet went to bed, he gathered his palms, blew into them and recited into them Al-Ikhlas, Al-Falaq and An-Nas. Then he wiped as much of his body as he could, beginning with his head, his face and the front of his body. The narration says he did that three times. The three belongs to the whole action, not to each surah separately.

3AuthenticSahih al-Bukhari 5017

Going to sleep after Al-Kafirun

Farwa ibn Nawfal reported from his father that the Prophet told Nawfal, may Allah be pleased with him, to recite Qul ya ayyuhal-kafirun and then go to sleep at its end. The stated reason is that it is a declaration of freedom from associating partners with Allah. This report names no other surah, gives no count and promises no reward. It is graded differently: four graders accept it, in six gradings, and one calls its chain disturbed and not established.

4Graded differently ›Sunan Abi Dawud 5055

No report cited here joins all four surahs into one sequence or gives them one shared count. Keep that in mind when you use a saved checklist. For a routine organised by time of day, see morning and evening adhkar; adhkar means remembrances of Allah.

Which virtues of the four Quls are authentic, and which are graded differently?

Abu Said al-Khudri, may Allah be pleased with him, reported that a man heard another man reciting Qul huwa Allahu ahad again and again. Next morning he told the Prophet, as if he thought it little. The Prophet said, by Him in whose hand is his life, that it equals a third of the Quran. This is the report for Al-Ikhlas's one-third, and it is graded sahih.

5AuthenticSahih al-Bukhari 5013

The quarter-of-the-Quran claim about Al-Kafirun comes from a different report, and its grade is split.

Graded differently: the fractions of the Quran in Jami' at-Tirmidhi 2894

Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, reported that the Prophet said Idha zulzilat (Al-Zalzalah, 99) equals half of the Quran, Qul huwa Allahu ahad a third and Qul ya ayyuhal-kafirun a fourth. The chain runs from Ibn Abbas to Ata to Yaman ibn al-Mughirah, and the collection's own comment is that it is gharib, known only through that route. Two gradings accept something in it and six gradings fault it: two call it weak, one calls it munkar (rejected) and three criticise its narrator Yaman. One accepting grading is for the full report's chain, the other for a shortened extract on Al-Ikhlas and Al-Kafirun alone.

6Graded differently ›Jami' at-Tirmidhi 2894

Reader label: graded differently. One grader appears on both sides of the panel because the texts differ: that grader calls the full report weak and munkar, and the shortened extract hasan li-ghayrihi, a weak chain lifted by other evidence. That grade does not carry over to the clauses the extract leaves out, or to the full report. For Al-Ikhlas's one-third, use the separate sahih report above. For Al-Kafirun at bedtime, use its own report in Sunan Abi Dawud 5055. This panel lists the gradings located for this report, not every grader who has ever discussed it.

None of the reports cited on this page names a combined four-Qul count or promises wealth or marriage. That is a statement about these reports only; we have not searched every collection. A forwarded message that attaches such a reward needs its own wording and its own reference.

How can I learn the four Quls?

Work with one verse at a time: read the Arabic, check the meaning, then recite it to a fluent teacher. This is a learning suggestion, and no reward is attached to the method. Say you are helping a child on the school run and they ask which Qul comes third. The table above settles it: Al-Falaq, chapter 113.

If the opening lines are familiar but the middle lines blur together, keep the verse numbers in view. Four sounds are worth a slow pass:

• q in qul: a deep k from the back of the throat.
• ʿ in aʿūdhu and ʿābidūn: a tightening deep in the throat.
• ḥ in aḥad and ḥāsid: a breathy h from the throat.
• kh in khalaq and khannās: a rough sound from the back of the throat, as in Scottish "loch".

A recording by a fluent human reciter is coming. We do not use a synthetic voice for the Quran. The Al-Falaq and An-Nas lesson explains those two surahs verse by verse; the Al-Ikhlas and Al-Kafirun lessons do the same for those two.