Reciting Sura al-Baraqara for Protection and Cutting One’s Hair for Hajj and Umrah

Answered by Sidi Tabraze Azam

Question: 1) If I remember correctly, it is reported in a ahadith that for the one who recites al-baqarah, the shaytaan will not enter his house. Does this protection only include the room it is recited or the entire house? And does it need to be read in full in one go to the end?

2) When one does the Hajj or Umrah does one need to shave the entire head or will a little cut suffice?

Answer: Wa alaikum assalam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

I pray that you are in the best of health and states.

[1] I believe the narration (hadith) you are referring to is narrated in the Sahih of Ibn Hibban which contains the words; verily the devil flees from the house in which he hears Surat al-Baqara recited therein.

It could refer, more generally, to having a regular recitation of Qur’an (which by default includes Surat al-Baqara) as is the sunna of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) and the way to have a light and baraka filled home (i.e. by a regular routine of Qur’anic recitation).

However, the narrations (hadiths) regarding the Devil (Shaitan) not even coming close, let alone entering, the home in which the final verses of Surat al-Baqara are recited therein, are more common and are found in Sahih al-Bukhari and elsewhere.

[2] It suffices to cut the extent of the tip of one’s finger’s worth of hair (which is approximately one inch), from one quarter of the head. [Shurunbulali, Maraqi al-Falah; Maydani, al-Lubab fi Sharh al-Kitab]

May Allah make us of those of the Qur’an and reflection. Amin.

And Allah knows best.

Wassalaam,

Tabraze Azam

Checked & Approved by Faraz Rabbani