The shaytan at the well of the traveller

Muslim relates from the Prophet ﷺ that a man was travelling, and on the road saw an old man at a well; when the man performed ablution and prayed two rak'as at the well, the shaytan came to him in the old man's likeness and said 'by God I could not harm you today except through prayer', then fled ¹.

This hadith is among the most famous texts on protecting the traveller from Satan; in it the shaytan cannot harm the servant except by what he is permitted, and prayer and ablution are a bulwark against his schemes — among the proofs that his whisperings are worth nothing before remembrance ^{1 2}.

The report stands in the books of asceticism, heart-softening and etiquette, and is cited in the chapter on the merit of prayer while travelling and in showing the shaytan's impotence against one who holds to obedience; this browser gathers it with the rest of the devils' meetings with human beings ^{1 2}.