A short prayer for protection from various harms — darkness, sorcery, envy — recited, in later tradition, as one of a pair of protective surahs alongside the next and final one. It specifically asks for protection from the evil of darkness when it settles, from those who blow on knots (a reference to a form of sorcery practiced at the time), and from the envier when he envies — naming several distinct, concrete sources of harm rather than a single generic threat. The surah closes its list of dangers with the envier "when he envies," a careful phrasing distinguishing the emotion of envy itself from acting on it, implying that the danger being guarded against is specifically envy translated into harmful action rather than the private feeling alone.
Paired with the next surah as a traditional set for seeking protection — widely recited for comfort and safety. Its specific mention of envy as a named source of harm is often discussed in Islamic psychology as an early acknowledgment that envy, including one's own, can function as a real and personal danger worth actively guarding against. That careful distinction between feeling envy and acting on it is often cited in discussions of emotional regulation within Islamic ethics, treating the internal experience as less concerning than allowing it to actually influence behavior toward others.