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Does Satan spend the night in a house if its owner forgets to mention Allah when entering or eating, and is it necessary to repeat the ذكر (remembrance) when repeatedly entering and exiting the house, and are the أهل المنزل (household members) harmed if one of the individuals forgets the ذكر (remembrance) of entering?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If a Muslim enters his home without remembering Allah, Satan enters with him. There is no evidence for the permissibility of leaving and re-entering to catch up on the missed remembrance. Rather, this can be compensated for by continuous remembrance of Allah and by the protective supplications against Satan. The apparent meaning of the hadith is that remembrance is required upon every entry into the house, especially since it is a simple remembrance. If a Muslim forgets to remember Allah upon entering, there are other adhkar that compensate for this forgetfulness, such as saying: "There is no god but Allah alone, without partner..." a hundred times, and reciting Ayatul-Kursi before sleeping, and reciting Surat Al-Baqarah in the home. If some members of the household do not mention Allah's name when eating together, the remembrance of some of them is sufficient. However, if they eat consecutively and none of them mentions Allah's name, then Satan shares in the food with them. A Muslim should constantly remember Allah and strive to remind his family members of the importance of remembrance, and to compensate for any negligence by remembering Allah, which expels Satan.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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