al-Muʾminūn 23:97-98

wa qul rabbi aʿūdhu bika min hamazāti'l-shayāṭīn · wa aʿūdhu bika rabbi an yaḥḍurūn

"And say: 'My Lord, I take refuge with You from the promptings of the satans. And I take refuge with You, my Lord, from their being present with me.'"

The word order must be recorded, and this is the core of the two verses: aʿūdhu bika is repeated twice, and the second taking of refuge is not the continuation of the first but something different from it.

I record this as my own reading, its ground being the object of the second taking of refuge: the second request asks protection not from an act but from being present. The taking of refuge, that is, draws back a step: not only from the effect but from the nearness as well.

The root was worked out in al-Humaza. I do not repeat it here. The description given there:

همز — root ه-م-ز. Its primary sense in the dictionary is to press, to squeeze, to break, to prod. To press down on a thing and crush it. The name of the letter hamza in the Arabic alphabet comes from this as well: a sound produced by a constriction and a break in the throat.

I rely on that treatment. What belongs here is that the word is plural and a verbal noun.

Hamazāt — the plural of hamza; the plural of a maṣdar marra (a single instance of the act). The word reports individual prods, that is, not a continuous state.

I give this as my own reading, its ground being this form of the pattern: what refuge is taken from is not a siege but prods that come one at a time. And the sense "to press down and crush" recorded in al-Humaza gives the picture of a prod that has a place in the body — light, but a physical contact.

The root ح-ض-ر: to be present, to be at hand. Ḥāḍir — the one present; muḥḍar — the one brought.

The root was treated in three places in al-Ṣāffāt (37/57, 127, 158), where it was tabulated that the pattern is used in opposite directions. I rely on that treatment.

And the nūn at the end of the verb must be recorded: an yaḥḍurūn — its original is an yaḥḍurūni; the final yāʾ (the first-person pronoun) has been dropped to fit the verse-ending. The same operation will be seen at the ninety-ninth verse (irjiʿūn) and at the hundred and eighth (lā tukallimūn).

This is a pattern of sound repeated in the last section of the sūra, and it can be verified from the text.

And an entry on context: the ninety-sixth verse was a command turned outward (idfaʿ — repel). The ninety-seventh and ninety-eighth are two prayers turned inward.

I give this as my own reading, its ground being the order of the two verses: immediately after the command to repel evil with what is best, two protections are asked for the one who does the repelling. While the command is given, that is, the risk to the one who carries it out is named as well.