Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.  (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

Assalamo Alaikum,I saw a poster in my local masjid that had the following prayer on it "Haa Meem La Yunsaroon". It had a caption at the bottom that this prayer is used when you desire Allah`s help in defending yourself.I could not find this in the Quran, so I asked the Imaam and he thought this was from the Hadith, but he could not cite any references.Can you please shine any light on this. I would love to recite this prayer but I do not want to participate in any Bidaah.thank you,

(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)

Answer:

Ha meem la yunsaroon

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no person, no grave, no prophet, no imam, no dai, nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad(saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

The alphabets ‘Haa Meem’ are the broken alphabets which Allah Subhanah has used to start some of the Surahs of the Holy Quran.

The term ‘La Yansaroon’ literally means ‘they will NOT be helped’.

There is no Aayah in the Glorious Quran where the terms ‘Haa Meem La Yansaroon’ have been used together as a phrase. If one seeks or desires Allah’s help in defending oneself, one simply needs to supplicate Allah Subhanah in the language one speaks or understands best, for Allah Subhanah is ever ready to accept the supplications of His believing slaves. To the best of our knowledge, there is absolutely nothing in the authentic hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (saws) whereby he guided the believers to repeat or chant this phrase ‘Haa Meem La Yansaroon’ if they sought the help of Allah Subhanah!

There is a mention of this phrase in the ‘Seerah’ of the Prophet (saws), when he appointed this phrase ‘Haa Meem La Yansaroon’ as a code word in one of the battles against the enemies of Allah. It was used as a code word in a particular jihaad to mean something in the strategy of war, and was exclusive to that time and place and event.

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your Brother in Islam,

Burhan