Refuge in Allah Against Wrongdoing
مَعَاذَ ٱللَّهِ ۖ إِنَّهُۥ رَبِّىٓ أَحْسَنَ مَثْوَاىَ ۖ إِنَّهُۥ لَا يُفْلِحُ ٱلظَّـٰلِمُونَ
Allah forbid! Truly, he is my lord, who has made good my dwelling. Truly, the wrongdoers never succeed.
Maʿādha-llāhi innahu rabbī aḥsana mathwāy innahu lā yufliḥu-ẓ-ẓālimūn.
Reference
From Sūrat Yūsuf (12:23), spoken by the man whom the woman in whose house he was had tried to draw to herself, after she locked the doors and said “Come!”:
- Qur'an 12:23
Explanation
Maʿādha-llāh means “I seek refuge with Allah”, a firm refusal that places the speaker under Allah's protection. The reason follows: rabbī means “my lord” or “my master”, and aḥsana mathwāy means he made the place where I stay good, so the speaker points to the good he has received. He ends with a general principle: the ẓālimūn, the wrongdoers, do not succeed (lā yufliḥu, from the root f-l-ḥ, meaning to prosper or attain success). In this way the words turn down the invitation to wrongdoing by taking refuge in Allah and recalling that wrongdoing never leads to success.