This letter was written to Mirzâ Kilinjullah. It answers his letter saying that he cannot concentrate his heart, and intimates the prayers to be said during times of fear:
I express my gratitude to Allâhu ta’âlâ, pronounce benedictions over His beloved Prophet and over you. Your cherished letter of azâ, that is, letter of condolence due to bereavement, has arrived. We all are under Allah’s command and will, and we all will enter His presence! With His aid, we have been acquiescent in His qadâ. You, too, must acquiesce to it! Ask for help by saying prayers and the Fâtiha! The news informing that you are already free of that problem has pleased us very much. So we have gotten rid of one of the two problems. Thank Allâhu ta’âlâ for this! You write that you cannot rid your heart of worldly thoughts. Yes, the outward deed’s being disorderly and disorganized causes the heart to become untidy, too. When there is sorrow or melancholy
in your heart say tawba and istighfâr to remove it! During times of fear [and against the harm of genies] say the prayer of Kalima-i tamjîd, that is, “Lâ hawla walâ quwwata illâ billâhil ’aliyyil ’azîm.” [It is written in the 174th
letter that this prayer is said against the haunting of genies. Muhammad Ma’thûm ‘rahmatullâhi alaih’ writes in his third letter of the second volume, “One should recite Lâ hawla walâ quwwata illâ billâh five hundred times with the salawât-i sherîfa a hundred times before and after it and make a du’â in order to get rid of problems and attain one’s wishes.”] At such times of trouble it is very useful to recite the two sûras of Mu’awwizatayn, that is, the two sûras beginning with Qul-a’ûdhu. We have been well and comfortable, may hamd be to Allâhu ta’âlâ always! “Alhamdu-li ’l-lâhi dâiman wa alâ kulli hâl wa A’ûdhu bi’l-lâhi min hâl-i ahl-in-nâr.” Being weak,
I cannot write any longer. May Allâhu ta’âlâ not separate us and you from Muhammad Mustafâ’s Sharî’at! Wassalâm.
[It is written in Tafsîr-i Mazharî in the explanation of the eighty-eighth âyat of the Sûrat-ul-Anbiyâ that a hadîth-i sherîf says, “Duri ng the time of sorrows and hardships recite the prayer of the Prophet Yûnus. Surely Allah will rescue you. The prayer is: Lâ ilâha illâ anta subhânaka innî kuntu minaz-zâlimîn.” A hadîth-i-sherîf quoted in the fifty-third chapter of the book Terghîb us-Salât reads as follows: “If a person, after getting up every morning, says the following prayer three times, no trouble or disaster will come upon him until evening: Bismillâh-illezî lâ yedhurru ma’asmihi shey’un fi-l-ardi wa lâ fi-s-semâ’ wahuwa-s-samî’ ul-’alîm.”