No verse of the Quran is more thoroughly woven into daily Muslim practice. Devotional custom, grounded in the hadith literature, commends reciting Ayat al-Kursi after each of the five obligatory prayers and before sleep. Sahih al-Bukhari preserves the story behind the bedtime usage, in which Abu Hurayra, set to guard the alms of Ramadan, three times catches a night thief, and the thief finally buys his release by teaching him that whoever recites the Throne Verse at night will have a guardian from God until morning and no devil will approach him.
When Abu Hurayra reports this, the Prophet confirms that the wretched visitor told the truth, and identifies him as Satan. From this protective reputation flows the verse's enormous material presence in Muslim life. It is among the most common texts of Islamic calligraphy, circling domes and mihrabs, framed in homes, and rendered in every classical script. It is worn as jewellery and carried on cards, hung in vehicles, and recited over the fearful and the sick. Memorization is near universal among practising Muslims, and reciters give the verse special care, so that a passage of perhaps fifty Arabic words functions simultaneously as creed, amulet, ornament and daily liturgy across the Muslim world.