An-Nu‘mān b. Bashīr reported God’s messenger as saying:

“Two thousand years before creating the heavens and the earth God inscribed a book of which He sent down two verses with which He concluded <i>Sūrat al-Baqara</i>. The devil will not come near a house in which they are recited three nights.” Tirmidhī and Dārimī transmitted it, Tirmidhī saying this is a <i>gharīb</i> tradition.

وَعَنِ النُّعْمَانِ بْنِ بَشِيرٍ قَالَ: قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ: «إِنَّ اللَّهَ كتب كتابا قبل أَن يخلق السَّمَوَات وَالْأَرْضَ بِأَلْفَيْ عَامٍ أَنْزَلَ مِنْهُ آيَتَيْنِ خَتَمَ بِهِمَا سُورَةَ الْبَقَرَةِ وَلَا تُقْرَآنِ فِي دَارٍ ثَلَاثَ لَيَالٍ فَيَقْرَبَهَا الشَّيْطَانُ» . رَوَاهُ التِّرْمِذِيُّ وَالدَّارِمِيُّ وَقَالَ التِّرْمِذِيُّ: هَذَا حَدِيثٌ غَرِيب