al-Ikhlāṣ · Sincerity

• At bedtime. ʿĀʾisha reports that each night the Prophet cupped his hands, blew into them, recited al-Ikhlāṣ, al-Falaq and al-Nās, and passed his hands over his body (Bukhārī 5017, 5748; HadeethEnc 65060, “authentic”). In Bukhārī.
• Morning and evening, three times each. Muʿādh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khubayb reports that the Prophet told him to say al-Ikhlāṣ and the two refuges when evening and morning came, three times, and they would suffice him against everything: Abū Dāwūd 5082, Tirmidhī 3575, al-Nasāʾī 5428. Graded differently: al-Albānī calls all three ḥasan; Arnaʾūṭ calls Abū Dāwūd’s ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ; Bashshār ʿAwwād calls Tirmidhī’s ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ; HadeethEnc says “authentic”. So it is a ḥasan report on the stricter grading and ṣaḥīḥ on the more generous.
• al-Ikhlāṣ is a third of the Qurʾān. Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī reports it (Bukhārī 5013; also Muslim 811 from Abū l-Dardāʾ and 812 from Abū Hurayra). Agreed upon. How a sūra can equal a third is itself discussed; the usual reading is that the Qurʾān’s content is creed, law and stories, and this sūra is all creed.
• A man who loved it. An imam of a raid ended every recitation with it, and the Prophet said to tell him that God loved him (Bukhārī 7375, Muslim 813, both from ʿĀʾisha). Tirmidhī 2897 gives Abū Hurayra’s “it is obligatory” (Paradise) for one who loves it, graded ṣaḥīḥ by al-Albānī and Shākir, ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ by Bashshār ʿAwwād.
• The two refuges. ʿUqba ibn ʿĀmir reports that the Prophet said verses had been sent down the like of which had never been seen: al-Falaq and al-Nās (Muslim 814, HadeethEnc 65448, “authentic”).

Not confirmed on a primary page. sunnah.com and dorar.net could not be opened, so the texts were read in an open dataset of the six collections and the grades are those it lists for named scholars, with HadeethEnc beside it. The Muslim 813 text was read only in part. The “third of the Qurʾān” explanation is a common one and was not checked in a commentary. A person should check each grading on a page of the grader before the site leans on it.

The three, said together: al-Ikhlāṣ, al-Falaq, al-Nās.

One of the Qurʾān in daily use. Hadith numbers: Bukhārī and Muslim by Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī; the others as sunnah.com numbers them.