[2] Likewise, the two surahs appear consecutively in the Qur'an, are both very short, and bear additional stylistic resemblances with one another, broadly functioning as incantations that appeal to God's protection from evils or ailments.
[5] The genre of these surahs has been described as prophylactic incantations, meant to ward off evil, and to be recited in a private as opposed to a public domain.
[9] Only in the Mu'awwidhatayn, however, this is followed by the expression "I seek refuge in the Lord" (aʿūdhu birabbi), which also appears as a common near eastern formula outside of the Quran.
Angelika Neuwirth, following and updating the theory of Noldeke and Schwally, argued that the surahs functioned as something akin to a colophon that closed the Quran and helped protect it from profanation.
[15] Devin J. Stewart has related the content of Al-Mu'awwidhatayn to pre-Islamic protective charms, typically structured in the form of (1) "I take refuge" (2) "in the Lord of [X], from the evil of [Y]".
He also relates the Quranic reference to cultic whispering to wider classical and ancient Near Eastern attestations of this phenomena.