I was leading the mount of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on a journey, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "Uqba, shall I not teach you the two best surahs ever recited?"Then he taught me "Say, I seek refuge in the Lord of the daybreak" [Falaq 113:1] and "Say, I seek refuge in the Lord of mankind" [Nas 114:1]. He did not see me greatly delighted by them.When he dismounted for the dawn prayer, he recited them in the dawn prayer as he led the people. When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had finished the prayer, he turned to me and asked, "Uqba, what do you think now?"
كنت أقود برسول الله ﷺ في السفر، فقال رسول الله ﷺ: يا عقبة، ألا أعلمك خير سورتين قرئتا؟ فعلمني- {قل أعوذ برب الفلق} و {قل أعوذ برب الناس} فلم يني سررت بهما جدا، فلما نزل لصلاة الصبح، صلى بهما صلاة الصبح للناس، فلما فرغ رسول الله ﷺ من الصلاة التفت إلى فقال: يا عقبة كيف رأيت؟
Abu Dawud (1462) and Nasai (5436) both narrated it from Ahmad bin Amr, who said, Ibn Wahb informed us, who said, Muawiya bin Salih told me, from Ala bin Harith, from Qasim the freedman of Muawiya, from Uqba bin Amir, and he mentioned something similar. Ibn Khuzayma (535) and Hakim (1/240) both graded it sahih, both via the route of Muawiya bin Salih, with the same wording.Nasai also narrated it (5437) from Mahmud bin Khalid, who said, Walid (that is, Ibn Muslim) told us, who said, Ibn Jabir told me, from Qasim Abu Abdul-Rahman, from Uqba, and he mentioned something similar. Ibn Khuzayma graded it sahih, including it in his Sahih (534) via the route of Walid bin Muslim with the same wording. Walid bin Muslim is a mudallis, but he explicitly stated that he heard it directly. This hadith, in both versions, was also narrated by Imam Ahmad (17392) (17296).Nasai then narrated it (5434), saying, Musa bin Hizam Tirmidhi informed us, who said, Abu Usama informed us, from Sufyan, from Muawiya bin Salih, from Abdul-Rahman bin Jubayr bin Nufayr, from his father, from Uqba bin Amir, that he asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about the two protective surahs (Muawwidhatayn). Uqba said, "So the Messenger of Allah ﷺ led us in prayer with them at the morning prayer."Ibn Khuzayma also recorded it from this route in his Sahih (536), and said, "In the hadith of Abu Usama, he said, 'I asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about the two protective surahs, are they from the Quran? So the Messenger of Allah ﷺ led us in prayer with them at Fajr prayer.'"Abu Dawud (1463) narrated it via the route of Muhammad bin Ishaq, and Nasai via the route of Muhammad bin Ajlan, both of them from Saeed bin Abu Saeed Maqburi, from his father, from Uqba bin Amir. In the wording of Abu Dawud, "O Uqba, seek refuge by means of these two surahs, for nothing comparable to them has ever been sought for refuge in." He said, "And I heard him leading us in prayer with them in the prayer."This hadith has other chains of transmission as well.