| 1 |
O God,
O Possessor of
kingdom
perpetual in everlastingness, |
| 2 |
authority
invincible without armies or helpers, |
| 3 |
might
abiding through aeons past,
years
gone by,
times
and days elapsed! |
| 4 |
Thy authority is mighty
with a might that knows no bound by being first
nor
utmost end by being last! |
| 5 |
Thy
kingdom towers high with a towering
before which all things fall down without reaching its term; |
| 6 |
the
least of it which Thou hast kept to Thyself is not reached
by
the furthest description of the describers! |
| 7 |
Attributes go astray in Thee,
descriptions
fall apart below Thee,
the
subtlest of imaginations are bewildered
by Thy magnificence! |
| 8 |
So art Thou:
God, the First in Thy firstness,
and so art Thou everlastingly.
Thou
dost not pass away. |
| 9 |
But
I am the slave,
feeble in works,
immense in hopes.
The tying links are outside my
hand,
except
what is tied by Thy mercy;
the bonds of hopes have been
cut away from me,
except
the pardon to which I hold fast. |
| 10 |
Little on my part is
the obedience toward Thee upon which I count,
and great against me
the
disobedience toward Thee to which I have reverted.
But pardoning Thy slave will
not constrain Thee,
even if he be bad,
so
pardon me! |
| 11 |
O
God,
Thy
knowledge watches over hidden works,
every covered thing is exposed before Thy awareness,
the
intricacies of things are not concealed from Thee,
and unseen mysteries slip not away from Thee. |
| 12 |
But over me Thy enemy has gained mastery:
He asked a delay from Thee to
lead me astray,
and
Thou gavest him the delay!
He asked a respite from Thee
until the Day of Doom to misguide me,
and Thou gavest him the respite!135 |
| 13 |
So he threw me down,
though I had fled to Thee from
small, ruinous sins
and great, deadly works,
until, when I had yielded to
disobeying Thee
and merited Thy anger through my bad efforts,
he turned the bridle of his
treachery away from me,
met me with the word of his ingratitude,
undertook to be quit of me,136
turned
his back to flee from me,
threw me to the desert of Thy wrath alone,
and sent me as an outcast
into the courtyard of Thy vengeance. |
| 14 |
There is no intercessor to intercede for me with Thee,
no protector to make me feel secure against Thee,
no fortress to veil me from Thee,
no shelter in which to seek asylum apart from Thee! |
| 15 |
This is the station of him who takes refuge with Thee,
the place of the confessor to Thee:
Let not Thy bounty be too narrow for me,
let not Thy pardon fall short of me!
Let me not be the most disappointed
of Thy repentant servants,
nor the most despairing
of those who come to Thee with expectations!
Forgive me,
surely Thou art the best of the forgivers! |
| 16 |
O God,
Thou commanded me,
and I refrained,
Thou
prohibited me,
and I committed.
evil thoughts tempted me to
offend,
and I was negligent. |
| 17 |
I cannot call upon daytime to witness my fasting,
nor
can I seek sanctuary in night because of my vigil;
no Sunna praises me for keeping it alive,
only Thy obligations,
he
who neglects which has perished. |
| 18 |
I
cannot seek access to Thee
through
the excellence of a supererogatory work,
given
the many duties of Thy obligations
of which I have been heedless
and
the stations of Thy bounds which I have transgressed,
thereby
violating sacred things and committing great sins,
though Thou hast given me safety from their disgraces as a covering. |
| 19 |
This is the station of him who is
ashamed of himself before Thee,
angry with himself,
and satisfied with Thee.
He meets Thee
with a humble soul,
a neck bent down,
a back heavy with offenses,
hesitating between longing for Thee and fear of Thee. |
| 20 |
Thou
art the most worthy of those in whom he might hope,
the most deserving for him to dread and fear.
So give me, my Lord, what I
hope for,
make
me secure against what frightens me,
and
act kindly toward me with the kindly act of mercy!
Surely Thou art the most
generous
of those from whom are asked! |
| 21 |
O God,
since Thou hast covered me
with Thy pardon
and shielded me with Thy
bounty
in
the abode of annihilation and the presence of equals,
grant me sanctuary from the
disgraces of the Abode of Subsistence
at the standing places of the
Witnesses
(the
angels brought nigh,
the
messengers honoured,
the martyrs, the righteous)
before the neighbour
from whom I have hidden my evil deeds
and the womb relative
before whom I feel ashamed in my secret thoughts! |
| 22 |
I
trust them not, my Lord,
to cover me over,
but I trust Thee, my Lord,
to forgive me!
Thou art the most worthy of
those in whom confidence is had,
the
most giving of those who are besought,
and
the most clement of those from whom mercy is asked.
So have mercy upon me! |
| 23 |
O God,
Thou caused me to descend as
mean water
from loins of narrow bones and tight passages
into a constricted womb
which Thou hadst covered with veils;137
Thou turned me about from
state to state
until Thou tookest me to the completion of the form
and
fixed within me the bodily parts,
as
Thou hast described in Thy Book:
a
drop,
then
a clot,
then
a tissue,
then
bones,
then
Thou garmented the bones with flesh,
then
Thou produced me as another creature
as
Thou willed.138 |
| 24 |
Then, when I needed Thy provision,
and could not do without the aid of Thy bounty,
Thou appointed for me a nourishment
from
the bounty of the food and drink
which Thou bestowed upon Thy handmaid
in whose belly Thou gavest me to rest
and in the lodging of whose womb
Thou
deposited me. |
| 25 |
Hadst Thou entrusted me in those states, my Lord,
to
my own force
or
driven me to have recourse to my own strength,
force would have been removed
from me
and
strength taken far away. |
| 26 |
So Thou hast fed me through Thy bounty
with the food of the Good, the
Gentle;
Thou hast done that for me in graciousness toward me
up to this my present point.
I do not lack Thy goodness,
nor does Thy benefaction keep
me waiting.
Yet with all that,
my trust has not become firm
enough
that I might free myself
for
that which is more favoured by Thee. |
| 27 |
Satan has taken possession of my reins
through my distrust and frail
certainty.
I complain of his evil neighbourhood with me
and my soul's obedience toward
him!
I ask Thee to preserve me against his domination,
and I plead with Thee to turn
his trickery away from me! |
| 28 |
I ask Thee
to make the path to my
provision easy,
since to Thee belongs praise
for
Thy
beginning with immense favours
and
Thy inspiring gratitude
for
beneficence and bestowing favour!
Bless Muhammad and his
Household,
and
make the way to my provision easy for me!
[I ask Thee] to make me
content
with Thy ordainment for me,
to make me satisfied with my
lot
in that which Thou hast apportioned for me
and
to place what has gone of my body and my life-span
into the path of Thy obedience!139
Surely
Thou art the Best of providers! |
| 29 |
O God, I seek refuge in Thee
from the Fire
through
which Thou art harsh
toward
him who disobeys Thee
and
by which Thou hast threatened
him
who turns away from Thy good pleasure;
from the Fire
whose
light is darkness,
whose ease is pain,
and
whose far is near;
from the Fire
parts
of which devour parts
and
parts of which leap upon parts; |
| 30 |
from
the Fire which
leaves
bones decayed
and lets its people drink boiling water;
from the Fire which
'does
not spare him who pleads to it,'140
has
no mercy on him who seeks sympathy from it,
and
has no power to relieve him
who
humbles himself before it
and
yields himself to it;
it
meets its inhabitants with the hottest that it possesses:
painful
punishment and intense noxiousness. |
| 31 |
I
seek refuge in Thee from
its
gaping-jawed scorpions,
its scraping-toothed serpents,
and its drinks, which
tear apart the intestines and hearts of its inhabitants
and root out their marrows.
I ask guidance from Thee
to that which will keep far from it
and
make it retreat! |
| 32 |
O God,
bless Muhammad and his
Household,
grant me sanctuary from it
through the bounty of Thy mercy,
release me from my stumbles
through Thy good releasing,
and abandon me not,
O Best of the
sanctuary-granters! |
| 33 |
O God,
Thou protectest from the
disliked,
givest the good,
dost what Thou wilt,
and Thou art powerful over
everything.141 |
| 34 |
O God,
bless Muhammad and his
Household
when
the pious are mentioned
and bless Muhammad and his
Household
as long as night and day come and go
with a blessing
whose
replenishment is never cut off
and whose number cannot be counted,
a blessing
that will fill up the air
and crowd the earth and the heaven! |
| 35 |
God bless him
until he is well pleased
and God bless him and his
Household
after
good pleasure
with a blessing that has
neither bound
nor utmost limit!
O Most Merciful of the
merciful! |