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EXAMPLES
OF PRAYERS AND SUPPLICATIONS
Examples of the
Prophet’s prayers and supplications
On
going to bed:
O
God! I have, in hope (of Your Mercy) and fear (of Your
wrath), submitted myself to You, referred my affairs to
You, and taken refuge in You. There is no refuge, nor
source of safety from Your wrath, except You. I have
believed in the Book You sent down, and the Prophet you
raised.
To
be saved from sins and ask for God’s forgiveness:
O
God! Put between me and errors a distance as great as that
which you put between east and west! O God! Clean me of my
errors as a white garment is cleaned of dirt!
Prayers
and supplications comprehensive in meaning:
God! I ask You for the whole of good, including what is at
hand and what is deferred; what I already know and what I
do not know. I take refuge in You from every evil,
including what is at hand and what is deferred; what I
already know and what I do not know.
God! There is nothing to hinder what You will grant, nor
anything to grant what You hinder! No wealthy one can do
us good, as wealth belongs to You.
God! I have not told everything, nor have I taken an oath,
nor have I made a vow, nor have I done anything, which You
did not previously will. Whatever You willed, it is, and
whatever You did not will, it is not. There is no strength
nor power save with You, and You are indeed All-Powerful
over everything. O God! Whatever prayer I have said, let
it be for whomever You have mercy for, and whatever curse
I have called down, let it be for whomever You have called
down curses upon. Surely You are my Guardian in this world
and the Hereafter. Make me die as a Muslim and include me
among the righteous.
God! I ask You for content after misfortune, a peaceful
life after death, the pleasure of observing Your Face, and
a desire to meet You. I take refuge in You from wronging
others and from being wronged, from showing animosity and
being subject to animosity, and from erring or committing
unforgivable sins.
...If You leave me to myself, then you have left me to
weakness, neediness, sinfulness and erring. I do not
depend but on Your Mercy, so forgive all of my sins, for
none but You can forgive sins; accept my repentance, for
You are the Oft-Relenting and the All-Compassionate.
God! You deserve most to be mentioned and none but You
deserve to be worshipped. You are more helpful than anyone
whose help may be sought, and more affectionate than every
ruler, more generous than anyone who may be asked for
something, and more generous than anyone else who gives.
You are the Monarch, having no partners, and the Unique
One having no like. Everything is perishable except You.
You are never obeyed but by Your leave, and never
disobeyed but within Your knowledge. When somebody obeys
You, You reward him; but when someone disobeys You, You
forgive him. You witness everything, nearer to it than any
other witness; and protect everything, nearer to it than
any other protector. You ordained the acts of men and
determined their time of death. You know what is in every
mind, and secrets are manifest to You. The lawful is what
You have made lawful, and the forbidden is what You have
forbidden. The religion is what You have laid down, and
the commandment is what You have decreed. The creation is
Your creation, and the servants are Your servants. You are
God, the All-Clement, the All-Compassionate, I ask You,
for the sake of the light of Your Face, by which the
heavens and earth were illuminated, and for the sake of
every right belonging to You, and for the sake of those
who ask of You, to forgive me just in this morning and
just in this evening, and to protect me, by Your Power,
from Hellfire.
God! I seek refuge in You from any knowledge which gives
no benefit, and from a heart that fears You not, and from
a soul not satisfied, and from prayer that cannot be
answered.
God! I ask You for steadfastness in my affairs; I ask you
for resolution in guidance; I ask You for gratitude for
Your bounties and acceptable service to You; I ask You for
a truthful tongue and a sound heart; and I seek refuge in
You from the evil of what You know, and I ask You for the
good of what You know, and I ask for Your forgiveness for
what You already know. Surely You are the Knower of the
Unseen.
God! I ask You to enable me to do good and refrain from
vices, and to love the poor, and to forgive me and have
mercy on me, and, when You will people’s deviation and
dissensions and disorder in public life, make me die
before taking part in that disorder. I also ask You for
Your love and the love of whom You love, and the love of
the acts which will make me nearer to Your love.
God! I ask You for the good in the beginning and in the
end, and in its most comprehensive form with its beginning
and result, and its manifest and secret kinds, and for the
highest rank in Paradise.
God! Help me remember You, thank You, and worship You most
properly.
God! I ask You for guidance, fear of You, chastity and
independence of others.
God! Bring all of our affairs to a good conclusion, and
protect us from disgrace and ignominy in the world and
from being tormented in the Hereafter!
God! We ask You for the whole of good for which Your
Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, asked
You, and we seek refuge in You from every evil from which
Your Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings,
sought refuge in You.
Supplication
done or returning from Ta’if
O
God, unto You do I complain of my frailty, lack of
resources and lack of significance before those people. O
Most Merciful of the merciful, You are the Lord of the
oppressed and You are my Lord. To whom do You abandon me?
To that alien who looks askance and makes grimaces at me?
Or to that enemy to whom You have given mastery over me?
If, however, Your indignation is not against me, I have no
worry. But Your grace is much greater for me to wish for.
I seek refuge in the light of Your Countenance, which
illumines all darkness and by which the affairs of this
life and the Hereafter have been rightly ordered, lest
Your wrath alight upon me, or Your indignation descend
upon me. I expect Your forgiveness until You are pleased,
and there is no other resource nor any power but in You.
Other
Examples
A
Supplication
O
God! You are my Lord; I am a slave.
You
are the Creator; I am the one created.
You
are the Provider; I am the one provided.
You
are the Owner; I am the one owned.
You
are the Mighty and Glorious; I am the one abased and
wretched.
Your
are the Absolutely Rich One; I am the one absolutely poor.
You
are the All-Living; I am the one dead,
You
are the All-Permanent; I am the one mortal.
You
are the All-Munificent; I am the one miserly.
You
are the All-Benevolent; I am the one doing ill.
You
are the All-Forgiving; I am the one sinful.
You
are the Grand One; I am the one despicable.
You
are the All-Strong; I am the one weak.
You
are the Giver; I am the one begging.
You
are the One Giving Security; I am the one in fear.
You
are the All-Generous; I am the one in utmost need.
You
are the One Answering pleas; I am the one pleading.
You
are the All-Healing One; I am the one sick.
So
forgive me my sins and spare me and heal my ills, O God! O
All-Sufficing One! O Lord! O Faithful One! O Most
Compassionate One! O Healer! O Munificent One! O Restorer
to Health! Pardon all my sins, and restore me to health
from all illnesses, and be pleased with me for all
eternity! Through Your Mercy, O Most Merciful of the
Merciful!
Supplication
A
beloved who disappears by declining or setting is not
beautiful, for one that is doomed to decline cannot be
truly beautiful. It is not-it should not be-loved in the
heart for the heart is created for eternal love and is the
mirror of the Eternally-Besought-of-All.
A
desired one who is doomed to disappear below the horizon
is not worthy of the heart’s attachment or the mind’s
preoccupation. It cannot be the object of desires, and is
not worthy of being regretted after. So why should the
heart adore such a one and be attached to it?
I
neither seek nor desire anything mortal. For I am myself
mortal, and I do not desire one who is mortal. What have I
do with any such?
A
worshipped one buried in decay-I do not invoke such a one,
nor seek refuge with it. For I am infinitely needy and
impotent. One that is itself powerless can offer no cure
for my endless pains, nor can it solve my infinitely deep
wounds. How can one who cannot save himself from decay be
an object of worship?
The
mind that is obsessed with appearances wails despairingly
on seeing the decay of the things it adores in this
universe of upheavals, while the spirit, which seeks an
eternal beloved, also wails, saying: ‘I love not the
things that set.’
I
do not want, I do not desire, separation, and I cannot
endure it.
Meetings
followed immediately by separation are not worth troubling
about; they are not worthy of being longed for especially.
For just as the disappearance of pleasures is pain,
imagining it is pain also. The works of the lovers, that
is, the works of poetry on metaphorical love-love for the
opposite sex-are all lamentations caused by the pain
arising from imagining this disappearance. If you were to
condense the spirit of all the works of such poetry, from
each would flow this lament.
It
is because of the pain and tribulations coming from those
meetings doomed to end and those painful metaphorical
loves, that my heart cries out and, like Abraham, says:
‘I love not the things that set!’
If
you desire permanence in this transient world, permanence
is born out of transience. Annihilate yourself with regard
to your evil-commanding soul, so that you may gain
permanence.
Free
yourself of bad morals, which are the basis of worldly
adoration, and realize self-annihilation. Sacrifice the
goods and property that are in your disposal in the way of
the True Beloved. See the end of beings, which marks
extinction. The way leading from this world to permanence
passes through self-annihilation.
The
human mind, which is absorbed in causality, laments
despairingly in bewilderment over the upheavals caused by
the decay of the world. The conscience, which desires true
existence, like Abraham, wails, ‘I love not the things
that set.’ It severs the connection with metaphorical
beloveds and decaying beings, and is attached to the Truly
Existent One, the Eternal Beloved.
O
my mean soul! Know that the world and all beings are
certainly mortal, but you may find a way leading to the
Permanent Being in each mortal thing, and may discern two
gleams, two mysteries, of the manifestations of the
Undying Beloved’s Grace, on condition that you succeed
in sacrificing your mortal being.
In
each bounty the act of bestowing is discerned and the
favor of the Most Merciful perceived. If you succeed in
discerning the act of bestowing through the thing
bestowed, you will find the Bestower. Also, each work of
the Eternally-Besought-of-All points out the All-Majestic
Maker’s Names like a missive. If you succeed in
understanding the meaning through the inscription, you
will find by means of the Names the One called by those
Names. Since you can find out the kernel, the essence, of
these transient things, obtain it. You can throw away
without pity their meaningless shells, their outer
coverings, into the flood of mortality.
Indeed,
in the universe there is not a single thing which is not a
word of embodied meaning and does not show many of the
All-Majestic Maker’s Names. Since beings are words,
words of Divine Power, understand their meanings and place
them in your heart. Fearlessly cast the letters left
without meaning into the wind of transience. After they
are gone, do not concern and occupy yourself with them any
more.
The
worldly mind, which is preoccupied in appearances and
whose capital consists of only the knowledge of the
material world, cries out despairingly in bewilderment and
frustration, as its chains of thought finally end in
nothingness and non-existence. It seeks a true way leading
to truth. Since the heart has withdrawn from those that
set and are mortal, since the heart has abandoned the
deceiving beloveds, and since the conscience has turned
away from transitory beings, you too, my wretched soul,
seek help in ‘I love not the things that set,’ and be
saved.
A
prayer for the Quran
O
God, make the Qur’an our companion in the world and our
confident in the grave; our intercessor in the Hereafter
and our light on the Bridge of Sirat; a veil and
protection against Hellfire, a friend in Paradise, and a
guide and a leader to all goodness. O God, illumine our
hearts and graves with the light of faith and the Qur’an,
and brighten the evidence of the Qur’an for the sake of
him whom You sent down the Qur’an, upon him and his
family be peace and blessings from the Compassionate and
Solicitous One. Amen.
Calling
Peace and Blessings on the Prophet Muhammad
O
God, bestow blessings and peace, the best, the finest, the
most pleasant, the most manifest, the purest, the most
gracious, the most abundant, the mightiest, the greatest,
the most honored, the most elevated, the most flourishing,
the most prosperous, and the most subtle of your
blessings, and the most sufficient, the most abundant, the
most ample, the most exalted, the most sublime, and the
most constant of Your peace; and as blessing and peace and
mercy and good pleasure and forgiving and pardoning, in
increase and continuity along with the rains coming down
from the clouds as the favors of Your Generosity and
Munificence, and in continuous multiplication along with
the fine and exquisite bounties of Your Generosity and
Benevolence; eternally, (beyond time and space), with no
beginning and end, along with Your eternity-on Your
servant, Your beloved, and Your Messenger, Muhammad, the
best of Your creatures, the brightest light, the clearest
and most decisive proof, the most profound ocean, the most
comprehensive light, having shone grace and overwhelming
majesty and superior perfection; bestow on him blessings
through the grandeur of Your Being, and on his family and
Companions, blessings, through which You may forgive our
sins, open our breasts, purify our hearts, uplift our
spirits, bless us, refine our memories and thoughts,
remove the filth from our souls, cure us of our diseases,
and open the locks on our hearts.
O
God! Bestow blessings and peace and benedictions and honor
on our master and lord, Muhammad, Your servant and Prophet
and Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, and on his family
and Companions and wives and descendants, and on all the
other Prophets and Messengers, and on the angels made near
unto You, and on the saints and the righteous: bestow on
them the most excellent of blessings and the purest peace
and the most abundant benedictions, to the number of the
suras of the Qur’an, and its verses, and words and
letters, and its meanings and indications and allusions
and references, and forgive us, and have mercy on us and
be gracious to us, our God, our Creator, for the sake of
each of those blessings, through Your Mercy, O Most
Merciful of the Merciful! And all praise be to God, the
Lord of the Worlds. Amen.
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