CHAPTER 8PRAYERS AND SUPPLICATIONS
8.1
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Manṣūr ibn Shīkān al-Tustarī reported to me, authorizing me to transmit the report, saying: Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Ghurāb reported to us, saying: Judge Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad recounted to us, saying: Judge Mūsā ibn Isḥāq recounted to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Shaybah recounted to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Fuḍayl recounted to us, from ʿAbd Allāh al-Asadī, saying:
The commander of the faithful ʿAlī would say in his supplications:
8.1.1
God, if I were not ignorant of my affairs I would not complain about my misfortunes. If I did not recollect my transgressions, I would not shed copious tears. God, wash away the traces of my misfortunes with my flowing tears, and grant me forgiveness for my many offences in lieu of my paltry good deeds.
8.1.2
God, if you are merciful only to those who are assiduous in obeying you, where will reprobates turn for sanctuary? If you accept only those who strive, where will transgressors take refuge? If you are generous only to those who perform beautiful deeds, what will wrongdoers do? If none but the pious win on the day of resurrection, where will sinners seek safe haven?
8.1.3
God, if only the innocent are allowed to cross the celestial bridge, what will happen to those who did not repent before their time ran out?
God, if those who profess your oneness transgress and you veil from them your protective gaze, your wrath will fling them into the pit of catastrophes alongside those who assign partners to you. God, by Islam’s grace, bestow on us your treasured gifts. Purify with your forgiveness what our crimes have sullied.
8.1.5
God, have mercy on our exile when the bellies of our tombs embrace us, when the solid roofs of our new homes hem us in with crushing darkness, when we are laid to rest on our sides in the grave, when we are made to sleep alone in the narrowest of beds, when the fates prostrate us in the vilest of prostrations, when we take up residence in an abode which appears inhabited, but which is a true deadland.
8.1.6
God, when we come to you naked, our heads covered with the earth of the grave, faces pale from the dirt of the tomb, eyes lowered from the terrors of the resurrection, bellies hungry from prolonged standing, private parts uncovered and visible to all eyes, backs burdened with the heavy weight of sins, when we are too preoccupied with our own travails to think of our spouses and children—do not multiply our suffering by turning away your noble face from us, or by seizing from us the gift of our hope in you.
8.1.7
God, my eyes have not been moved to weeping, they have not been liberal with streaming tears, and have not exhibited the grief of a wailing, bereaved mother, except because of their prior avoidance of you and scorn for your religion, and because of the consequences of their trials. Power to alleviate their suffering, generous one, rests with you alone.
8.1.8
God, harmonize my honeyed tongue’s eloquent speech with the lack of worldliness taught to my heart by its guiding counselor.
8.1.9
God, you commanded us to perform good deeds but are worthier of performing good deeds than we. You commanded us to give to petitioners, but you are the best of those petitioned.
8.1.10
God, how could despair make us hold back from asking you for what we have always asked, when our hope in you has clothed us with an all-protective armor?
God, when we read in the Qurʾan that «severe of punishment»67 is one of your attributes we are afraid, and when we read that «forgiving, merciful»68 is among them we rejoice. We are constantly between two states: Your wrath does not allow us to be reassured, and your mercy does not allow us to lose hope.
8.1.12
God, even if our efforts are too little for us to deserve your kindly gaze, yet your mercy does not fall short of defending us from your punishment.
8.1.13
God, how can our hearts take pleasure in this world, how can our affairs in it prosper, our joy in it be pure, or our delusions lead us to play and frolic, when our graves beckon to us with the approaching end of our lives? God, how can we take joy in an abode where the pit into which it will pitch us is already dug, and its deceptions’ snares toss us into fate’s hands? In a world that makes us swallow gulp after gulp of its bitter draught, and whose lessons prove to us that our lives too will be cut off? God, it is to you we turn from the trickeries of its deception. It is you we ask for help in crossing its bridge. It is from you that our bodies seek aid in battling its temptations. It is you whose support we entreat in stripping off the robes of its perplexities. It is you who will remove the hard shell of ignorance with which it has covered our hearts.
8.1.14
God, how can our homes protect us from calamities, when each home conceals within its walls an arrow from death’s quiver.
8.1.15
God, we shall not panic at being removed from the familiarity of our homes if you grant us the companionship of the pious in our next dwelling. God, separation from brothers and relatives will not hurt us if you bring us close to you, O giver of bounties!
8.1.16
God, have mercy on me when all traces of me have become erased from this world, when any recollection of me has been wiped from the memories of its people, when I am entirely forgotten. God, I am advanced in age, my bones have become brittle, my skin fragile, time has taken its toll on me, the end of my life has drawn near, and my days have run out. My desires are gone, but my sins remain. My beauties are obliterated, my body has decayed, my joints have disintegrated, and my limbs have fallen apart. God, have mercy on me!
8.1.17
God, sins have silenced me. My words have come to an end. I have no argument and no excuse. I acknowledge my crime and confess my wickedness. I am a prisoner of my sins, pledged to my heinous deeds, someone who has rushed headlong into iniquity. I am bewildered about my purpose, cut off from all. God, shower your blessings on Muḥammad and his progeny, and cover me in your mercy.69 Forgive me.
8.1.18
God, even if my deeds are tiny next to what is due to you, my hope has grown large in the shelter of my confidence in you. God, how could I return from your presence disappointed and deprived? Never! I fully expect that your generosity will send me back laden with the favor of your mercy. I do not let hopeless despair crush my expectations of your goodness, so do not quash my confidence in you. I place all my hopes in you.
8.1.19
God, if you have mercy on us, we shall weep at our shortcomings in rendering you the obedience you deserve. If you deprive us of your mercy, we shall weep at the loss of the shelter we sought in you.
8.1.20
God, my offence is great for I have challenged you. My sin is grave and you will hold me accountable. But when I weigh the multitude of my sins against the immensity of your forgiveness, I find the balance in favor of your pardon.
8.1.21
God, when my errors distance me from your gracious kindness, conviction in your generous affection brings me comfort.
8.1.22
God, when heedlessness lulls me to sleep instead of preparing for my meeting with you, awareness of your generous favors rouses me.
8.1.23
God, even if my mind has deserted me in setting right my affairs, my conviction that you are concerned for my well-being has not.
8.1.24
God, I have come to you in deep sorrow, robed in destitution and poverty. The degradation that my need has prompted has placed me before you as the humblest of the humble.
God, you are generous, so be generous to me, one of your mendicants. Be munificent with your gifts, and place me among the people who receive them.
8.1.26
God, I stand this morning as a mendicant at your favor’s door, having turned away from all but you. Your beautiful kindness cannot dismiss a mournful beggar, one who must wait upon your command.
8.1.27
God, I stand at the bridge of dangers, on trial for immoral deeds and unheeded lessons. If you do not lighten my burden and help me cross I will perish.
8.1.28
God, have you created me as one of the wretched, who weeps long and hard? Or as one of the blissful, awaiting fulfillment of hopes?
8.1.29
God, if you had not guided me to Islam I would never have been guided. If you had not loosened my tongue in prayer to you I would never have prayed. If you had not blessed me with belief in you I would never have believed. If you had not acquainted me with the sweetness of your favors I would never have known them. If you had not elucidated for me the terrors of your punishment I would never have sought protection.
8.1.30
God, my lack of deeds has kept me from being at the forefront with the pious, yet my trust in you has placed me upon the path of the upright.
8.1.31
God, how can you debase between the layers of your fire a soul you have honored with belief? God, how can you scorch with its blazing flames a tongue you have clothed with your oneness’s spotless robes?
8.1.32
God, every distressed person turns to you for succor. Every sorrowful soul puts his hopes in you.
8.1.33
God, worshipers hear of your bountiful reward and bow down. Sinners hear of your vast mercy and are comforted. Strayers hear of your generosity and turn back. Offenders hear of your vast forgiveness and have hope. Throngs of wrongdoers from among your servants crowd your door, and a clamorous uproar of prayer arises in your lands. Each person comes with a wish that has driven him to you in his need. Each comes with a heart, lord, that fear’s palpitations have left bewildered. You are the one petitioned, at whose door entreaty’s face is never blackened, whose seeker destruction’s sword never turns away.
8.1.34
God, if I have missed the honorable path of looking out for my soul, I have found the safe path of seeking refuge in you.
8.1.35
God, if my soul has found me blithely bent on doing things that will destroy it, I have delighted it now by praying to you to save it.
8.1.36
God, if I have oppressed my soul by consigning it to sorrowful regret in the hereafter, I have also shown it justice by describing to it your mercy and the reasons why you will be kind.
8.1.37
God, the paucity of my provisions cuts me off from journeying to you, but I augment them now with stores of copious tears.
8.1.38
God, when I think of your mercy, my entreaty’s eyes smile. When I think of your wrath, my supplication’s eyes weep. God, I pray to you, never having prayed to any but you. I place my hopes in you, never having placed my hopes in any but you. God, how do I silence my solicitation’s tongue, when I am frightened, not knowing what my end will be?
8.1.39
God, you know my body’s dependence on your sustenance in this life. You know that I cannot do without your care in paradise after my death. God, you who have graciously granted me sustenance now, do not forbid it to me tomorrow, on the day I am most in need of it.
8.1.40
God, if you punish me, it is because I am your servant whom you have created for your purpose and punished. If you have mercy on me, it is because I am your servant whom you have found sinful yet saved.
8.1.41
God, there is no way to avoid sinning except by your grace. There is no way to do good except through your will. How can I bring forth something your will has stripped away? How can I stop sinning if your grace does not extend to me?
8.1.42
God, you taught me to ask for heaven before I knew of it; thus my soul learned of it and asked for it. Will you teach your supplicants to ask for your grace yet forbid it to them? You are generous, praiseworthy in all that you do, mighty and generous one. God, if I am unworthy of being granted the mercy I ask you for, it is still worthy of your generosity that you bestow your grace upon sinners.
8.1.43
God, my soul stands before you, securely shaded by its beautiful trust in you. Do with me, then, what is worthy of you and cover me with your mercy!
8.1.44
God, I have neared the end of my life without having performed deeds that would bring me close to you. But I have proffered a confession of my sins as intercessor for forgiveness. If you forgive, there is none worthier of it than you. If you punish, there is none fairer in judgment than you.
8.1.45
God, you have been kind to me all the days of my life. Do not cut off your kindness to me after I die.
8.1.46
God, why should I despair of your kindly gaze after my death, when you have shown me nothing but good during my life?
8.1.47
God, my sins frighten me, but I know that my love for you gives me protection. Discharge my affairs in the manner of which you are worthy. Assist with your grace one whose ignorance is total. God from whom nothing is hidden: Bless Muḥammad and the progeny of Muḥammad, and forgive me the sins I have concealed from people.
8.1.48
God, I proffer you my excuses, having no recourse if you do not accept them. Accept my apology, O kindest of all forgivers.
8.1.49
God, if you had wanted to debase me, you would not have guided me. If you had wanted to dishonor me, you would not have preserved me. So keep me in the faith to which you have guided me, and continue to conceal my faults.
8.1.50
God, if not for the many sins I have committed, I would not fear your punishment. If not for your generosity, I would not hope for your reward. You are the most generous of all in fulfilling the desires of the hopeful. You are the most merciful of all whose mercy is petitioned by sinners seeking pardon.
8.1.51
God, my soul encourages me to hope for forgiveness from you. Honor my hope, for its heralds have given glad tidings of your pardon and bounty. You are generous, so forgive my soul’s wicked iniquities.
8.1.52
God, my good deeds have placed me between your bounty and generosity, and my bad deeds between your pardon and forgiveness. My hope is strong that between these two and those two, a man who has done both good and bad will not perish.
8.1.53
God, my faith testifies to your oneness, my tongue speaks of your glory, and the Qurʾan tells me to believe in your munificent bounties. How could my hope not take joy in your beautiful promise?
8.1.54
God, your bounties come to me one after another, demonstrating your kindly regard. How could I be wretched? God, even if your wrath looks at me with a view to destroy, your mercy neither slumbers nor is neglectful of saving me from it.
8.1.55
God, my sin exposes me to your punishment, yet my hope draws me in to your reward.
8.1.56
God, if you forgive, it is because of your grace. If you punish, it is because of your justice. O gracious one, no grace is besought but yours, no justice is feared but yours. Bless Muḥammad and the progeny of Muḥammad, and bestow upon me your grace. Do not push me to the full limits of your justice.
8.1.57
God, you have created a body for me, placing in it instruments with which I obey or disobey you, through which I anger or please you. You placed in my body a base soul that calls me toward animal desires, housed me in a place filled with calamities, and said to me: “Stay back!” It is from you, then, that I seek protection against sinning. It is in you that I seek refuge. I ask your guidance in doing what will please you. I supplicate to you. My supplication does not tire you.
8.1.58
God, if I knew of an apology or defense more effective than confession I would have come to you with it. I confess my sins, so pardon them. Do not send me back empty-handed.
8.1.59
God, I see myself lying in the tomb: My family who came to bury me have left; friends call to me from the rim of the grave; relatives who had enmity for me in life look down on me, now prostrate. Now that the earth is my pillow, my degradation is not concealed to any who look, nor my helplessness in finding a way out. You say: “Angels, look! Here is a man whose relatives have distanced themselves from him. His kinfolk have rejected him and sent him far away. All those in whom he had placed his hopes have cast him off. He has come close to me, a stranger in the grave. In the worldly abode he was conscious of me, and today he is hopeful of my kindly regard.” At that time, you, God, will proffer me your beautiful hospitality. You will be more compassionate to me than my family and my relatives.
8.1.60
God, you have concealed my sins in this world and not revealed them. Do not shame me on the day I meet you before all the people of the world. Conceal my sins there too, merciful one.
8.1.61
God, even if my sins filled up the space between the sky and the earth, pierced the stars and reached the very ends of the earth, despair would not stop me from anticipating your forgiveness, and hopelessness would not prevent me from awaiting your acceptance.
8.1.62
God, my soul has come to you craving forgiveness, asking with the tongue of hope for favors it does not deserve. So grant it the pardon it beseeches. Bestow upon it what it seeks. You are the most generous of the generous. You fulfill the hopes of those who place their hopes in you.
8.1.63
God, I have committed many sins and you know them. I have oppressed my soul and you know it. Take me as your servant, whether obedient and honored, or disobedient but forgiven.
8.1.64
God, I pray to you with the prayer you taught me, so do not deny me the favors you have made known to me. It is your bounty that has guided me to beautiful prayer, and it will only be complete if you reserve for me your cherished reward.
8.1.65
God, I await your pardon like other wrongdoers, not despairing of the mercy anticipated by the pious. God, your generosity has given life to my hopes, and your acceptance has received my deeds. Bless Muḥammad and his progeny, and tell me I will meet you soon. Raise my hopes in your reward. God, you are the generous one at whose door no hope is disappointed, no petition invalidated.
8.1.66
God, even if I were lowly and did not deserve your grace—and indeed I have not earned it—you are worthy of bestowing it upon me. The generous do not bestow their bounty only on the deserving.
8.1.67
God, my destitution will not be mended except with your largesse. My hope will not prosper except through your grace.
8.1.68
God, I beseech your aid in doing what will bring me closer to you. I ask you to preserve me from doing what would turn me away from you.
8.1.69
God, the undertaking dearest to my soul, the one that will bring it the most benefit, is the task to which you have guided it, to which you, by your mercy, have directed it. Task my soul to it then, for you are more merciful toward it than I.
8.1.70
God, I place my hope in you, yet fear you. I fear you, yet hope for your reward. Because I fear, save me from the evil I dread. Because I hope, give me the good I crave.
8.1.71
God, I await your pardon like other wrongdoers, without despairing of the mercy anticipated by the pious.
8.1.72
God, I stretch out to you a hand chained by its sins. Yet I look at you with an eye daubed with the collyrium of hope. It is only fitting that when someone calls out to you in humble repentance, you answer with kindly generosity.
8.1.73
God, even if my sins expose me to your punishment, my hope draws me close to your reward. God, I do not let hopeless despair crush my expectations of your goodness, so do not quash my confidence in you. I place my hope in you.
8.1.74
God, even if my days have run out with me neglecting to do as much good as you would have wished, I have still spent my years in faith.
8.1.75
God, if I have missed the honorable path of looking out for my soul, I have found the safe path of seeking refuge in you.
God, how narrow is the path for one who does not have you as a guide! And how rough the journey for one who does not have you as companion!
8.1.77
God, my tears pour down when I recollect my transgressions. How could it be otherwise when I do not know what my end will be? Or to what destination my journey will take me? I see that my soul has deceived me, my days have betrayed me, and now death’s wings are fluttering over my head, its eyes closely observing me. What is my excuse, then, when I have heard the warning loud and clear with my own ears? I have hope that the one who clothed me in the garments of well-being when I was among the living will not strip me of them when I am dead, for he is generous and kind. I have hope that the one who took care of me with his bounties during the days of my life will envelop me with his forgiveness at my death.
O consoler of the stranger! Comfort me in my grave when I am lonely and terrified. O companion to every person who has no other, have mercy on me when I am left in my grave alone. O knower of secrets and concealed things, O remover of harm and troubles, how will you regard me when I am among those who live inside the earth? What will you do with me in the abode of lonely terror and decay? You have been kind to me during the days of my life. O most bestowing giver, O most giving bestower, your favors to me are abundant; I cannot count them. My hands are too straitened to offer you adequate recompense, but I offer you praise for your bounties and gratitude for your trials.
O best of those to whom a caller calls, O worthiest of those in whom an aspirer places his hopes, I seek intercession with you through the covenant of Islam. I rely on you through the sanctity of the Qurʾan. I seek closeness to you through Muḥammad. So bless Muḥammad and the progeny of Muḥammad, and acknowledge my covenant, through which I hope for the fulfillment of my petition. Make me act in obedience to you. End my days in goodness, free me from the fire, and give me a home in heaven. Do not shame me by revealing my secrets in life or in death. Pardon the sins I have committed against you. Convince those among your servants whom I have wronged to accept my regrets. Place me among those with whom you are pleased, saving me from the fire. Look into all the things I have prayed to you for in this world and the next. O compassionate one, O liberal one, O mighty and munificent one, O living one, O sustaining one, O master of creation and command, may you be blessed. O most beautiful creator. O merciful one, O generous one, O powerful one, bless Muḥammad and his pure progeny.
Peace, God’s mercy and his grace upon him and upon them. Verily God is praiseworthy, noble.
8.2
Ḥamzah ibn ʿAbd Allāh reported to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn ibn Khālawayh reported to us, saying: Ibn Durayd recounted to us, saying: al-Sakan ibn Saʿīd recounted to us, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād al-Kalbī, from his father, saying: Ḥawtharah ibn al-Hirmās recounted a report to us when he was a very old man. He remembered the delegation of the Dārim tribe that came to the commander of the faithful ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, and described in full the report of ʿAlī’s prayer for rain, saying:
A man among us from the Ḥisl clan stood up and said:
May the rain-stars be generous to you, commander of the faithful! May reverence be abundant for you! May God’s favors be granted us through you! May calamities be lifted by your grace! Scattered groups of people from Dārim have come to you, journeying through vast wildernesses on tall, strong camels, to complain to you of the hardships of their privation, and the sufferings brought on by this year of drought. They come to attain closeness to God through you, to beseech him for rain by the grace of your luminous presence, and to fend off this calamity by following your practice.
Then Abū Surādiq went forward and spoke to him, ending with the following words: You are the spring of days, the succor of the world, a lamp in the darkness, the last resort of the indigent, a noble chieftain, and a magnanimous leader. There is no haven other than you, no refuge apart from you.
The commander of the faithful responded: God be praised! Blessings and peace upon the best of God’s creation. Peace upon the chosen ones among God’s servants. Qanbar, call out: “Gather for the prayer!”70 Wearing a yellow head covering,71 he rose like the moon in its fullness, blinding any who looked upon him, and headed for the mosque. He offered the ritual-prayer, then drew close to the prophet’s grave, and whispered some words that I did not quite hear. After that, he stood up to beseech God for rain, entreating him thus:
O God, lord of the seven spheres and the interlinked heavens, creator of all creation, giver of sustenance, knower of secrets, remover of misfortunes, answerer of prayers, accepter of good deeds, forgiver of sins, steadier of stumblers. You send down your grace from on high in the seven skies, a grace that descends with your knowledge from your mercy’s treasures and the shelters of your kindness upon those among your servants, the inhabitants of your lands, those who are thankful for your favors as well as those who are ungrateful for your gifts. You send it to them because of your own compassion and benevolence. You are the ultimate support for those who seek aid, the best refuge for those who would escape from calamity.
Your servants have come to you at the grave of your prophet, seeking to come close to you through your servant, complaining to you about a crisis that you know more about than anyone else.
O God, we beseech you in your own name, for there is nothing greater than you. We beseech you by the greatness borne upon your throne, a greatness that permeates the heavens and earth, a greatness that fills the land and the sea. We ask you to bless Muḥammad, seal of the prophets, the best of generations past and generations yet to come.
O God, remover of hardships, repealer of constraints. Remove from your servants this sign of yours which has enveloped them, this retribution of yours which has tested them sorely. None can remove hardship but you. You are most kind, most merciful.