O God,
You have helped me complete Your Book,
which You sent down as a light153
and appointed as a guardian
over every book You have sent down,154
preferring it over every narrative
which You have recounted,155
a separator, through which You have separated
Your lawful from Your unlawful,156
a Qur’an, through which You have made plain
the approaches to Your ordinances,157
a book, which You have distinguished very distinctly
for Your servants,158
a revelation, which You have sent down,
a sending down,
upon Your prophet Muhammad159
(Your blessings be upon him and his Household).
You appointed it
a light through following which
we may be guided from the shadows
of error and ignorance,160
a healing for him
who turns ear toward hearing it
with the understanding of attestation,161
a just balance
whose tongue does not incline away from truth,162
a light of guidance
whose proof is not extinguished before
the witnesses,163
and a guidepost of deliverance, so that
he who repairs straightway to its prescription
will not go astray
and he who clings to its preservation’s handhold
will not be touched by the hands of disasters.
O God,
since You have given us help to recite it
and made smooth the roughness of our tongues
through the beauty of its expression,
place us among those who
observe it as it should be observed,
serve You by adhering in submission
to the firm text of its verses,
and seek refuge in admitting both its ambiguous parts
and the elucidations of its clear signs!
O God,
You sent it down upon Your prophet Muhammad
(God bless him and his household) in summary form,
You inspired him with the science of its wonders
to complement it,
You made us the heirs of its knowledge
as interpreters,164
You made us to surpass
him who is ignorant of its knowledge,
and You gave us strength over it
to raise us above those not able to carry it.
O God,
just as You have appointed our hearts
as its carriers
and made known to us through Your mercy
its nobility and excellence,
so also bless Muhammad, its preacher,
and his Household, its guardians,
and place us among those who confess that it has come from You,
lest doubt about attesting to it assail us,
or deviation from its straightforward path shake us!
O God,
bless Muhammad and his Household
and make us one of those who
hold fast to its cord,
seek haven from its ambiguities in its
fortified stronghold,
rest in the shadow of its wing,
find guidance in the brightness of its morning,
follow the shining of its disclosure,
acquire light from its lamp,
and beg not guidance from any other!
O God,
just as through it
You have set up Muhammad
as a guidepost to point to You
and through his Household
You have made clear
Your good pleasure’s roads to You,
so also bless Muhammad and his Household
and make the Qur’an
our mediation to the noblest stations
of Your honor,
a ladder by which we may climb
to the place of safety,
a cause for our being repaid
with deliverance at the Plain of Resurrection,
and a means whereby we may reach
the bliss of the House of Permanence!
O God,
bless Muhammad and his Household,
lessen for us through the Qur’an the weight of heavy sins,
give to us the excellent qualities of the pious,
and make us follow the tracks of
those who stood before You
in the watches of the night
and the ends of the day,165
such that You purify us from every defilement
through its purification
and make us to follow the tracks of
those who have taken illumination from its light
and whom expectation has not distracted from works,
cutting them off through its delusions’ deceptions!
O God,
bless Muhammad and his Household
and appoint the Qur’an
for us an intimate
in the shadows of nights
and a guardian
against the instigations of Satan
and confusing thoughts,
for our feet an obstruction
from passing to acts of disobedience,
for our tongues a silencer without blight
preventing a plunge into falsehood,
for our limbs a restrainer
from committing sins,
and for the scrutiny of heedfulness
rolled up in heedlessness
an unroller,
such that You attach to our hearts
the understanding of the Qur’an’s wonders
and its restraining similitudes
which immovable mountains in all their solidity
were too weak to carry!166
O God,
bless Muhammad and his Household
and through the Qur’an
make permanent the rightness
of our outward selves,
veil the ideas of confusing thoughts
from the soundness of our innermost minds,
wash away the dirt of our hearts
and the ties of our heavy sins,
gather our scattered affairs,
quench the thirst of our burning heat
in the standing place of the presentation to You,
and clothe us in the robes of security
on the Day of the Greatest Terror at our uprising!167
O God,
bless Muhammad and his Household
and through the Qur’an
redress our lack – our destitution in poverty –
drive toward us the comforts of life
and an abundance of plentiful provisions,
turn aside blameworthy character traits
and base moral qualities,
and preserve us from the pit of unbelief
and the motives for hypocrisy,
such that the Qur’an may be for us
at the resurrection a leader
to Your good pleasure
and Your gardens,
for us in this world a protector
against Your displeasure
and transgressing Your bounds
and for what is with You a witness
by its declaring lawful the lawful
and its declaring unlawful the unlawful!
O God,
bless Muhammad and his Household
and through the Qur’an make easy for our souls at death
the distress of the driving,168
the effort of the moaning,
and the succession of the rattling,
when souls reach the throats
and it is said, ‘Where is the enchanter?’;169
when the angel of death discloses himself
to seize them from behind the veils of unseen things,
letting loose at them from the bow of destinies
the arrows of the terror of lonesome separation,
and mixing for them from sudden death
a cup poisoned to the taste;
and when departure and release for the hereafter come close to us,
works become collars around the necks,170
and the graves become the haven
until the appointed time of the Day of Encounter!
O God,
bless Muhammad and his Household,
make blessed for us the arrival at the house of decay
and the drawn out residence between the layers of the earth,
appoint the graves, after separation from this world,
the best of our waystations,
make roomy for us through Your mercy the narrowness of our tombs,
and disgrace us not among those present at the Resurrection
through our ruinous sins!
Through the Qur’an
have mercy upon the lowliness of our station
at the standing place of presentation to You,
make firm the slips of our feet
during the shaking of the bridge across hell
on the day of passage over it,
illuminate the darkness of our graves
before the Uprising,
and deliver us from every distress on the Day of Resurrection
and from the hardships of terrors on the Day of Disaster!
Whiten our faces
on the day when the faces of wrongdoers are blackened171
during the Day of Regret and Remorse,
appoint love for us in the breasts of the faithful,
and make not life for us troublesome!
O God,
bless Muhammad, Your servant and Your messenger,
just as He delivered Your message,
executed Your command,
and counselled Your servants!
O God,
on the Day of Resurrection make our Prophet
(Your blessings be upon him and his Household)
the nearest of the prophets to You in seat,
the ablest of them before You with intercession,
the greatest of them with You in measure,
and the most eminent of them with You in rank!
O God,
bless Muhammad and the Household of Muhammad,
ennoble his edifice,
magnify his proof,
make weighty his balance,
accept his intercession,
bring near his mediation,172
whiten his face,
complete his light,
and raise his degree!
Make us live according to his Sunna,
make us die in his creed,
take us on his road,
make us travel his path,
place us among the people who obey him,
muster us in his band,
lead us to up his pool,173
and give us to drink of his cup!
And bless Muhammad and his Household,
with a blessing
through which You will take him to the most excellent
of Your good, Your bounty, and Your generosity
for which he hopes!
You are Possessor of boundless mercy
and generous bounty.
O God,
repay him for
Your messages which he delivered,
Your signs which he passed on,
the good counsel he gave to Your servants,
and the struggle he undertook in Your way,
with the best You have repaid any of Your angels brought nigh
and Your prophets sent out and chosen!
And upon him and his Household,
the good, the pure,
be peace, God’s mercy, and His blessings!