His Supplication for himself in Confessing Sins after Finishing the Night Prayer
O God,
O Possessor of
kingdom perpetual in everlastingness,
authority invincible without armies or helpers,
might abiding through eons past,
years gone by,
times and days elapsed!
Your authority is mighty
with a might that knows no bound by being first
nor utmost end by being last!
Your kingdom towers high with a towering
before which all things fall down without reaching its term;
the least of it which You have kept to Yourself is not reached
by the furthest description of the describers!
Attributes go astray in You,
descriptions fall apart below You,
the subtlest of imaginations are bewildered
by Your magnificence!
So are You:
God, the First in Your firstness,
and so are You everlastingly.
You do not pass away.
But I am the slave,
feeble in works,
immense in hopes.
The tying links are outside my hand,
except what is tied by Your mercy;
the bonds of hopes have been cut away from me,
except the pardon to which I hold fast.
Little on my part is
the obedience toward You upon which I count,
and great against me
the disobedience toward You to which I have reverted.
But pardoning Your slave will not constrain You,
even if he be bad,
so pardon me!
O God,
Your knowledge watches over hidden works,
every covered thing is exposed before Your awareness,
the intricacies of things are not concealed from You,
and unseen mysteries slip not away from You.
But over me Your enemy has gained mastery:
He asked a delay from You to lead me astray,
and You gave him the delay!
He asked a respite from You until the Day of Doom to misguide me,
and You gave him the respite!135
So he threw me down,
though I had fled to You from
small, ruinous sins
and great, deadly works,
until, when I had yielded to disobeying You
and merited Your 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 Your wrath alone,
and sent me as an outcast
into the courtyard of Your vengeance.
There is no intercessor to intercede for me with You,
no protector to make me feel secure against You,
no fortress to veil me from You,
no shelter in which to seek asylum apart from You!
This is the station of him who takes refuge with You,
the place of the confessor to You:
Let not Your bounty be too narrow for me,
let not Your pardon fall short of me!
Let me not be the most disappointed
of Your repentant servants,
nor the most despairing
of those who come to You with expectations!
Forgive me,
surely You are the best of the forgivers!
O God,
You commanded me,
and I refrained,
You prohibited me,
and I committed.
evil thoughts tempted me to offend,
and I was negligent.
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 Your obligations,
he who neglects which has perished.
I cannot seek access to You
through the excellence of a supererogatory work,
given the many duties of Your obligations
of which I have been heedless
and the stations of Your bounds which I have transgressed,
thereby violating sacred things and committing great sins,
though You have given me safety from their disgraces as a covering.
This is the station of him who is
ashamed of himself before You,
angry with himself,
and satisfied with You.
He meets You
with a humble soul,
a neck bent down,
a back heavy with offenses,
hesitating between longing for You and fear of You.
You are 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 You are the most generous
of those from whom are asked!
O God,
since You have covered me with Your pardon
and shielded me with Your 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 honored,
the martyrs, the righteous)
before the neighbor
from whom I have hidden my evil deeds
and the womb relative
before whom I feel ashamed in my secret thoughts!
I trust them not, my Lord,
to cover me over,
but I trust You, my Lord,
to forgive me!
You are 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!
O God,
You caused me to descend as mean water
from loins of narrow bones and tight passages
into a constricted womb
which You had covered with veils;137
You turned me about from state to state
until You took me to the completion of the form
and fixed within me the bodily parts,
as You have described in Your Book:
a drop,
then a clot,
then a tissue,
then bones,
then You garmented the bones with flesh,
then You produced me as another creature
as You willed.138
Then, when I needed Your provision,
and could not do without the aid of Your bounty,
You appointed for me a nourishment
from the bounty of the food and drink
which You bestowed upon Your handmaid
in whose belly You gave me to rest
and in the lodging of whose womb
You deposited me.
Had You 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.
So You have fed me through Your bounty
with the food of the Good, the Gentle;
You have done that for me in graciousness toward me
up to this my present point.
I do not lack Your goodness,
nor does Your 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 favored by You.
Satan has taken possession of my reins
through my distrust and frail certainty.
I complain of his evil neighborhood with me
and my soul’s obedience toward him!
I ask You to preserve me against his domination,
and I plead with You to turn his trickery away from me!
I ask You
to make the path to my provision easy,
since to You belongs praise for
Your beginning with immense favors
and Your inspiring gratitude
for beneficence and bestowing favor!
Bless Muhammad and his Household,
and make the way to my provision easy for me!
[I ask You] to make me content
with Your ordainment for me,
to make me satisfied with my lot
in that which You have apportioned for me
and to place what has gone of my body and my life-span
into the path of Your obedience!139
Surely You are the Best of providers!
O God, I seek refuge in You
from the Fire
through which You are harsh
toward him who disobeys You
and by which You have threatened
him who turns away from Your 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;
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.
I seek refuge in You 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 You
to that which will keep far from it
and make it retreat!
O God,
bless Muhammad and his Household,
grant me sanctuary from it through the bounty of Your mercy,
release me from my stumbles through Your good releasing,
and abandon me not,
O Best of the sanctuary-granters!
O God,
You protect from the disliked,
give the good,
do what You will,
and You are powerful over everything.141
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!
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!