O God,
O He who desires no repayment!
O He who shows no remorse at bestowal!
O He who rewards not His servant tit for tat!
Your kindness is a new beginning,
Your pardon gratuitous bounty,181
Your punishment justice,
Your decree a choice for the best!
If You bestow,
You stain not Your bestowal with obligation,
and if You withhold,
You withhold not in transgression.
You show gratitude to him who thanks You,
while You have inspired him to thank You.
You reward him who praises You,
while You have taught him Your praise.
You cover him whom,
if You willed,
You would expose,
and You are generous toward him from whom,
if You willed,
You would withhold.
Both are worthy of Your exposure and withholding,
but You have
founded Your acts upon gratuitous bounty,
channeled Your power into forbearance,
received him who disobeyed You with clemency,
and disregarded him who intended wrongdoing against himself.
You await their turning back without haste
and refrain from rushing them toward repentance,
so that the perisher among them may not perish
because of You
and the wretched may not be wretched
through Your favor,
but only after Your prolonged excusing him
and successive arguments against him,
as an act of generosity through Your pardon, O Generous,
and an act of kindliness through Your tenderness, O Clement!
It is You who has opened for Your servants
a door to Your pardon,
which You have named ‘repentance’.
You have placed upon that door
a pointer from Your revelation,
lest they stray from it:
You have said (blessed are Your names),
Repent toward God with unswerving repentance!
It may be that Your Lord will acquit of your evil deeds
and will admit you into gardens
beneath which rivers flow,
upon the day when God will not degrade the Prophet
and those who have faith along with him,
their light running before them
and on their right hands,
and they say:
‘Our Lord, complete for us our light, and forgive us!
Surely You are powerful over everything.’182
What is the excuse
of him who remains heedless of entering that house
after the opening of the door
and the setting up of the pointer?
It is You who has raised the price against Yourself
to the advantage of Your servants,
desiring their profit in their trade with You,
their triumph through reaching You,
and their increase on account of You,
for You have said
(blessed is Your Name and high are You exalted),
Whoso brings a good deed
shall have ten the like of it,
and whoso brings an evil deed
shall only be recompensed the like of it.183
You have said,
The likeness of those who expend their wealth
in the way of God
is as the likeness of a grain of corn
that sprouts seven ears,
in every ear a hundred grains;
so God multiplies unto whom He wills.184
You have said,
Who is he that will lend to God a good loan,
and He will multiply it for him manifold?185
And You have sent down in the Qur’an
similar verses on the multiplying of good deeds.
It is You who has pointed them
through Your speech from Your Unseen
and Your encouragement in which lies their good fortune
toward that which –
had You covered it from them –
their eyes would not have perceived,
their ears would not have heard,
and their imaginations would not have grasped,
for You have said,
Remember Me
and I will remember you
be thankful to Me,
and be you not thankless towards Me!186
You have said,
If you are thankful,
surely I will increase you,
but if you are thankless,
My chastisement is surely terrible;187
And You have said,
Supplicate Me
and I will respond to you,
surely those who wax too proud to worship Me
shall enter Gehenna utterly abject.188
Hence You have named supplicating You ‘worship’
and refraining from it ‘waxing proud’,
and You have threatened that the refraining from it
would yield entrance into Gehenna in utter abjection.
So they remember You for Your kindness,
they thank You for Your bounty,
they supplicate You by Your command,
and they donate for You
in order to seek Your increase;
in all this lies their deliverance from Your wrath
and their triumph through Your good pleasure.
Were any creature himself to direct another creature
to the like of that to which
You Yourself have directed Your servants,
he would be described by beneficence,
qualified by kindness,
and praised by every tongue.
So to You belongs praise
as long as there is found a way to praise You
and as long as there remains for praising
words by which You may be praised
and meanings which may be spent in praise!
O He who shows Himself praiseworthy to His servants
through beneficence and bounty,
flooding them with kindness and graciousness!
How much Your favor has been spread about among us,
Your kindness lavished upon us,
and Your goodness singled out for us!
You have guided us to
Your religion which You have chosen,
Your creed with which You are pleased,
and Your path which You have made smooth,
and You have shown us proximity to You
and arrival at Your generosity!
O God,
among the choicest of those duties
and the most special of those obligations
You have appointed the month of Ramadan,
which You have singled out from other months,
chosen from among all periods and eras,
and preferred over all times of the year
through the Qur’an and the Light
which You sent down within it,
the faith
which You multiplied by means of it,
the fasting
which You obligated therein,
the standing in prayer
which You encouraged at its time,
and the Night of Decree
which You magnified therein,
the night which is better than a thousand months.189
Through it You have preferred us
over the other communities
and through its excellence You have chosen us
to the exclusion of the people of the creeds.
We fasted by Your command in its daylight,
we stood in prayer with Your help in its night,
presenting ourselves by its fasting and its standing
to the mercy which You have held up before us,
and we found through it the means to Your reward.
And You are full of what is sought from You,
munificent with what is asked of Your bounty,
and near to him who strives for Your nearness.
This month stood among us
in a standing place of praise,
accompanied us
with the companionship of one approved,
and profited us
with the most excellent profit of the world’s creatures.
Then it parted from us at
the completion of its time,
the end of its term,
and the fulfilment of its number.
So we bid farewell to it with the farewell of one
whose parting pains us,
whose leaving fills us with gloom and loneliness,
and to whom we have come to owe
a safeguarded claim,
an observed inviolability,
and a discharged right.
We say:
Peace be upon You,
O greatest month of God!
O festival of His friends!
Peace be upon You,
O most noble of accompanying times!
O best of months in days and hours!
Peace be upon You,
month in which
expectations come near
and good works are scattered about!
Peace be upon You,
comrade
who is great in worth when found
and who torments through absence when lost,
anticipated friend
whose parting gives pain!
Peace be upon You,
familiar
who brought comfort in coming,
thus making happy,
who left loneliness in going,
thus giving anguish!
Peace be upon You,
neighbor in whom
hearts became tender
and sins became few!
Peace be upon You,
helper who aided against Satan,
companion who made easy the paths of good-doing!
Peace be upon You –
How many became freedmen of God within You!
How happy those who observed the respect due to You!
Peace be upon You –
How many the sins You erased!
How many the kinds of faults You covered over!
Peace be upon You –
How drawn out were You for the sinners!
How awesome were You in the hearts of the faithful!
Peace be upon You,
month with which no days compete!
Peace be upon You,
month which is peace in all affairs!
Peace be upon You,
You whose companionship is not disliked,
You whose friendly mixing is not blamed!
Peace be upon You,
just as You have entered upon us with blessings
and cleansed us of the defilement of offenses!
Peace be upon You –
You are not bid farewell in annoyance
nor is Your fasting left in weariness!
Peace be upon You,
object of seeking before Your time,
object of sorrow before Your passing!
Peace be upon You –
How much evil was turned away from us through You!
How much good flowed upon us because of You!
Peace be upon You
and upon the Night of Decree
which is better than a thousand months!190
Peace be upon You –
How much we craved You yesterday!
How intensely we shall yearn for You tomorrow!
Peace be upon You
and upon Your bounty
which has now been made unlawful to us
and upon Your blessings gone by
which have now been stripped away from us!
O God,
we are the people of this month.
Through it You have ennobled us
and given us success
because of Your kindness,
while the wretched are ignorant of its time.
Made unlawful to them is its bounty
because of their wretchedness.
You are the patron of the knowledge of it
by which You have preferred us,
and its prescribed practices to which You have guided us.
We have undertaken, through Your giving success,
its fasting and its standing in prayer,
but with shortcomings,
and we have performed little of much.
O God, so to You belongs praise,
in admission of evil doing
and confession of negligence,
and to You belongs
remorse firmly knitted in our hearts
and seeking of pardon sincerely uttered by our tongues.
Reward us,
in spite of the neglect that befell us in this month,
with a reward through which
we may reach the bounty desired from it
and win the varieties of its craved stores!
Make incumbent upon us Your pardon
for our falling short of Your right in this month
and make our lives which lie before us
reach the coming month of Ramadan!
Once You have made us reach it,
help us perform the worship of which You are worthy,
cause us to undertake the obedience which You deserve,
and grant us righteous works
that we may fulfil Your right
in these two months of the months of time.191
O God, as for the small and large sins
which we have committed in this our month,
the misdeeds into which we have fallen,
and the offenses which we have earned
purposefully or in forgetfulness,
wronging ourselves thereby
or violating the respect due to others,
bless Muhammad and his Household,
cover us over with Your covering,
pardon us through Your pardoning,
place us not before the eyes of the gloaters because of that,
stretch not toward us the tongues of the defamers,
and employ us in that which will alleviate and expiate
whatever You disapprove from us within it
through Your clemency which does not run out,
and Your bounty which does not diminish!
O God, bless Muhammad and his Household,
redress our being afflicted by our month,192
bless us in this day of our festival and our fast-breaking,
make it one of the best of days that have passed over us,
the greatest in attracting Your pardon,
and the most effacing toward sins,
and forgive us our sins, both the concealed and the public!
O God, with the passing of this month
make us pass forth from our offenses,
with its departure
make us depart from our evil deeds,
and appoint us thereby among its most felicitous people,
the most plentiful of them in portion,
and the fullest of them in share!
O God, when any person observes this month as it should be observed,
safeguards its inviolability as it should be safeguarded,
attends to its bounds as they should be attended to,
fears its misdeeds as they should be feared,
or seeks nearness to You with any act of nearness-seeking
which
makes incumbent upon him Your good pleasure
and bends toward him Your mercy,
give to us the like [of that]193 from Your wealth
and bestow it upon us in multiples through Your bounty,
for Your bounty does not diminish,
Your treasuries do not decrease but overflow,
the mines of Your beneficence are not exhausted,
and Your bestowal is the bestowal full of delight!
O God, bless Muhammad and his Household
and write for us the like of the wages
of him who fasted in it
or worshipped You within it
until the Day of Resurrection!
O God, we repent to You in our day of fast-breaking,
which You have appointed
for the faithful
a festival and a joy
and for the people of Your creed
a time of assembly and gathering,
from every misdeed we did,
ill work we sent ahead,
or evil thought we secretly conceived,
the repentance of one who does not harbor a return to sin
and who afterwards will not go back to offense,
an unswerving repentance rid of doubt and wavering.
So accept it from us,
be pleased with us,
and fix us within it!
O God,
provide us with fear of the threatened punishment
and yearning for the promised reward,
so that we may find
the pleasure of that for which we supplicate You
and the sorrow of that from which we seek sanctuary in You!
And place us with You among the repenters,
those upon whom You have made Your love obligatory
and from whom You have accepted
the return to obeying You!194
O Most Just of the just!
O God,
show forbearance toward our fathers and our mothers
and all the people of our religion,
those who have gone and those who will pass by,
until the Day of Resurrection!
O God,
bless our prophet Muhammad and his Household,
as You have blessed Your angels brought nigh,
bless him and his Household,
as You have blessed Your prophets sent out,
bless him and his Household,
as You have blessed Your righteous servants –
and better than that, O Lord of the worlds! –
a blessing whose benediction will reach us,
whose benefit will attain to us,
and through which our supplication may be granted!
You are the most generous of those who are beseeched,
the most sufficient of those in whom confidence is had,
the most bestowing of those from whom bounty is asked,
and You are powerful over everything!