My God, I praise You –
and You are worthy of praise –
for Your benefaction toward me,
the lavishness of Your favors toward me,
and Your plentiful bestowal upon me,
and for showing bounty toward me
through Your mercy
and lavishing Your favor upon me.
You have done well toward me
and I am incapable of thanking You.
Were it not for Your beneficence toward me
and the lavishness of Your favors upon me,
I would not have reached the taking of my share
nor would my soul have been set right,
but You began with beneficence toward me,
provided me sufficiency in all my affairs,
turned away from me the toil of affliction,
and held back from me the feared decree.
My God, how many a toilsome affliction
which You have turned away from me!
How many a lavish favor
with which You have gladdened my eye!
How many a generous benefaction of Yours
which is present with me!
It is You
who responded to my supplication
at the time of distress,
released me from my slip
in stumbling,
and took my enemies to task
for doing wrong to me.
My God, I did not find You a miser when I asked of You
nor a withholder when I desired from You.
No, 1 found You a hearer of my supplication
and a bestower of my requests;
I found Your favors toward me lavish
in my every situation
and in my every time.
So You are praised by me
and Your benefaction honored.
My soul, my tongue, and my intelligence praise You,
a praise that reaches fulfilment
and the reality of thanksgiving,
a praise that attains to Your good pleasure with me –
so deliver me from Your displeasure!
O my cave when the ways thwart me!
O He who releases me from my stumble!
Were it not for Your covering my shameful defects,
I would be one of the disgraced.
O my confirmer through help!
Were it not for Your helping me,
I would be one of the overcome!
O He before whom
kings place the yoke of lowliness around their necks,
fearing His penalties!
O worthy of reverent fear!
O He to whom belong the names most beautiful!267
I ask You to pardon me and to forgive me,
for I am not innocent that I should offer excuses,
nor a possessor of strength that I should gain victory,
nor have I any place of flight that I should flee!
I ask You to release me from my stumbles,
and before You I disavow my sins,
which have laid me waste, encompassed me, and destroyed me!
I flee from them to You, my Lord,
turning repentantly,
so turn toward me,
seeking refuge,
so grant me refuge,
asking sanctuary,
so abandon me not,
requesting,
so deprive me not,
holding fast,
so leave me not,
supplicating,
so send me not back disappointed!
I have supplicated You, my Lord,
as one miserable, abased,
apprehensive, fearful,
quaking, poor,
driven to have recourse to You!
I complain to You, my God, of my soul –
which is too weak
to hurry to that which
You have promised Your friends
or to avoid that against which
You have cautioned Your enemies –
and of the multitude of my concerns,
and of my soul’s confusing thoughts.
My God, You have not disgraced me
through my secret thoughts
or destroyed me
because of my misdeeds!
I call upon You, and You respond,
even if I am slow when You call upon me.
I ask You everything I want of my needs,
and I deposit with You my secret wherever I may be.
I supplicate no one besides You,
and I hope for no one other than You.
At Your service! At Your service!
You hear him who complains to You!
You receive him who has confidence in You!
You save him who holds fast to You!
You give relief to him who seeks shelter in You!
My God, so deprive me not
of the good of the last world and the first
because of the paucity of my thanksgiving
and forgive me the sins of mine which You know!
If You chastise,
I am the wrongdoer, the neglecter,
the negligent, the sinner,
the derelict, the sluggard,
the heedless of the share of my soul!
And if You forgive –
You are the Most Merciful of the merciful!