On the Day of 'Id al-Addha` (Sacrifice)
Ima`m Zayn al-'Abidin, peace be on him, received the day of 'Id al-Addha` (Sacrifice) with prayer and pleading to Allah asking Him to do him a favor through accepting his rites and all his works of worship and obedience to Him, and to grant him pardon and good pleasure. He supplicated Allah, the Exalted, with this glorious supplication, whose text is as follows:
"O Allah, this is a blessed and fortunate day, within in which Muslims are gathered in the quarters of Your earth. Among them are present the asker, the seeker, the beseecher, the fearful, while You are looking upon their deeds. Hence I ask You by Your munificence and generosity( and easy upon You is what I ask You!( that You bless Mohammed and his Household. And I ask You, O Allah, our Lord( for Yours is the kingdom and Yours is the praise; there is no god but You, the Clement, the Generous, the All-loving, the All-kind, Possessor of majesty and munificence, Originator of the heavens and the earth( whenever You apportion among Your faithful servants good, well-being, blessing, guidance, works in obedience to You, or good through which You are kind to them by guiding them to You, or raise them up a degree with You or give them the good of this world or the next, that You give me amply my share and allotment of it.
"And I ask You, O Allah( for Yours is the kingdom and the praise; there is no god but You( that You bless Mohammed, Your servant and Your messenger, Your beloved and Your selected friend, Your chosen from among Your creation, and the Household of Mohammed, the pious, the pure, the chosen, with a blessing no one has strength to count but You, that You associate us with the most righteous of Your faithful servants who supplicate You today( O Lord of the worlds( and that You forgive us and them!
Surely You are powerful over everything. O Allah, toward You I aim with my need and before You I set my poverty, my neediness, my misery, for I have more trust in Your forgiveness and Your mercy than in my own works. Your forgiveness and Your mercy are vaster than my sins. Hence bless Mohammed and the Household of Mohammed, and
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attend to the accomplishment of every need of mine through Your power over it, its easiness for You, my poverty toward You, and Your freedom from need for me! I will come upon no good whatsoever unless through You, no one other than You will turn any evil away from me, and I have hope in none but You for my affair in the next world and in this world.
"O Allah, if anyone has ever arranged, made ready, prepared, and drawn himself up to be received by a creature in hope of his support and awards, then today toward You, my Master, is my arrangement, my making ready, my preparations, and my drawing up, in hope of Your pardon and support and in seeking to attain to You and Your prize. O Allah, Hence bless Mohammed and the Household of Mohammed, and disappoint not my hope in that today! O He who is not troubled by those who ask and diminished by those who attain their desire! I come not before You trusting in a righteous work I have sent ahead, nor in the intercession of any creature in whom I have hope, except the intercession of Mohammed and the Folk of his House (upon him and upon them be Your peace). I come to You admitting sin and evildoing toward myself. I come to You hoping for Your abounding pardon through which You have pardon the offenders, while their long persistence in dreadful sin did not prevent You from returning toward them with mercy and forgiveness! O He whose mercy is wide and whose pardon is abounding! O All-mighty! O All-mighty! O All-generous! O All-generous! Bless Mohammed the Household of Mohammed, return toward me through Your mercy, be tender toward me through Your bounty, and spread out Your forgiveness upon me!"
In the beginning of his supplication, the Ima`m, peace be on him, praised 'Id al-Addha` and its importance with the Muslims( in the quarters of the earth, whether they attend the rites of the hajj or not( who raise their requests to Allah, the Exalted, asking Him to accomplish them. The Ima`m asked Allah to give him a share of good, health, and guidance which He gave to His servants on this day. After that the Ima`m showed lowliness and pleading before Allah in whose
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hand is giving and deprivation, asking Him to be kind to him through forgiveness, mercy, and good pleasure. After this, let's listen to another part of this supplication:
"O Allah, this station
1 belongs to Your vicegerents, Your chosen, while the places of Your trusted ones in the elevated degree which You have singled out for them have been forcibly stripped! But You are the Ordainer of that( Your command is not overcome, the inevitable in Your governing is not overstepped! However You will and whenever You will! In that which You know best, You are not accused for Your creation or Your will! Then Your selected friends, Your vicegerents, were overcome, vanquished, forcibly stripped; they see Your decree replaced, Your book discarded, Your obligations distorted from the aims of Your laws, and the
Sunna of Your Prophet abandoned! O Allah, curse their enemies among those of old and the later folk, and all those pleased with their acts, and their adherents and followers! O Allah, bless Mohammed and the Household of Mohammed (surely You are All-laudable, All-glorious) like Your blessing, benedictions, and salutations upon Your chosen Abraham and the people of Abraham! And hasten for them relief, ease, help, strengthening, and confirmation!"
In this part of his supplication, the Ima`m, peace be on him, dealt with the sensitive political affairs in his time, Hence he stated the following:
1. The station of the 'I#d prayer and other general affairs belonged to the Ima`ms of guidance, who were the vicegerents of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and his family, and his trustees, and who treated the people with justice and fairness.
2. The important organs of the state were forcibly stripped by the Ima`ms of tyranny and misguidance from among the Umayyad kings who spared no effort to war against Islamic awareness and to remove the Islamic message from society.
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1. The station of the servant's prayer.
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3. During the black government of the Umayyads, the Ima`m of guidance and truth were overcome, vanquished, and forcibly stripped.
4. The Umayyads intended to replace the decrees of Allah, to discard the Book, to distort the obligations, and to abandon the
Sunna of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and his family.
After this let's return to another part of this holy supplication:
"O Allah, and make me one of the people who profess Your Unity, have faith in You, and attest to Your Messenger and the Ima`ms toward whom You have enjoined obedience, and one of those through whom and at whose hands this takes place! Amen, Lord of the worlds! O Allah, nothing repels Your wrath but Your clemency, nothing repels Your displeasure but Your pardon, nothing grants sanctuary from Your punishment but Your mercy, and nothing will deliver me from You except pleading to You before You, Hence bless Mohammed and the Household of Mohammed, and give us on Your part, my Allah, relief by means of the power through which You bring the dead servants to life and revive the dead lands. Destroy me not through gloom, my Allah, before You respond to me and give me the knowledge of Your response to my supplication! Let me taste the flavor of well-being to the end of my term! And let not my enemy gloat over me, place not my neck in his power, and give him not authority over me!
"My Allah, if You rise me up, who is there to push me down? If You push me down, who is there to raise me up? If You honor me, who is there to humiliate me? If You humiliate me, who is there to honor me? If You chastise me, who is there to have mercy upon me? If You destroy me, who is there to stand up for Your servant against You or ask You about his affair? But I know that there is no wrong in Your decree and no hurry in Your vengeance. He alone hurries who fears to miss, and only the weak needs to wrong. But You are exalted, My Allah, high indeed above all that!
"O Allah, bless Mohammed and the Household of Mohammed, make me not the target of affliction nor the object of Your vengeance, respite me, comfort me, release me from my stumble, and afflict me
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not with an affliction in the wake of an affliction, for You have seen my frailty, the paucity of my stratagems, and my pleading to You! I seek refuge in You today, my Allah, from Your wrath, Hence bless Mohammed and his Household and give me refuge! I seek sanctuary in You today from Your displeasure, Hence bless Mohammed and his Household and give me sanctuary! I seek guidance from You, Hence bless Mohammed and his Household and guide me! I seek help from You, Hence bless Mohammed and his Household and help me! I ask You for mercy, Hence bless Mohammed and his Household and have mercy upon me! I seek sufficiency from You, Hence bless Mohammed and his Household and suffice me! I seek provision from You, Hence bless Mohammed and his Household and provide for me! I seek assistance from You, Hence bless Mohammed and his Household and assist me! I pray forgiveness for my past sins, Hence bless Mohammed and his Household and forgive me! I ask You to preserve me from sin, Hence bless Mohammed and his Household and preserve me, for I will not return to anything You dislike from me, if You will that! My Lord! My Lord! O All-loving! O All-kind! O Possessor of majesty and munificence! Bless Mohammed and his Household, and grant me everything that I ask from You, seek from You, and beseech from You! Will it, ordain it, decree it, and accomplish it! give me good in that of it which You decree! Bless me in that, be gratuitously bountiful toward me through it, make me happy in that of it which You give to me, and increase me in Your bounty and the plenty of what is with You, for You are boundless, Generous! And link that to the good and the bliss of the next world, O Most Merciful of the Merciful.
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Ima`m Zayn al-'Abidin, peace be on him, supplicated Allah with this glorious supplication and called down blessings on Mohammed and his Household one thousand times. With this we will end our talk about this holy supplication full of lowliness and pleading to the Great Creator. In it the Ima`m asked Allah for the good of this world and the
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1. Al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiya, Supplication no. 48.
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next world. He asked, the Exalted, to make him have faith in Him and to attest to His Messenger and the great Ima`ms, the trustees of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and his family, and his vicegerents over his community. Without doubt, the Ima`m, peace be on him, had great faith in Allah, attested to His Messenger, may Allah bless him and his family, and knew of his trustees (of authority), for he was among them. He supplicated with this supplication to guide the community to the sound, ideological path.
