His Supplication when he asked Allah for
Well-Being
The Ima`m, peace be on him, would supplicate with this holy supplication when he asked Allah for well-being and thanked Him for it:
"O Allah, bless Mohammed and his Household, and clothe me in Your well-being, wrap me in Your well-being, fortify me through Your well-being, honor me with Your well-being, free me from need through Your well-being, donate to me Your well-being, bestow upon me Your well-being, spread out for me Your well-being in this world and the next! O Allah, bless Mohammed and his Household, and make me well with a well-being sufficient, healing, sublime, growing, a well-being that will give birth to well-being in my body, a well-being in this world and the next! Oblige me through health, security and safety in my religion and body, insight in my heart, penetration in my affairs, dread of You, fear of You, strength for the obedience which You have commanded for me, and avoidance of the disobedience which You have prohibited for me!
"O Allah, oblige me through the hajj, the 'umra, and visiting the grave of Your Messenger (Your blessings, mercy, and benedictions upon him and upon his Household, upon them be peace) for as long as You caused me to live, in this year of mine and in every year, and make that accepted, thanked, and mentioned before You and stored away with You! Make my tongue utter Your praise, Your thanksgiving, Your remembrance, and Your excellent laudation, and expand my heart toward the right goals of Your religion! Give and my progeny refuge from the accursed Satan, the evil of venomous vermin, threatening pests, swarming crowds, and evil eyes, the evil of every rebel satan, the evil of every refractory sovereign, the evil of every living in ease and served, the evil of every weak or strong, the evil of every born high or low, the evil of every small or great, the evil of every near or far, the evil of every, jinn or man, who declares war on
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Your Messenger and his Household, the evil of every crawling creature that You have taken by the forelock! Surely You are on a straight path.
"O Allah, bless Mohammed and his Household and if some one desires ill for me turn him away from me, drive away from me his deception, avert from me his evil, send his trickery back to his own throat, and place before him a barricade, so that You may bind his eyes toward me, deafen his ears toward my mention, lock his heart toward recalling me, silence his tongue against me, restrain his head, abase his exaltation, break his arrogance, abase his neck, disjoint his pride, and make me secure from all his injury, his evil, his slander, his backbiting, his faultfinding, his envy, his enmity, his snares, his traps, his foot soldiers, and his cavalry! Surely You are Mighty, Powerful!
1"
The most valuable thing in this world's life is well-being and soundness from maladies, hence the Ima`m, peace be on him, asked Allah, the Most High, to give him to enjoy this favor to be strong enough to serve Him, to perform His obligations, and to refrain from prohibited things and acts of disobedience. He asked Him to oblige him through the hajj, the 'umra, and visiting the grave of the Greatest Messenger (may Allah bless him and his Household) and the graves of his grandsons, the pure Ima`ms, who were the ships of deliverance and security for mankind. He sought protection in Him from the evil of men and jinn.
His Supplication when his Provision was
Stinted
He, peace be on him, would supplicate with this supplication when his provision was stinted and the means of his daily bread was difficult.
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1 Ibid, Supplication no. 23.
( 439 )
"O Allah, You have tried us with distrust in our provisions and the expectation of long lives, until we begged for provisions from those who are provided and craved in our expectations the life-spans of the long-lived! So bless Mohammed and his Household, give us a true certainty that will suffice us the burden of seeking, and inspire us with a sincere trust that will release us from the hardship of exertion! Let Your clear promise in Your Revelation which You have followed in Your Book with Your oath cut off our worry about the provisions for which You have made Yourself responsible and sever our occupation with everything whose sufficiency You have guaranteed! For You have said(and Your word is the most truthful truth(and You have sworn(and Your oath is the most kept and fulfilled(In the heaven are your provision and everything you are promised! And then You have said: So by the Lord of heaven and earth, it is as surely true as that you have promised!
1"
In this supplication the Ima`m talked about two psychological aspects. They are:
1. When man faces stinted provision and narrow paths, he accuses Allah of this and attributes it to Him.
2. Man has been afflicted by long expectation and subsistence in this world, hence he foolishly considers the life-spans of the long-lived and thinks that he will live as they did. This opinion has bad results of which is that man neglects the affairs of his life in the next world and devotes himself to this world's life, hence the Ima`m, peace be on him, asked Allah, the Exalted, to give him a true certainty that would suffice him the burden of seeking, and inspire him with a sincere trust that would release him from the hardship of exertion.
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1 Ibid, Supplication no. 29.
( 440 )
His Supplication for Help in Repaying Debts
He, peace be on him, would supplicate with this supplication for help in repaying debts.
"O Allah, bless Mohammed and his Household and release me from a debt which make me lose face, confuses my mind, disrupts my thinking, and prolongs my occupation with attending to it! I seek refuge in You, my Lord, from worry and thought about debt, from the distraction and sleeplessness of debt; so bless Mohammed and his Household and give me refuge from it! I seek sanctuary in You, my Lord, from debt's abasement in life and its ill effects after death, so bless Mohammed and his Household and give sanctuary from it through a bountiful plenty or a continually arriving sufficiency! O Allah, bless Mohammed and his Household, prevent me from extravagance and excess, put me on the course of generous spending and moderation, teach me excellent distribution, hold me back through Your gentleness from squandering, allow me to attain my provisions through lawful means, direct my spending toward the gateways of devotion, and take away from me any possession which will bring forth pride in me, lead to insolence, or drag me in its heels to rebellion! O Allah, make me love the companionship of the poor and help me be their companion with excellent patience! Whenever You take away from me the goods of this perishing world, store them for me in Your abiding treasuries! Make this world's broken pieces which You have conferred upon me and its goods which You have quickly granted to me a way to reach Your neighborhood, a link to Your nearness, and a means to Your Garden! Verily You are Possessor of bounty abounding, and You are the Munificent, the Generous.
1"
This holy supplication includes the following points:
1. The Ima`m, peace be on him, asked Allah and pleaded to Him
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1 Ibid, Supplication no. 30.
( 441 )
to release him from debt, which results in harm and pain of which are the following:
A. It makes one lose face, especially when he is unable to repay it.
B. It confuses mind and disrupts thinking, for the indebted always think about how to repay it and get rid of it.
C. It forces the indebted to practice many works to repay it and get rid of it.
D. It abases the indebted in life, for they show lowliness before the creditors.
E. It continues after the death of the indebted until it is repaid, hence the Ima`m, peace be on him, asked Allah, the Most High, to give him sanctuary from it through a bountiful plenty or a continually arriving sufficiency, that he might get rid of the pain and harm of debt.
2. The Ima`m, peace be on him, asked Allah, the Exalted, to prevent him from extravagance and excess which ruined and wasted possessions.
3. He, peace be on him, asked Allah to teach him to distribute his possessions in an excellent manner.
4. He asked Allah, the Most High, to provide him with legal provision.
5. He asked Allah, the Most High, to make his spending toward the gateways of devotion and what pleased Him, the Exalted.
6. He asked Allah, the Exalted, not to try him with riches which would bring forth pride in him, lead to insolence, or drag him in its heels to rebellion.
7. The Ima`m asked Allah to make him love the companionship of the poor and help him be their companion with excellent patience. These are some contents of this great supplication.
( 442 )
His Supplication in Mentioning and Asking
for Repentance
The following is among his supplications in mentioning and asking for repentance:
"O Allah, O He whom the depiction of the describers fails to describe! O He beyond whom passes not the hope of the hopers! O He with whom is not lost the wage of the good-doers! O He who is the ultimate object of the fear of the worshippers! O He who is the utmost limit of the dread of the Allahfearing! This is the station of him whom sins have passed from hand to hand. Offenses' reins led him on, and Satan has gained mastery over him. He fell short of what You have commanded through neglect and he pursued what You have prohibited in delusion, like on ignorant of Your power over him or one who denies the bounty of Your beneficence toward him, until, when the eye of guidance was opened for him and the clouds of blindness were dispelled, he reckoned that through which he had wronged himself and reflected upon that in which he had opposed his Lord. He saw his vast disobedience as vast and his great opposition as great. So he turned to You, hoping in You and ashamed before You, and he directed his beseeching toward You, having trust in You. He repaired to You in his longing with certitude and he went straight to You in fear with sincerity. His longing was devoid of every object of longing but You, and his fright departed from every object of fear but You. So he stood before You pleading, his eyes turned toward the ground in humbleness, his head bowed before Your might in lowliness; he revealed to You in meekness those secrets of his which You counted better than he; he sought help from You before the dreadful into which he has fallen in Your knowledge and the ugly which has disgraced him in Your judgment: the sins whose pleasures have turned their backs and gone and whose evil consequences have stayed and stuck fast. He will not deny Your justice, my Allah, if You punish him, nor will he consider Your pardon great if You pardon him
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and have mercy upon him, for You are the Generous Lord for whom the forgiveness of great sins is nothing great!"
As for this part, it contains confessing the Unity of Allah and praising Him as One whom the depiction of the describers fails to describe. How can the possible being( limited in existence, senses, knowledge, ability, and activities(encompass the Necessary Being, whose knowledge and power has no bound?
The Ima`m, peace be on him, shed light upon the sinners from among Allah's servants. He humbly regarded himself as one of them. He indicated that pleasures plunged them into disobeying the Commands of Allah, the Exalted, that when they came to their consciousness, bitter thoughts would attack them, and felt remorse, and that they would flee to Him asking Him for pardon, forgiveness, and good pleasure. Now, let's listen to another part of this great supplication.
"O Allah, so here I am: I have come to You obeying Your command (for You have commanded supplication and asking the fulfillment of Your promise, for You have promised to respond): You have said: Supplicate Me and I will respond to you. O Allah, so bless Mohammed and his Household, meet me with Your forgiveness just as I have met You with confession, lift me up from the fatal infirmities of sins just as I have let myself down before You, and cover me with Your covering just as You have shown no haste to take vengeance on me! O Allah, make firm my intention to obey You, strengthen my insight in worshipping You, give me the success of works which will wash away the defilement of offenses, and take me when Your prophet Mohammed (upon him be peace).
"O Allah, I repent to You in this my station from my sins, great and small, my evil deeds, inward and outward, my lapses, past and recent, with the repentance of one who does not tell himself that he might disobey or secretly think that he might return to an offense. You have said, my Lord, in the firm text of Your Book, that You
( 444 )
accept repentance from Your servants, pardon evil deeds, and love the repenters, so accept my repentance as You have promised, pardon my evil deeds as You have guaranteed, and make obligatory toward me Your love as You have stipulated! To You, my Lord, belongs my stipulation that I will not return to that is disliked by You, my guarantee that I will not go back to what You blame, and my covenant that I will stay away from acts of disobedience to You.
"O Allah, You know better what I have done, so forgive me what You know and turn me through Your power to what You love. O Allah, counted against me are claims that stay in my memory and claims I have forgotten, while all of them remain in Your eye that does not sleep and Your knowledge that does not forget! So compensate their owners, lighten their load upon me, lift up their weight from me, and preserve me from approaching their like!
"O Allah, but I cannot be faithful to my repentance without Your preservation, nor can I refrain from offenses without Your strength. So strengthen me with a sufficient strength and attained to me with a defending preservation! O Allah, if any servant repents to You while in Your knowledge of the unseen he will break his repentance and return to his sin and offense, I seek refuge in You lest I be like that! So make this my repentance a repentance after which I will need no repentance and a repentance which will obligate the erasing of what has gone by and safety in what remains!"
In this part the Ima`m stood humble, lowly, and broken-hearted before the Great Creator, hoping that He would response to him, give him forgiveness and good pleasure, lift him up from the fatal infirmities of sins, and cover him over with His beautiful covering, for he had repented to Him sincerely, returned to Him, been sincere in obeying Him, decided not to return to any detested and dispraised thing, and to follow the path that would lead him to His good pleasure. The Ima`m insisted on asking Allah to accept his repentance, to safeguard him from all sins, and to erase all his sins. Now, let's listen to the rest of this great supplication.
( 445 )
"O Allah, I seek pardon from You for my ignorance, and I ask You to disregard my evil acts! So join me to the shelter of Your mercy through graciousness and cover me with the covering of Your well-being through bounteousness! O Allah, I repent to You from everything opposed to Your will or far from Your love(the thoughts of my hearts, the glances of my eye, the tales of my tongue(with a repentance through which each bodily part will by itself stay safe from ill consequences with You and remain secure from Your painful penalties feared by transgressors! O Allah, so have mercy on my being alone before You, the pounding of my heart in dread of You, the trembling of my limbs in awe of You! My sins, my Allah, have stood me in the station of degradation in Your courtyard. If I remain silent, none will speak for me; if I seek an intercessor, I am not worthy for intercession.
"O Allah, bless Mohammed and his Household, make Your generosity intercede for my offenses, follow up my evil deeds with Your pardon, repay me not with the punishment that is my proper repayment, spread over me Your graciousness, wrap me in Your covering, and do with me what is done by a mighty man, when a lowly slave pleads to him and he shows him mercy, or a rich man when a poor slave submits himself and he raises him to wealth! O Allah, I have no protector against You, so let Your might be my protector! I have no intercessor with You, so let Your bounty be my intercessor! My offenses have set me quaking, so let Your pardon give me security! Not all that I have said rises up from my ignorance of my evil footsteps or forgetfulness of my blameworthy acts in the past, but in order that Your heaven and those within it and Your earth and those upon it may hear the remorse which I have professed to You and the repentance through which I have sought asylum with You. Then perhaps one of them, through Your mercy, may show mercy upon my evil situation or be seized by tenderness for my evil state. There may
( 446 )
come from him for my sake a supplication to which You give ear more than to my supplication or an intercession surer with You than my intercession through which I may be delivered from Your wrath and attain to Your good pleasure!
"O Allah, if remorse is a repentance toward You, them I am the most remorseful of the remorseful! If refraining from disobedience is a turning back to You, then I am the first of those who turn back! If praying for forgiveness alleviates sins, surely I am one of those who pray for Your forgiveness! O Allah, as You have commanded repentance and guaranteed acceptance, as You have urged supplication and promised to respond, so bless Mohammed and his Household, accept my repentance, and return me not to the returning place of disappointment in Your mercy! Surely You are Ever-turning toward the sinners, All-compassionate toward the offenders who turn back!
"O Allah, bless Mohammed and his Household just as You have guided us by him! Bless Mohammed and his Household just as You have rescued through him! Bless Mohammed and his Household, with a blessing that will intercede for us on the Day of Resurrection, the day of neediness toward You! You are powerful over everything, and that is easy for You!
1"
Have you seen this pleading and devotion to Allah? The Ima`m melted out of fear of Allah, while he was the Lord of the Allah-fearing, Ima`m of those who turned to Allah in repentance, and Leader of the monotheists.
It is certain that the Ima`m, peace be on him, did not commit any sin throughout his lifetime. His life shone with the light of piety and faith, but he wanted to teach the community brilliant lessons about the true Islamic principles, which summoned the people to Allah through opening a door to repentance. Hence one who has irregular conduct
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1 Ibid, Supplication no. 31.
( 447 )
and has turned away from the straight path should not despair of Allah's mercy, for the door to repentance is open when he repents to Allah, turns to him in repentance, and uproots from his own soul the inclination to sin and disobedience.
His Supplication in Asking for the Best
The following is his supplication in asking for the best:
"O Allah, I ask You the best in Your knowledge, so bless Mohammed and his Household and decree for me the best! Inspire us with knowledge to choose the best and make that a means to being pleased with what You have decreed for us and submitting to what You have decided! Banish from us the doubt of misgiving and confirm us with the certainty of the sincere! Visit us not with incapacity to know what You have chosen, lest we despise Your measuring out, dislike the place of Your good pleasure, and incline toward that which is further from good outcome and nearer to the opposite of well-being! Make us love what we dislike in Your decree and make easy for us what we find difficult in Your decision! Inspire us to yield to that which You bring upon us by Your will, lest we love the delay of what You have hastened and the hastening of what You have delayed, dislike what You love, and choose what You dislike! Seal us with that which is most praised in outcome and most generous in issue! Surely You give generous gain, bestow the immense, do what You will, and You are powerful over everything.
1"
This supplication indicates that the Ima`m, peace be on him, entrusted all his affairs to Allah. He asked Him for the best in all his important matters and asked Him for guidance. If Allah decreed for him the best, he would do them; otherwise he would leave them.
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1 Ibid, Supplication no. 33.
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His Supplication when he was Afflicted
The following is his supplication when he was afflicted or saw someone afflicted with the disgrace of sin:
"O Allah, to You belong praise for Your covering after Your knowledge and Your pardon after Your awareness! Each of us has committed faults, but You have not made him notorious, done indecencies, but You have not disgraced him, and covered over evil deeds, but You have not pointed to him. How many are Your prohibited acts which we have performed, Your commandments of which You have told us which we have transgressed, the evil deeds which we have earned, the offenses which we have committed! You see them to the exclusion of all observers; You have the power to make them public above all the powerful! By giving us safety You have veiled their eyes and stopped their ears. So make the shameful things You have covered over and the inward reality You have concealed our admonisher, a restrainer upon bad character traits and committing offenses, and a striving toward the repentance that erases (sins) and the praiseworthy path! Bring the time of striving near! and visit us not with heedlessness of You! Surely we are the beseechers, the repenters of sins. And bless, Your chosen, O Allah, from Your creation, Mohammed and his descendants, the friends selected from among Your creatures, the pure, and make us listeners to them and obeyers, as You have commanded!
1"
In this supplication the Ima`m, peace be on him, spoke about Allah's favors toward the sinners from among His servants, for He did not expose them when they committed sins nor did He make them known among the people, lest their social position should decline; rather He covered them with His great covering, that they might return to the path of the truth and refrain from disobedience.
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1 Ibid, Supplication no. 34.
( 449 )
His Supplication in Satisfaction when he
Looked upon the Companions of this world
The following is among his supplications in satisfaction when he looked upon the companions of the world:
"Praise belongs to Allah in satisfaction with Allah's decision! I bear witness that Allah has apportioned the livelihoods of His creatures with justice and undertaken bounty for all His creatures. O Allah, bless Mohammed and his Household, tempt me not with what You have given to Your creatures and tempt them not with what You have withheld from me, lest I envy Your creatures and despise Your decision! O Allah, bless Mohammed and his Household, delight my soul through Your decree, expand my breast through the instances of Your decision, give me a trust through which I may admit that Your decree runs only to the best, and let my gratitude to You for what You have taken away from me be more abundant than my gratitude to You for what You have conferred upon me! Preserve me from any imagining any meanness in someone who is destitute or imagining any superiority in someone who possesses wealth, for the noble is he whom obedience to You has ennobled and the exalted is he whom worship of You has exalted! So bless Mohammed and his Household, give us to enjoy a wealth which does not run out, confirm us with an exaltation which will never be lost, and let us roam freely in the kingdom of everlastingness! Surely You are the One, the Unique, the Eternal Refuge; You have not begotten, and equal to You is not any one!
1"
We will briefly talk about some wonderful contents of this great supplication.
1. The Ima`m, peace be on him, mentioned that Allah, the Exalted, apportioned the livelihoods of His creatures with justice and
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1 Ibid, Supplication no. 35.
( 450 )
made them surpass each other in livelihood in accordance with His wisdom, for If they were equal in livelihood, they all would perish, as it is in the tradition.
2. The Ima`m, peace be on him, asked Allah not to tempt him with what He had given to His creatures and tempt them not with what He had withheld from him, lest he (the Ima`m) should envy His creatures.
3. The Ima`m, peace be on him, asked Allah to preserve him from imagining any meanness in someone who was destitute or imagining any superiority in someone who possessed wealth, for the noble was he whom obedience to Allah had ennobled.
His Supplication when he Looked upon
Clouds
The following is one of his supplications when he looked upon clouds and lightening and heard the sound of thunder:
"O Allah, these are two of Your signs and these are two of Your helpers. They rush to obey You with beneficial mercy or injurious vengeance, so rain not down upon us from them the evil rain and clothe us not through them in the garment of affliction! O Allah, bless Mohammed and his Household, send down upon us the benefit of these clouds and their blessing, turn away from us their harm and their injury, strike us not through them with blight, and loose not upon us our livelihood any bane!
"O Allah, if You have incited them as vengeance and loosed them in anger, we seek sanctuary with You from Your wrath and implore You in asking Your pardon! So incline with wrath toward the idolaters and set millstone of Your vengeance turning upon the heretics! O Allah, take away the barrenness of our lands with Your watering, dislodge the malice from our breasts with Your providing, distract us not from You through other than You, and cut none of us
( 451 )
off from the stuff of Your goodness, for the rich is he to whom You have given riches, and the safe he whom You have protected! No one has any defense against You, nor any means to bar Your penalty. You decide what You will for whom You will and You decree what You desire for any whom You desire! So to You belong praise for protecting us from affliction and to You belongs thanks for conferring upon us blessings, a praise which will leave behind the praise of the praisers, a praise which will fill the earth and the heaven! Surely You are the All-kind through immense kindnesses, the Giver of abounding favors, the Acceptor of small praise, the Grateful for little gratitude, the Beneficent, the Benevolent, Possessor of graciousness! There is no god but You; unto You is the homecoming.
1"
In this supplication the Ima`m, peace be on him, talked about clouds and lightning, which were two of Allah's signs and two of His helpers. Allah sends them to His creatures as a blessing through which He gives life to the land after it has died or as a vengeance through which He demolishes their houses and destroys their plants as well as He sends down upon them thunderbolts, hence the Ima`m pled to Allah to send down the evil rain upon His enemies from the idolaters, the unbelievers, and those who deviated from the Truth, and to single out the believers and the Muslims for the good rain.
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1 Ibid, Supplication no. 36.
