The Whispered Prayers 3 – Abdur Rahman’s Corner
Peace, one and all…
In this prayer, beloved Imam Zayn al-Abidin (as) explores the depths of fear and hope in Allah.
“My Allah, what think You? Will You chastise me after faith in You, drive me far away after my love for You, deprive me while I hope for Your mercy and forgiveness, forsake me while I seek sanctuary in Your pardon? How could Your generous face disappoint me?! Would that I knew? Did my mother bear me for wretchedness? Did she nurture me for suffering? Would then that she had not borne me and had not nurtured me! Would that I had knowledge? Have You appointed me one of the people of felicity? Have You singled me out for Your nearness and neighborhood? Then would my eyes be gladdened, and in that my soul reach serenity.
“My Allah, do You blacken faces which fall down in prostration before Your mightiness? Do You strike dumb tongues which speak in laudation of Your glory and majesty? Do You seal hearts which harbor Your love? Do You deafen ears which take pleasure in hearing Your remembrance according to Your will? Do You manacle hands which expectations have raised to You in hope of Your clemency? Do You punish bodies which worked to obey You until they grew thin in struggling for You? Do You chastise legs which ran to worship You? My Allah, lock not toward those who profess Your Unity the doors of Your mercy, and veil not those who yearn for You from looking upon the vision of You beauty!
“My Allah, a soul which You have exalted by its professing Your Unityhow will You burn it in the heat of Your fires? My Allah, give me sanctuary from Your painful wrath and Your mighty anger! O All-loving, O All-kind! O Compassionate, O Merciful! O Compeller, O Subduer! O All-forgiver, O All-covering! Deliver me through Your mercy from the chastisement of the Fire and the disgrace of shame when the good are sent apart from the evil, forms are transformed, terrors terrify, the good-doers are brought near, the evildoers taken far, and every soul is paid in full what it has earned, and they shall not be wronged!”
