As-Sahifa Al-Kamilah Al-Sajjadiyya

50. His Supplication in Fear ============================

(50) وَ كَانَ مِنْ دُعَائِهِ عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ فِي الرَّهْبَةِ

1. اللَّهُمَّ إِنَّكَ خَلَقْتَنِي سَوِيّاً ،

2. اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي وَجَدْتُ فِيمَا أَنْزَلْتَ مِنْ كِتَابِكَ ،

3. فَلَوْ لَا الْمَوَاقِفُ الَّتِي

4. اللَّهُمَّ إِنَّكَ طَالِبِي إِنْ أَنَا هَرَبْتُ ،

5. فَأَسْأَلُكَ اللَّهُمَّ بِالْمَخْزُونِ مِنْ أَسْمَائِكَ ،

6. فَارْحَمْنِيَ اللَّهُمَّ فَإِنِّي امْرُؤٌ حَقِيرٌ ،

7. فَارْحَمْنِي

1- O God,
Thou created me without fault,
nurtured me when small,
and provided me with sufficiency.

2- O God,
I found in the Book which Thou sent down
and through which Thou gave good news to Thy servants,
that Thou said,
O My servants who hare been prodigal against yourselves,
do not despair of God's mercy,
surely God forgives all sins,^1
but there has gone ahead from me what Thou knowest
(and of which Thou knowest more than I)!
O the shame of what Thy Book has counted against me![^2]

3- Were it not for the places
where I expectantly hope for Thy pardon,
which enfolds all things,
I would have thrown myself down [in despair]!
Were anyone able to flee from his Lord,
I would be the most obligated to flee from Thee!
But not a secret in earth and heaven is concealed from Thee,
except that Thou bringest it.[^3]
Thou sufficest as a recompenser!
Thou sufficest as a reckoner![^4]

4- O God,
surely Thou wouldst seek me if I flee
and catch me if I run.
So here I am before Thee,
abject, lowly, abased.
If Thou chastisest me,
I am worthy of that,
and it would be, my Lord, an act of justice from Thee.
But if Thou pardonest me,
anciently has Thy pardon enfolded me
and Thy well-being garmented me!

5- So I ask Thee, O God,
by Thy names stored in Thy treasury[^5]
and Thy splendour masked by the veils!
If Thou hast no mercy upon this anxious soul
and these uneasy, decaying bones -
he cannot endure the heat of Thy sun,
so how can he endure the heat of Thy Fire?
He cannot endure the sound of Thy thunder,
so how can he endure the sound of Thy wrath?

6- So have mercy upon me, O God,
for I am a vile man
and my worth is little.
Chastising me will not add the weight of a dust mote to Thy kingdom.
Were chastising me something that would add to Thy kingdom,
I would ask Thee for patience to bear it
and would love for it to belong to Thee;
but Thy authority, my God, is mightier,
and Thy kingdom more lasting, than that the obedience of the obeyers should increase it
or the disobedience of the sinners diminish it!

7- So have mercy upon me,
O Most Merciful of the merciful!
Show me forbearance,
O Possessor of majesty and munificence!
And turn toward me,
Surely Thou art Ever-turning, All-compassionate

[^2]: This is the Book of Records on the Day of Judgement, mentioned, for example, in 18:49: And the Book shall be set in place; and thou wilt see the sinners fearful at what is in it, saying: 'Alas for us! How is it with this Book, that it leaves nothing behind, small or great, but it has counted it?' Cf. 17:13-14.

[^3]: Allusion to such Qur'anic verses as: Not so much as the weight of an ant in heaven and earth escapes from Him, neither is aught smaller than that, or greater, but it is in a Manifest Book (34:3).

[^4]: Allusion to 4:6, 33:39: God suffices as a reckoner.

[^5]: Cf. the following sentence from a supplication of the Prophet: 'I ask Thee by every one of Thy names by which Thou hast named Thyself, which Thou hast taught to one of Thy creatures, which Thou hast sent down in Thy Book, or which Thou hast kept to Thyself in the knowledge of the Unseen' (Ahmad I, 391, 402). A passage from the same hadith is quoted in Supplication 21.6.