Dua On the Day of Arafa From Imam Hussain (a.s) and Imam Sajjad (a.s)

Endnotes

[^1]: The ninth of Dhu l-Hijja, the last day of the hajj, when the pilgrims occupy themselves with prayer at Mount 'Arafa. Cf. Imam Husayn's long supplication for the day, translated in Chittick, A Shi'ite Anthology, pp. 93-113.

[^3]: Cf. 15: 21-23: Naught is there, but its treasuries are with Us, and We send it not down but in a known measure... It is We who give life, and make to die, and it is We who are the inheritors.

[^5]: Reference to 10:61: Not so much as the weight of an ant in earth or heaven escapes from thy Lord...

[^8]: Reference to 25:2: He created everything, then He ordained it with an ordination.

[^9]: Allusion to 80:20: He created him [man] and determined him then the way eased for him.

[^10]: Perhaps an allusion to 32:5: He governs the affair from the heaven to the earth.

[^11]: Reference to 72:28: He has counted everything in numbers.

[^12]: The terms 'howness' and 'whereness' are found already in hadith attributed to the Prophet in Shi'ite sources, as well as to some of the Imams (cf. Chittick, A Shi'ite Anthology index under ayniyyah and kayfiyyah. The term 'selfness' (dhatiyya) is certainly more rare. Lane in his Lexicon points out that it is a post-classical term used in philosophy, but in the present context it has no such philosophical sense and seems to be a coinage built on the analogy of the other two terms.

[^13]: Reference to sura 112.

[^14]: The 'Separator' is the Qur'an (cf. Supplication 42.2). There is an allusion here to 15:94: Therefore cleave [0 Muhammad] by means of that which thou art commanded [i.e. the Qur'anic injunctions] and turn away from the idolaters.

[^15]: Reference to 6:115.

[^16]: The guardians or writers are the recording angels. Cf. Supplication 3.18. The 'book' mentioned here is referred to in such verses as:

The Book shall be set in place; and thou wilt see the sinners fearful at what is in it and saying: 'Alas for us! How is it with this Book that it leaves nothing behind, small or great but it has numbered it?' (18:49).

[^17]: Allusion to 18:109: Say: 'If the sea were ink for the words of my Lord, the sea would be spent before the words of my Lord are spent.'

[^18]: Reference to 33:33: Folk of the House, God only desires to put away from you uncleanness and to purify you.

[^19]: Muslims hold that 'mediation' will be given to the Prophet (see note 172), while Shi'ite tradition adds that it will also belong to the Imams. Cf. the chapter in Majlisi's Bihar al-Anwar 'The Mediation, and the station of the Prophet and the Folk of his House which will become manifest at the resurrection' (VII, 326-40).

Among relevant sayings quoted in both Shi'ite and Sunni sources is that of 'Ali: 'In the Garden there are two pearls within the Throne, one of them white and the other yellow. In each there are 70,000 rooms whose gates and cups come from a single root. The white is the Mediation which belongs to Muhammad and his Household, while the yellow belongs to Abraham and his household' (commentary on 5:35: al-Tabarsi, Majma' al-bayan; Maybudi, Kashf al-Asrar).

[^20]: Cf. Supplication 1.4.

[^21]: The 'Friend' or wali is the Imam, who, in keeping with the various meanings of the root, is 'friend' of God, 'guardian' of the people under his care, and 'authority' in all matters of religious teaching. His function, known as wilaya (or walaya) and derived from the same Arabic root, is discussed in most books on Shi'ism; in the present text the word is mentioned, not always in the technical sense, in Supplications 5 (title); 8.3; 20.7, 22; 26.1; 47.64; and 77.2.

[^22]: Allusion to 17:80: And say [0 Muhammad]: '... grant me authority from Thee to help me.'

[^23]: Cf. 48:1: Surely We have given thee a manifest opening.

[^24]: Cf. Moses' supplication in 20:31: Appoint for me of my folk a familiar, Aaron, my brother; by him brace up my back.

[^25]: Like the previous clause, this is an allusion to the story of Moses and Aaron in the Qur'an, and more specifically, to God's words to Moses: We shall strengthen thy arm by means of thy brother (28:35).

[^26]: Cf. 37:173: Our troops - they are the victors.

[^27]: Wilaya - which may be translated as friendship, authority, guardianship, rule - is the office or function of the 'Friend' or wali mentioned above in note 219.

[^29]: Cf. 10:25: And God summons to the Abode of Peace. Cf. also 6:127.

[^30]: As indicated in note 77, 'caprice' denotes any desire opposed to the divine guidance.

[^31]: This may be an allusion to 17:16.

[^32]: Allusion to 4:108: They hide themselves from men but hide themselves not from God.

[^33]: Allusion to 7:182: We will draw them on little by little from whence they know not; and I grant them respite - surely My guile is firm.

Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq says: 'When God desires good for a servant who commits a sin, He causes the sin to be followed by a punishment so that he remembers to ask forgiveness. But when He desires evil for a servant who commits a sin, He causes the sin to be followed by a favour so that he forgets to ask forgiveness and persists in the sin. This is indicated by God's words We draw them on little by little from whence they know not. (Sayyid ''Alikhan)

[^34]: Cf. above, 47.90.

[^35]: In other words: Do not allow me to become diverted from the worship and obedience which please Thee by my seeking after the things of this world, which come only through Thee.

[^36]: Allusion to 5:35: O you who have faith fear God and seek the mediation to Him. Cf. note 172.

[^37]: The commentator suggests that this is an allusion to the principle enunciated in 18:103-104: Say: Shall I tell you who will be the greatest losers in their works? Those whose striving goes astray in the present life while they think that they are working good deeds .

[^39]: Reference to 66:8: Upon the day when God will not degrade the Prophet and those who believe with him their light running before them and on their right hands.

[^40]: Allusion to 19:75: Say: Whoever is in error, let the All-merciful prolong his term for him!....

[^41]: Cf. above, 47.60, where mention is made of the 'radiance' of the Imam.

[^42]: Cf. the following hadith: 'God has left no excuses for him who has reached sixty or seventy years of age. God has left him no excuses, no excuses!' (Ahmad II, 275). See also Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon s.v. i'dhar.

[^43]: Reference to 7:186: Whomsoever God leads astray no guide has he; He leaves them in their insolence blindly wandering.

[^44]: Reference to 23:54: So leave them in their perplexity for a time.

[^45]: The commentator offers three possible interpretations: remove not my name from the register of the felicitous, writing it in the register of the wretched; change my name not for the worse, after it had been an elevated name; change not the name by which Thou hadst named us before (alluding to the Qur'anic verse: He named you Muslims aforetime and in this [22:78]). The meaning thus becomes: Name me not an unbeliever after Thou hast named me a Muslim.

[^46]: The commentator explains this to mean: Transform it not through an affliction in this world or through making it ugly in the next.

[^47]: Reference to 56:88-9: Then if he be of those brought nigh to the Throne, there shall be repose and ease, and a garden of bliss.

[^48]: Allusion to 2:16: Those are they who have bought error at the price of guidance, and their commerce has not profited them.

[^49]: Reference to 79:6-12: Upon the day when the first blast shivers,... They shall say, 'What, are we being restored as we were before?... That then is a return with loss!'

[^50]: Allusion to 15:47: We shall root out all rancour that is in their breasts (cf. 7:43).

[^51]: 26:84, part of a prayer of Abraham.

[^52]: The commentator sees this as a reference to the first Muslims, as in 9:100: And the foremost, the first, who are the Emigrants and the Helpers, and those who followed them in good-doing - God will be well-pleased with them...; He has prepared for them gardens... The 'plain' of the first is the place where they are brought together at the Resurrection.