His Supplication on the Day of 'Arafa1
1- Praise belongs to God, Lord of the worlds!2
2- O God, to Thee belongs praise! Originator of the heavens and the earth! Possessor of majesty and munificence! Lord of lords! Object of worship of every worshiper! Creator of every creature! Inheritor of all things!3 There is nothing like Him,4 knowledge of nothing escapes Him,5 He encompasses everything,6 and He is watchful over everything.7
3- Thou art God, there is no god but Thou, the Unique, the Alone, the Single, the Isolated.
4- Thou art God, there is no god but Thou, the Generous, the Generously Bestowing, the All-mighty, the Mightily Exalted, the Magnificent, the Magnificently Magnified.
5- Thou art God, there is no god but Thou, the All-high, the Sublimely High, the Strong in prowess.
6- Thou art God, there is no god but Thou, the All-merciful, the All-compassionate, the All-knowing, the All-wise.
7- Thou art God, there is no god but Thou, the All-hearing, the All-seeing, the Eternal, the All-aware.
8- Thou art God, there is no god but Thou, the Generous, the Most Generous, the Everlasting, the Most Everlasting.
9- Thou art God, there is no god but Thou, the First before every one, the Last after every number.
10- Thou art God, there is no god but Thou, the Close in His highness, the High in His closeness.
O God, to Thee belongs praise! Originator of the heavens and the earth! Possessor of majesty and munificence! Lord of lords! Object of worship of every worshiper! Creator of every creature! Inheritor of all things!3 There is nothing like Him,4 knowledge of nothing escapes Him,5 He encompasses everything,6 and He is watchful over everything.
11- Thou art God, there is no god but Thou, Possessor of radiance and glory, magnificence and praise.
12- Thou art God, there is no god but Thou. Thou hast brought forth the things without root, formed what Thou hast formed without exemplar, and originated the originated things without limitation.
13- It is Thou who hast ordained each thing with an ordination,8 eased each thing with an easing,9 and governed everything below Thyself with a governing.10
14- It is Thou whom no associate helps with Thy creation and no vizier aids in Thy command. Thou hast no witness and no equal.
15- It is Thou who willed, and what Thou willed was unfailing, who decreed, and what Thou decreed was just, who decided, and what Thou decided was fair.
16- It is Thou whom place does not contain, before whose authority no authority stands up, and whom no proof or explication can thwart.
17- It is Thou who hast counted everything in numbers,11 appointed for everything a term, and ordained everything with an ordination.
18- It is Thou before whose selfness imaginations fall short, before whose howness understandings have no incapacity, and the place of whose whereness eyes perceive not.12
19- It is Thou who hast no bounds, lest Thou be bounded, who art not exemplified, lest Thou be found, who dost not beget, lest Thou be begotten.13
20- It is Thou with whom there is no opposite, lest it contend with Thee, who hast no equal, lest it vie with Thee, who hast no rival, lest it resist Thee.
21- It is Thou who art He who began, devised, brought forth, originated, and made well all that He made.
Glory be to Thee! Thou art not sensed, nor touched, nor felt, nor beguiled, nor held back, nor challenged, nor kept up with, nor resisted, nor deceived, nor circumvented. Glory be to Thee! Thy path is smooth ground, Thy command right guidance, and Thou art a living, eternal refuge. Glory be to Thee! Thy word is decisive, Thy decree unfailing, Thy will resolute.
22- Glory be to Thee! How majestic is Thy station! How high Thy place among the places! How cleanly Thy Separator cleaves with the truth!14
23- Glory be to Thee! The Gentle - how gentle Thou art! The Clement - how clement Thou art! The Wise - how knowing Thou art!
24- Glory be to Thee! The King - how invincible Thou art! The Munificent - how full of plenty Thou art! The Elevated - how elevated Thou art! Possessor of radiance and glory, magnificence and praise!
25- Glory be to Thee! Thou hast stretched forth Thy hand with good things, and from Thee guidance has come to be known, so he who begs from Thee religion or this world will find Thee.
26- Glory be to Thee! Whatever passes in Thy knowledge is subjected to Thee, all below Thy Throne are humbled before Thy mightiness, and every one of Thy creatures follows Thee in submission.
27- Glory be to Thee! Thou art not sensed, nor touched, nor felt, nor beguiled, nor held back, nor challenged, nor kept up with, nor resisted, nor deceived, nor circumvented.
28- Glory be to Thee! Thy path is smooth ground, Thy command right guidance, and Thou art a living, eternal refuge.
29- Glory be to Thee! Thy word is decisive, Thy decree unfailing, Thy will resolute.
30- Glory be to Thee! None can reject Thy wish, none can change Thy words.15
31- Glory be to Thee, Outdazzling in signs, Creator of the heavens, Author of the spirits!
32- To Thee belongs praise, a praise that will be permanent with Thy permanence!
33- To Thee belongs praise, a praise everlasting through Thy favour!
34- To Thee belongs praise, a praise that will parallel Thy benefaction!
35- To Thee belongs praise, a praise that will increase Thy good pleasure!
36- To Thee belongs praise, a praise along with the praise of every praiser and a thanksgiving before which falls short the thanksgiving of every thanksgiver;
37- a praise which is suitable for none but Thee and through which nearness is sought to none but Thee;
38- a praise which will make permanent the first [bounty] and call forth the permanence of the last;
39- a praise which will multiply through recurrence of times and increase through successive doublings;
40- a praise which the guardians will not be able to number and which exceeds what the writers number in Thy Book;16
41- a praise which will counterbalance Thy glorious Throne and equal Thy elevated Footstool;
42- a praise whose reward with Thee will be complete and whose recompense will comprise every recompense;
43- a praise whose outward conforms to its inward, and whose inward conforms to correct intention;
44- a praise with whose like no creature has praised Thee and whose excellence none knows but Thou;
45- a praise in which he who strives to multiply Thy praise will be helped and he who draws the bow to the utmost in fulfilling it will be confirmed;
46- a praise which will gather all the praise which Thou hast created and tie together all which Thou wilt afterwards create;
47- a praise than which no praise is nearer to Thy word and than which none is greater from any who praise Thee;
48- a praise whose fullness will obligate increase through Thy generosity and to which Thou wilt join increase after increase as graciousness from Thee;
49- a praise that will befit the generosity of Thy face and meet the might of Thy majesty!
My Lord, bless the best of his Household, those whom Thou hast chosen for Thy command, appointed the treasurers of Thy knowledge, the guardians of Thy religion, Thy vicegerents in Thy earth, and Thy arguments against Thy servants, purified from uncleanness and defilement through a purification by Thy desire,18 and made the mediation to Thee19 and the road to Thy Garden!
50- My Lord, bless Muhammad and the Household of Muhammad, the distinguished, the chosen, the honoured, the brought nigh, with the most excellent of Thy blessings, benedict him with the most complete of Thy benedictions, and have mercy upon him with the most enjoyable of Thy mercies!
51- My Lord, bless Muhammad and his Household with a fruitful blessing, more fruitful than which there is no blessing! Bless him with a growing blessing, more growing than which there is no blessing! And bless him with a pleasing blessing, beyond which there is no blessing!
52- My Lord, bless Muhammad and his Household with a blessing which will please him and increase his good pleasure! Bless him with a blessing which will please Thee and increase Thy good pleasure toward him! And bless him with a blessing through other than which Thou wilt not be pleased for him, and for which Thou seest no one else worthy!
53- My Lord, bless Muhammad and his Household with a blessing which will pass beyond Thy good pleasure, be continuous in its continuity through Thy subsistence, and never be spent, just as Thy words will never be spent!17
54- My Lord, bless Muhammad and his Household with a blessing which will tie together the blessings of Thy angels, Thy prophets, Thy messengers, and those who obey Thee, comprise the blessings of Thy servants jinn or mankind, and those worthy of Thy response, and bring together the blessings of every one of the kinds of Thy creatures which Thou hast sown and authored!
55- My Lord, bless Muhammad and his Household with a blessing which will encompass every blessing, bygone and new! Bless him and his Household with a blessing which is pleasing to Thee and everyone below Thee and will bring forth with all that a blessing with which Thou wilt multiply those blessings and increase them through the recurrence of days with an increasing in multiples which none can count but Thou!
56- My Lord, bless the best of his Household, those whom Thou hast chosen for Thy command, appointed the treasurers of Thy knowledge, the guardians of Thy religion, Thy vicegerents in Thy earth, and Thy arguments against Thy servants, purified from uncleanness and defilement through a purification by Thy desire,18 and made the mediation to Thee19 and the road to Thy Garden!
57- My Lord, bless Muhammad and his Household with a blessing which makes plentiful Thy gifts and generosity, perfects for them Thy bestowals and awards, and fills out their share of Thy kindly acts and benefits!
58- My Lord, bless him and his Household with a blessing whose first has no term, whose term has no limit, and whose last has no utmost end!
59- My Lord, bless them to the weight of Thy Throne and all below it, the amount that fills the heavens and all above them, the number of Thy earths and all below and between them, a blessing that will bring them near to Thee in proximity, please Thee and them, and be joined to its likes forever!
O God, surely Thou hast confirmed Thy religion in all times with an Imam whom Thou hast set up as a guidepost to Thy servants and a lighthouse in Thy lands, after his cord has been joined to Thy cord! Thou hast appointed him the means to Thy good pleasure, made obeying him obligatory, cautioned against disobeying him, and commanded following his commands, abandoning his prohibitions, and that no forward-goer go ahead of him or back-keeper keep back from him!20 So he is the preservation of the shelter-seekers, the cave of the faithful, the handhold of the adherents, and the radiance of the worlds!
60- O God, surely Thou hast confirmed Thy religion in all times with an Imam whom Thou hast set up as a guidepost to Thy servants and a lighthouse in Thy lands, after his cord has been joined to Thy cord! Thou hast appointed him the means to Thy good pleasure, made obeying him obligatory, cautioned against disobeying him, and commanded following his commands, abandoning his prohibitions, and that no forward-goer go ahead of him or back-keeper keep back from him!20 So he is the preservation of the shelter-seekers, the cave of the faithful, the handhold of the adherents, and the radiance of the worlds!
61- O God, so inspire Thy guardian21 to give thanks for that in which Thou hast favoured him, inspire us with the like concerning him, grant him an authority from Thee to help him,22 open for him an easy opening,23 aid him with Thy mightiest pillar, brace up his back,24 strengthen his arm,25 guard him with Thy eye, defend him with Thy safeguarding, help him with Thy angels, and assist him with Thy most victorious troops!26
62- Through him establish Thy Book, Thy bounds, Thy laws, and the norms of Thy Messenger's Sunna (Thy blessings, O God, be upon him and his Household), bring to life the guideposts of Thy religion, deadened by the wrongdoers, burnish the rust of injustice from Thy way, sift the adversity from Thy road, eliminate those who deviate from Thy path, and erase those who seek crookedness in Thy straightness!
63- Make his side mild toward Thy friends, stretch forth his hand over Thy enemies, give us his clemency, his mercy, his tenderness, his sympathy, and make us his hearers and obeyers, strivers toward his good pleasure, assistants in helping him and defending him, and brought near through that to Thee and Thy Messenger (Thy blessings, O God, be upon him and his Household).
O God, and bless the friends [of the Imams], the confessors of their station, the keepers to their course, the pursuers of their tracks, the clingers to their handhold, the adherents to their guardianship,27 the followers of their imamate, the submitters to their command, the strivers to obey them, the awaiters of their days, the directors of their eyes toward them, with blessings blessed, pure, growing, fresh, and fragrant!
64- O God, and bless the friends [of the Imams], the confessors of their station, the keepers to their course, the pursuers of their tracks, the clingers to their handhold, the adherents to their guardianship,27 the followers of their imamate, the submitters to their command, the strivers to obey them, the awaiters of their days, the directors of their eyes toward them, with blessings blessed, pure, growing, fresh, and fragrant!
65- Give them and their spirits peace, bring together their affair in reverential fear, set right their situations, turn toward them, Surely Thou art Ever-turning, All-compassionate28 and the Best of forgivers, and place us with them in the Abode of Peace,29 through Thy mercy, O Most Merciful of the merciful!
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.
2. 1:2
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.
4. 42:11
5. Reference to 10:61: Not so much as the weight of an ant in earth or heaven escapes from thy Lord...
6. 41:54
7. 33:52
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 219.28. 2:218
29. Cf. 10:25: And God summons to the Abode of Peace. Cf. also 6:127.
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