1- O God, bless Muhammad and his Household, break my passion for every unlawful thing, take away my craving for any sin, and bar me from harming any believer, male or female, and any Muslim, male or female!
2- O God, if any of Thy servants should harm me in what Thou hast forbidden or violate me in what Thou hast interdicted, and if he should pass into death with my complaint or I come to have a complaint against him while he is alive, forgive him what he did to me and pardon him that through which he turned his back on me! Inquire not from him about what he committed toward me and expose him not through what he earned by me! Make my open-handedness in pardoning such servants and my contribution in charity toward them the purest charity of the charitable and the highest gift of those seeking nearness to Thee!
3- Recompense me for my pardoning them with Thy pardon and for my supplicating for them with Thy mercy so that each one of us may gain felicity through Thy bounty and each may attain deliverance through Thy kindness!
4- O God, if there is a servant from among Thy servants whom an ill visits on my account, a harm touches from my direction, or a wrong overtakes through me or because of me, and should I fail to take care of his right or go before him [in death] with his complaint, bless Muhammad and his Household, satisfy him toward me through Thy wealth, and give him his full right from Thyself!
O God, if there is a servant from among Thy servants whom an ill visits on my account, a harm touches from my direction, or a wrong overtakes through me or because of me, and should I fail to take care of his right or go before him [in death] with his complaint, bless Muhammad and his Household, satisfy him toward me through Thy wealth, and give him his full right from Thyself!
5- Then protect me from what Thy decision mandates and save me from what Thy justice decides, for my strength cannot bear Thy vengeance and my power cannot stand up to Thy displeasure! If Thou recompensest me with the right, Thou wilt destroy me, and if Thou dost not shield me in Thy mercy, Thou wilt lay me waste.
6- O God, I ask Thee to grant, my God, that whose giving will not decrease Thee, and I ask Thee to carry that whose carrying will not weigh Thee down:
7- My God, I ask Thee to give my soul, which Thou didst not create to keep Thyself from evil nor to find the way to profit. No, Thou brought it forth to demonstrate Thy power over its like and to provide an argument against its similar.
8- I ask Thee to carry those of my sins whose carrying weighs me down and I seek help from Thee in that whose heaviness oppresses me.
9- So bless Muhammad and his Household, give to me my soul in spite of its wrongdoing,1 and appoint Thy mercy to carry my burden! How many evildoers Thy mercy has overtaken! How many wrongdoers Thy pardon has embraced!
So bless Muhammad and his Household and make me the model of him whom Thou hast aroused through Thy forbearance from the deadly infirmities of the Senders and saved through Thy giving success from the tangled plights of the sinners, so that I may rise up freed by Thy pardon from the bonds of Thy displeasure and released by Thy benefaction from the ties of Thy justice!
10- So bless Muhammad and his Household and make me the model of him whom Thou hast aroused through Thy forbearance from the deadly infirmities of the Senders and saved through Thy giving success from the tangled plights of the sinners, so that I may rise up freed by Thy pardon from the bonds of Thy displeasure and released by Thy benefaction from the ties of Thy justice!
11- Surely if Thou dost that, my God, Thou wilt do it to one who does not deny deserving Thy punishment or acquit himself from merit for Thy vengeance.
12- Do that, my God, for one whose fear of Thee is greater than his craving from Thee, whose hopelessness of deliverance is firmer than his hope for salvation! Not that his hopelessness is despair, nor that his expectation is deluded. No, rather his good deeds are few among his evil deeds and his arguments are frail in face of everything due from his acts.
But Thou, my God, art worthy that the righteous not be deluded concerning Thee and the sinners not lose hope in Thee, for Thou art the All-mighty Lord who holds back His bounty from none and takes His full right from no one. High exalted is Thy mention above those mentioned! Holy are Thy names beyond those described! Spread is Thy favour among all creatures! Thine is the praise for that, O Lord of the worlds!
13- But Thou, my God, art worthy that the righteous not be deluded concerning Thee and the sinners not lose hope in Thee, for Thou art the All-mighty Lord who holds back His bounty from none and takes His full right from no one.
14- High exalted is Thy mention above those mentioned! Holy are Thy names beyond those described! Spread is Thy favour among all creatures! Thine is the praise for that, O Lord of the worlds!
1. The Persian translators read this as meaning, 'pardon me (mara bibakhsh) in spite of my wrongdoing against myself', and Mohani's English translation agrees:’Pardon my soul despite its having worked to its own hurt’. However this verse refers back to verse 7, which suggests a different reading.
Hence I follow the interpretation of Sayid ‘Alikhan, who explains the text as follows: ‘The soul is pledged to fulfil the covenant which it has made with God. This covenant, for which it is held accountable when it is sent down into this world, is that it must return to God safe from His displeasure, having observed His commandments and avoided stepping outside His paths which He established through the tongue of the Messenger of God.
If the soul fulfils its covenant, it emerges from the ties of its pledge and its recompense is multiplied, just as God has said:
Whoso fulfils his covenant made with God, God will give him a mighty wage (48:10).
But if he breaks the covenant and commits that which has been prohibited, he remains a pledge to his works, just as God has said:
Every soul shall be a pledge for what it has earned (74:38).
Hence in this verse the Imam asks his Lord to be kind to him by releasing his soul from its pledge and giving it to him.’
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