Hazrat Imam Zainul Abedin (a.s.)’s Supplication on Excellence in Moral and Good Conduct
(Part One)
O Allah,
bless Muhammad and his Household,
cause my faith to reach the most perfect faith,
make my certainty the most excellent certainty,
and take my intention to the best of intentions
and my conduct to the best of actions!
O Allah,
complete my intention through Your gentleness,
rectify my certainty through what is with You,
and reform what is corrupt in me through Your power!
O Allah,
bless Muhammad and his Household,
spare me the concerns, which distract me,
employ me
in that about which You will ask me tomorrow,
and let me pass my days in that for which You have created me! free me from need,
expand Your provision toward me,
and tempt me not with arrogance!
Exalt me and afflict me not with pride!
Make me adore You
and do not let my worship be spoiled with self-admiration!
Let good flow out from my hands upon the people
and efface it not by my making them feel obliged!
Give me the highest moral traits and preserve me from vainglory!
(Part Two)
O Allah,
bless Muhammad and his Household,
raise me not a single degree among the people
without lowering me its like in myself
and bring about no outward respect for me
without an inward humiliation in myself to the same
measure!
O Allah,
bless Muhammad and Muhammad's Household,
favour me with a sound guidance, which I seek not to replace,
a path of truth from which I may not go astray,
and an intention of right conduct in which I have no doubts!
Let me live as long as my life is in obeying You,
but if my life should become a pasture for satan,
seize me to Yourself before Your hatred overtakes me
or Your wrath against me becomes firm!
O Allah,
deposit in me no quality for which I will be faulted unless You
set it right, no blameworthy blemish unammended,
no deficient noble trait,
unless You complete it!
O Allah,
bless Muhammad and Muhammad's Household
and replace for me the animosity of the people of hatred with
love,
the envy of the people of insolence with affection,
the suspicion of the people of righteousness with trust,
the enmity of those close with friendship,
the disrespect of womb relatives with devotion,
the abandonment of relatives with help,
the attachment of flatterers with love,
the rejection of fellows with generous friendliness, and the
bitterness of the fear of wrongdoers with the sweetness of
security!
(Part Three)
O Allah,
bless Muhammad and his Household,
appoint for me
a power against him who wrongs me,
a tongue against him who disputes with me,
and a victory over him who stubbornly resists me!
Give me
guile against him who schemes against me,
power over him, who oppresses me,
refutation of him who reviles me,
and safety from him who threatens me!
Grant me success to
obey him who directs me to the right path
and follow him who guides me!
O Allah,
bless Muhammad and his Household
and point me straight to
resist him, who is dishonest toward me with good counsel,
repay him, who separates from me with gentle devotion,
reward him, who deprives me with free giving,
recompense him, who cuts me off with joining,
oppose him, who slanders me with excellent mention,
give thanks for good,
and shut my eyes to evil!
(Part Four)
O Allah,
bless Muhammad and his Household,
adorn me with the qualifies of the righteous,
and clothe me in the ornaments of the god fearing,
- through spreading justice,
- restraining anger,
- quenching the flame of the hate,
- reuniting the scattered,
- making up the differences between men,
- spreading about good behaviour,
- covering faults,
- mildness of temper,
- lowering the wing (self denial and treating others with respect),
beauty of conduct,
- gravity of bearing,
- agreeableness of dealings,
- advancing in reaching excellence,
- preferring generosity,
- refraining from condemnation,
- showing kindness even to the Unworthy,
- speaking the truth, though it be painful,
- making little of the good in my words and deeds,
though it be much,
and
- making much of the evil in my words and deeds,
though it be little!
Perfect this for me through
- lasting obedience,
- holding fast to the community,
and
rejecting the people of innovation and those who act upon self-
invented opinions!
(Part Five)
11. O Allah,
bless Muhammad and his Household,
appoint for me Your widest provision in my old age
and Your strongest strength when I am exhausted,
and try me not with
laziness in worshipping You,
blindness toward Your path,
undertaking what opposes love for You,
joining with him who has separated himself from You,
and
separating from him who has joined himself to You!
12. O Allah,
make me
leap to You in times of distress,
ask from You in need,
and plead to You in misery!
Tempt me not to
seek help from other than You when I am distressed,
to humble myself in asking from someone else
when I am poor,
or to plead with someone less than You when I fear,
for then I would deserve
Your abandonment,
Your withholding,
and
Your turning away,
O Most Merciful of the merciful!
(Part Six)
(Tongue)
13. O Allah,
Let what Satan throws into my heart of desires,
suspicion and envy, be a cause for remembrance
of Your mightiness, a reflection upon Your power,
and a devising against Your enemy!
Make everything he causes to pass over my tongue,
(the indecent ugly words, the maligning of good repute,
the false witness, backbiting of an absent true-believer,
or the reviling of one present,
and all things similar) a speech in praise of You,
to remain ever in praise of You,
an excursion in magnifying You,
a thanksgiving for Your favour,
an acknowledgement of Your beneficence,
and an enumeration of Your Kindness!
14. O Allah,
bless Muhammad and his Household,
let me not be oppressed
while You can repel from me,
nor let me oppress others
while You have authority to restrain me,
nor let me be misguided
while You are able to guide me,
nor let me be poor
while with You is my plenty,
nor let me be insolent
while from You comes my wealth!
(Part Seven)
(Lord)
15. O Allah,
I come to Your forgiveness,
I aim for Your pardon,
I yearn for your forbearance,
and
I trust in Your bounty,
but there is nothing with me
to make me entitled to Your forgiveness,
nothing in my works
to make me deserve Your pardon,
and nothing when I judge my self
but Your grace,
so bless Muharnmad and his Household
and bestow Your bounty upon me!
16. O Allah,
make my speech be guidance,
inspire me with piety,
give me success in that which is most pure,
and employ me in what is most pleasing to You!
17. O Allah,
let me walk the most exemplary path
and make me live and die in Your creed!
18. O Allah,
bless Muhammad and his Household,
give me to enjoy moderation,
make me one of the people of right behaviour,
the proofs of right conduct, and servants of righteousness,
and
grant me salvation on the Day of Return
and safety on the Day of Judgement!
(Part Eight)
(Protection of Soul)
19. O Allah,
Extract from my soul whatever may purify it for Yourself
and preserve those motives for my soul that may set it right,
for my soul will perish unless You preserve it!
20. O Allah,
You are my stores when I sorrow,
You are my recourse when I am deprived,
from You I seek aid when troubled
and with You is a substitute for what is lost,
a correction for everything corrupted,
and alteration from everything You disapprove.
Therefore favour me with security before calamity
and right direction before error,
suffice me against the burden of shame toward the servants,
give me security on the day of Return,
and grant me excellent right guidance!
O Allah,
bless Muhammad and his Household
repel from me through Your Grace,
nourish me through Your favour,
reform me with Your generosity,
heal me through Your benefaction,
shade me in Your shelter,
clothe me with Your good pleasure,
and give me success to reach
the most guided of affairs when affairs confuse me,
the purest of works when works seem similar,
and the most pleasing to You of creeds when creeds conflict!
(Part Nine)
(Test by wealth)
22. O Allah,
bless Muhammad and his Household,
crown me with sufficiency.
Adorn me with Your guardianship,
give me to guide correctly,
tempt me not with prosperity.
Grant me excellent ease.
Do not make my life succession of trials,
and do not refuse my supplication in rejection,
for I do not recognise any rival to You
and I supplicate none with You as equal!
23. O Allah,
bless Muhammad and his Household,
restrain me from extravagance,
preserve my subsistence from waste,
increase my possessions through blessing them,
and set me upon the path of guidance
through piety in what I spend!
24. O Allah,
bless Muhammad and his Household,
spare me the burden of earning,
and provide for me without reckoning,
so that search may not keep me away from Your worship
and carry the load of earning’s ill results!
25. O Allah,
bestow upon me what I seek
through Your power
and grant me sanctuary from what I fear through Your might!
(Part Ten)
26. O Allah,
bless Muhammad and his Household,
guard my honour through ease,
and do not disgrace my dignity with poverty,
lest I seek provision from those whom
You have provided
and ask favour from the wicked!
Then I would be tried by praising him who gave to me
and
blaming him who held back from me,
while You - not they - are the master of giving and holding back.
27. O Allah,
bless Muhammad and his Household
give me a combination of health with worship,
detachment with piety, knowledge with action,
and chastity with measure!
28. O Allah,
seal my term with Your pardon,
verify my expectation in hoping for Your mercy,
smooth my paths to reach Your good pleasure,
and make my works good in all my states!
29. O Allah,
bless Muhammad and his Household,
incite me to remember You in times of heedlessness,
employ me in Your obedience in days of leisure,
open a smooth road for me to Your love,
and complete for me thereby the good of this world and the next!
30. O Allah,
and bless Muhammad and his Household the best You have
blessed any of Your creatures before him and will bless any of
them after him, and give to us in this world good, and in the next
world good, and protect me through Your mercy from the torment
of the Fire!
