Abul Hasan Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Walid reported to me from his father, who reported from Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Saffar, from Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Isa, from Harun ibn Muslim from Mas’adah ibn Sadaqah who said:
I requested Abu Abdillah Ja’far ibn Muhammad, peace be upon him to teach me prayers which I should invoke in crucial moments. He brought forth for me some pages from an old book and said: “Make a copy of what is in there, for it is a prayer of my grandfather, ‘Ali ibn al-Husayn, Zainul Abedeen, may peace be upon him, for crucial moments.” So I copied it down and whenever I felt distressed or landed in crisis, I invoked that prayer. Allah relieved me of my worry and removed my sorrow and affliction and granted my need. It is:-
“O Allah! You guided me, but I was diverted by delusion, You admonished me, but my heart was hardened, You blessed me with the best, but I transgressed, You taught but I persisted in ignorance,
Then I realized and sought forgiveness and You pardoned, Then I repeated the sin, and You covered it. So, all praise and thanks to You, O my Lord! I have rushed into the valleys of my destruction and I have paved the ways to my ruin,
So, in it, I am exposed to Your wrath, and by entering there, to Your chastisement. And my only means to Your pleasure is my faith in Your Oneness. And that I never associate any partner to You, nor did I adopt any god beside You, I flee unto You from my self, and unto You do the sinners flee!
And You are the refuge for one who has ruined his fortune! So all praise and thanks are to You, O my Lord! How, many enemies had unsheathed their swords of hostility against me, and sharpened their blades for me? And mixed potions with deadly poisons to kill me, and whetted for me its keen edge. Aiming at me his unfailing arrows!
The enemy’s vigilant eyes never ceases to watch me, hiding in his bosom his willful desire to harm me, and to feed me with the distasteful potion! But you saw my weakness against the unbearable adversity, and my inability to defend against the one who intended to fight me, and my loneliness in the midst of numerous adversaries, who had planned such misery against me, of which I had not imagined!
So, You initiated with Your help, and You affirmed my strength with Your power. Then You blunted his sharp blade and made him alone in spite of the multitude. And You raised me above him, Then You caused his own plan to turn against him, You repelled him, but that did not quench his thirst for revenge, nor did it dampen the heat of his anger!
He bit his hands and retreated, alone and deserted. And many a despot wronged me with his intrigue, setting up for me the traps to catch his victims, and appointing agents to investigate and watch me, hiding himself the way wild animals hide for their prey, waiting patiently for an opportunity to pounce.
Then I called upon You, O my Lord, appealing for Your help, with certainty about Your quick response, and the knowledge that whoever seeks refuge under Your shelter, will not be wronged; and whoever seeks refuge in Your bastions will have no fear.
So You fortified me with Your might, against his evil. And many an evil cloud You have dispersed, and many an overwhelming suffering You have relieved, You are not questioned about Your acts! But You were asked and You granted, and (even if) You were not asked, You initiated! And Your bounty was sought and You never turned it down.
You have ordained nothing but good, while I have persisted in breaking through Your injunctions, trespassing the limits set by You and being heedless to Your warning!
So all praise and thanks to You, O my Lord, the Mighty, Who cannot be overcome and, the Patient Who has no hurry. This indeed is the place for one to confess ones default, and to testify against oneself its ruination. O Allah! I seek nearness to You through the
Elevated stature of Muhammad, And I turn my face sincerely unto You, through the shining brightness of ‘Ali, Grant me refuge from evil of that You have created, and from evil of the one who has ill intentions against me, For that does not straiten Your might, and does not make it difficult for You in Your power. And You have power over all things.
O Allah! bestow upon me Your grace by enabling me to avoid all sins, for as long as You allow me to live! And have mercy on me by warding off such burden from me, which do not benefit me!
And bless me with an insight into such acts which please You, and let my heart guard Your Book, just as You have taught it to me, and make me recite it the way You may be pleased with me. Let the Book give light to my eyes and let my ears hear it attentively. And open up my chest by the Book and gladden by it my heart, and grant me free speech by it, use my body in its service, and grant me from Your might and power that which would make it easy for me to do so.
Surely, there is no might or power except by You. O Allah! let my night and day, my life and hereafter, my return and my abode, be free from all ills and evils, coupled with pardon and blessings from You. O Allah! You are my Sustainer, my Lord, my Master, my Hope, my God, my Succour, my Support, my Creator, my Helper, my Trustee and my Expectation.
My life and my death is for You, And so is my ear and eye! My sustenance is from You, and all my affairs of this world and hereafter repair to You! You owned me by Your Might and controlled me with Your authority, You only have the power in all my affairs, My forelock is in Your hands, None can intervene without Your consent.
Because of Your compassion, I hope for Your mercy, And through Your mercy I hope for Your pleasure, And I do not expect that because of my deeds, For my deeds have frustrated me, how can I expect from that which has frustrated me? I raise my complain to You about my poverty, my weakness, my excesses, and all that comes about from me and about all that You know more than I do, So be my sufficient guard in all of them.
O Allah! make me among the companions of Your beloved Muhammad and Your friend Ibrahim; And group me among those who are in peace and security on the Day of great fear, so grant me security; And bless me with Your glad tidings And grant me shelter under Your dense shade
And save me from the chastisement of hellfire, And do not subject me to evil nor to disgrace, And deliver me from the temptations herein, and accept my plea on the Day of Judgement, and remind me of Your remembrance and smooth my way for ease, and keep me away from hardship,
and inspire me to pray and to pay alms as long as I live, and help me in worshipping You, and make me serve in the way of knowledge and Your pleasure, and sustain me from Your beneficence, and brighten my face on the Day of Judgement, and grant me a lenient reckoning, and do not put me to shame because of my ugly acts; and guide me with Your guidance and make me hold firm to the Truth in this life and in the hereafter. And endear to me that which You like and make me abhor that which You dislike, And be sufficient for me in all my worries, in this life and hereafter, and bless my prayers, my fasts, my supplications, my sacrifice, my gratitude, my life here and in the next world; and promote me to the chosen position,
And appoint me for me a strong helper; And forgive my transgression, my ignorance and my intemperance against my own soul. And redeem me from the trials of life and death, and save me from all abominations, open or hidden; And group me on the Day of Judgement among Your friends, and give permanence to all Your endowments conferred upon me, and grant me satisfaction from things which are lawful, and make good things sufficient for me, rather than the bad ones. And turn to me with Your graceful Face, and do not turn it away from me!
And guide me unto Your straight path and help me do things You like and approve.
O Allah! I seek refuge in You from doing or saying things so as to attract admiration from others, and from grandeur, glorification, conceit, pride and haughtiness and from wantonness, vanity, self-esteem and arrogance,
So, O my Sustainer! save me from those, And I seek refuge in You from incompetence and miserliness and from avarice, jealousy, rivalry and fraud And I seek refuge in You from greed, impurity, restlessness, anxiety, corruption, wickedness and transgression. And I seek refuge in You from dishonesty, hostility and despotism. O my Sustainer! I seek refuge in You from the sins, from breaking off the blood relations, from evils vulgarity and misdeeds.
And I seek refuge in You from iniquities and sins, from things forbidden and made unlawful, from bad things and from all that does not please You. And O my Sustainer! I seek refuge in You from the evil of the Satan and his plans, his wrongs, his oppression, his enmity, his snare, his patrons and his army.
And I seek refuge in You from the evil of all Your creation; the animals, the pests or Jinn and humanbeings and all that moves; and I seek Your protection from the evil of all that descends from the heaven, and all that ascends to it; and from the evil of all that is created in the earth, and that which grows from it;
And I seek refuge with You from every soothsayer, sorcerer and swindler; and also from those who (cheat and) blow into knotted reeds (for curses).
O my Sustainer, I seek refuge with You from the evil of every envious person, and from tyrant, oppressor, (ill-intentioned) rival, despot, transgressor and wrongful person; And I flee unto You from blindness, deafness, dumbness, leprosy and from doubt and distrust; and I seek Your protection from sluggishness, from losing courage, inadequacy, remissness, (unnecessary) haste; and from being wasteful, negligent and procrastinating;
And I seek Your refuge from the evil of all that You have created in the heavens and the earth and all that is between them, and all that is under the earth. O my Sustainer, I seek refuge with You from penury, (unfulfilled) want, privation, and from begging (from others) and being deprived or becoming a pauper;
And I seek Your protection from paucity and humiliation; And I seek refuge with You from straitened circumstances, and hardships and from being confined or imprisoned, from being shackled or incarcerated, and from all such adversities and calamities with which I can put up. Amin, O Sustainer of the worlds.
O Allah, grant us all that we have asked for, and add to it with Your favour, measuring up with Your Mightiness and Greatness. (I ask) in Your name; there is no god but Allah, the Mighty and Wise.