1
Praise belongs to God who guided us to His praise and placed us among the
people of praise, that we might be among the thankful for His beneficence and
that He might recompense us for that with the recompense of the good-doers!
2
And praise belongs to God who showed favour to us through His religion,
singled us out for His creed, and directed us onto the roads of His beneficence,
in order that through His kindness we might travel upon them to His good
pleasure, a praise which He will accept from us and through which He will be
pleased with us!
3
And praise belongs to God who appointed among those roads His month, the
month of Ramadan, the month of fasting, the month of submission, the month of
purity, the month of putting to test, the month of standing in prayer, in
which the Qur'an was sent down as guidance to the people, and as clear signs of
the Guidance and the Separator!
4 He clarified its excellence over other months by the many sacred things and well-known
excellencies which He placed therein, for He made unlawful in it what He declared lawful in others to magnify it, He prohibited foods and drinks in it to honour it, and He appointed for it a clear time which He (majestic and mighty is He) allows not to be set forward and accepts not to be placed behind.
5
Then He made one of its nights surpass the nights of a thousand months
and named it the Night of Decree; in it
the angels and the Spirit descend by the leave of their Lord upon every command,
a peace constant in blessings until
the rising of the dawn upon whomsoever He will of
His servants according to the decision He has made firm.
6
O God, bless Muhammad and his Household, inspire us with knowledge of its
excellence, veneration of its inviolability, and caution against what Thou hast
forbidden within it, and help us to fast in it by our restraining our limbs from
acts of disobedience toward Thee and our employing them in that which pleases
Thee, so that we lend not our ears to idle talk and hurry not with our eyes to
diversion,
7
we stretch not our hands toward the forbidden and stride not with our
feet toward the prohibited, our bellies hold only what Thou hast made lawful and
our tongues speak only what Thou hast exemplified, we undertake nothing but what
brings close to Thy reward and pursue nothing but what protects from Thy
punishment! Then rid all of that from the false show of the false showers and
the fame seeking of the fame seekers, lest we associate therein anything with
Thee or seek therein any object of desire but Thee!
8
O God, bless Muhammad and his Household, in it make us attend to the
appointed moments of the five prayers within the bounds Thou hast set, the
obligations Thou hast decreed, the duties Thou hast assigned, and the times Thou
hast specified;
9
and in the prayers make us alight in the station of the keepers of their
stations, the guardians of their pillars, their performers in their times, as
Thy servant and Thy messenger set down in his Sunna
(Thy blessings be upon him and his Household) in their bowings, their
prostrations, and all their excellent acts, with the most complete and ample
ritual purity and the most evident and intense humility!
10
Give us success in this month to tighten our bonds of kin with devotion
and gifts, attend to our neighbours with bestowal and giving, rid our
possessions from claims, purify them through paying the alms, go back to him who
has gone far from us, treat justly him who has wronged us, make peace with him
who shows enmity toward us (except him who is regarded as an enemy in Thee and
for Thee, for he is the enemy whom we will not befriend, the party whom we will
not hold dear),
11
and seek nearness to Thee through blameless works which will purify us
from sins and preserve us from renewing faults, so that none of Thy angels will
bring for Thee the kinds of obedience and sorts of nearness-seeking unless they
be less than what we bring!
12
O God, I ask Thee by the right of this month and by the right of him who
worships Thee within it from its beginning to the time of its passing, whether
angel Thou hast brought nigh to Thee, prophet Thou hast sent, or righteous
servant Thou hast singled out, that Thou bless Muhammad and his Household, make
us worthy of the generosity Thou hast promised Thy friends, make incumbent for
us what Thou hast made incumbent for those who go to great lengths in obeying
Thee, and place us in the ranks of those who deserve through Thy mercy the
highest elevation!
13
O God, bless Muhammad and his Household, turn us aside from deviation in
professing Thy Unity, falling short in magnifying Thee, in Thy religion,
blindness toward Thy path, heedlessness of Thy inviolability, and being deceived
by Thy enemy, the accursed Satan!
14
O God, bless Muhammad and his Household, and when in every night of this
month's nights Thou hast necks which Thy pardon will release and Thy forgiveness
disregard, place our necks among those necks and place us among the best folk
and companions of this our month!
15
O God, bless Muhammad and his Household, efface our sins along with the
effacing of its crescent moon, and make us pass forth from the ill effects of
our acts with the passing of its days, until it leaves us behind, while within
it Thou hast purified us of offenses and rid us of evil deeds!
16
O God, bless Muhammad and his Household, and should we go off to one side
in this month, set us aright; should we swerve, point us straight; and should
Thy enemy Satan enwrap us, rescue us from him!
17
O God, fill this month with our worship of Thee, adorn its times with our
obedience toward Thee, help us during its daytime with its fast, and in its
night with prayer and pleading toward Thee, humility toward Thee, and lowliness
before Thee, so that its daytime may not bear witness against our heedlessness,
nor its night against our neglect!
18
O God, make us like this in the other months and days as long as Thou
givest us life, and place us among Thy righteous servants, those who shall inherit Paradise, therein dwelling forever, those who
give what they give, while their hearts quake, that they are returning to their
Lord, those who vie in good works, outracing to them!
19
O God, bless Muhammad and his Household in every time, in all moments,
and in every state, to the number that Thou hast blessed whomsoever Thou hast
blessed and to multiples of all that, through multiples which none can count but
Thee! Surely Thou art Accomplisher of what Thou desirest.
