Parts of Dua-e-A’rafah

The prayer of Imam al-°usayn (`a), the Chief of Martyrs, on the `Araf¡t Day is one of the famous prayers. Bishr and Bash¢r, the sons of Gh¡lib al-Asad¢, narrated that they, once, accompanied Imam al-°usayn (`a) at the `Araf¡t Night when he left his tent with submission and reverence. He walked slowly until he, accompanied by a group of his household, sons, and servants, stopped at the left side of Mount `Araf¡t and turned his face towards the Holy Ka`bah. He then raised his hands (for supplication) to the level of his face, just like a poor man begging food, and said:

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

O Allah, (please do) send blessings to Muhammad and the Household of Muhammad,

Praise be to Allah Whose determination cannot be repelled by anything
Whose gifts cannot be stopped by anything
and Whose making cannot be resembled by the making of anyone.
He is the All-magnanimous, the All-liberal.
He originated the genus of the wonderfully created things
and He perfected the made things by His wisdom.
All growing things cannot be hidden from Him
and all things deposited with Him shall never be wasted.
He is the Repayer on every deed,
the Enricher of every satisfied one,
the Merciful toward every suppliant,
and the Revealer of the benefits
and the All-comprehensive Book with the glaring light.
He is also the Hearer of prayers,
the Warder-off of anguishes,
the Raiser of ranks,
and the Suppressor of the tyrants.
There is no god other than Him
and there is nothing equivalent to Him
and nothing like a likeness of Him,
and He is the All-hearing, the All-seeing,
the All-gentle, the All-aware,
and He has power over all things.
O Allah, I willingly desire for You
and I testify to the Lordship of You,
confessing that You are verily my Lord
and to You shall be my return.
You had begun bestowing on me
before I was anything worth mentioning,
and You created me from dust.
You then put me up in the loins,
(making me) saved from vicissitudes of time,
and change of ages and years.
I was moving from a loin to a womb
throughout the passage of the past days
and the ancient ages;
as You have not taken me out (to this world)—on account of Your sympathy to me,
Your kindness to me,
and Your compassion to me—
in the government of the heads of unbelief
who breached their covenant with You
and denied Your messengers.
However, You took me out on account of the guidance that You have already known about me
and You have made easy the way to it
and You have brought me up in it.
Even before that, You had compassion on me,
through Your excellent conferral
and Your affluent bestowals.
So, You fashioned my creation from semen that gushed forth
and put me up in triple darkness
among flesh, blood, and skin.
You have not made me witness my creation,
and You have not referred any part of my creation to me.
You then took me out on account of the guidance that You have already known about me
to the world, perfect and in sound health.
You have safeguarded me in the cradle as small child.
You have provided me with wholesome milk as food.
You have made the hearts of the nursemaids tender.
You have given me into the charge of merciful mothers.
You have saved me from the visits of the Jinn.
You have delivered me from increase and decrease.
So, Exalted be You, O All-merciful, O All-beneficent.
When I commenced (my life) by pronouncing words,
You perfected for me the affluent bestowals,
and brought me up with an increase every year.
When my creation was accomplished,
and my power became straight,
You put me under the obligation of Your Claim,
which is that You inspired me with recognition of You
and alarmed me by the wonders of Your wisdom,
and You aroused in me that which You created in Your heavens and lands,
which is the excellent creation of You.
You attracted my attentions to thank and mention You.
You made obligatory on me to obey and worship You.
You made me understand that with which Your Apostles came.
You made easy for me to find agreeable Your pleasure.
You bestowed upon me with the favor of all that,
out of Your aid and Your gentleness.
As You created me from the best of soil,
You, my God, have not wanted for me to have a certain favor (and to be deprived of another)
and You therefore provided me with the various kinds of living
and types of wealth,
out of Your great and grand conferral upon me,
and Your eternal kindness to me.
As You perfected for me all the graces
and warded off all misfortunes,
my ignorance of You and challenge have not stopped You
from showing me that which takes me near to You,
and from leading me to that which grants me proximity to You.
So, if I pray You, You will respond to me;
and if I beg You, You will give me;
and if I obey You, You will thank me;
and if I thank You, You will give me more.
All that is completion of Your favors for me,
and Your kindness to me.
So, all glory be to You; all glory be to You.
You are verily Originator and Reproducer (of the creation)
and worthy of all praise and full of all glory.
Holy be Your Names
as Your bounties are so immeasurable.
Which of Your favors, O my God, can I count in numbers and examples?
Or which of Your gifts can I thank properly?
They are, O my Lord, too numerous to be counted by counters
or to be realized by memorizers.
Moreover, that which You have warded off and repelled,
O Allah, from (the various kinds of) harm and mischief
is more than that which came to me from wellbeing and joy.
And I bear witness, O my God, with my true belief,
and the fortitude of the determinations of my conviction
and the purity of my open belief in Your Oneness
and the essence of the secret of my conscience,
and the ties of the canals of the light of my sight,
and the lines of my forehead
and the hallows of the courses of my breath,
and the (nasal) cavities of my nose,
and the courses of the meatus of my hearing,
and whatever my two lips hide and cover up,
and the motions of the vocalization of my tongue,
and the socket of the palate of my mouth and jaw,
and the matrices of my dents,
and the tasting of my food and my drink,
and the carrier of my skill,
and the tube of the tissues of my neck
and what is included by the cloak of my chest,
and the carriers of the cord of my aorta,
and the cords of the pericardium of my heart,
and the pieces of the retinues of my liver,
and that which is included by the cartilages of my ribs,
and the cavities of my joints,
and the interactings of my organisms,
and the extremes of my fingertips,
and my flesh, and my blood,
and my hair, and my skin,
and my nerve, and my sinews,
and my bones, and my brain, and my veins,
and all of my organs,
and that which was pieced together during the days of my suckling,
and whatever of my body that the ground carries,
and my sleeping, and my wakefulness, and my motionlessness,
and the movements of my bowing and prostration;
(by all that I bear witness) that if I try my best and strive throughout all ages
and all times, if I live them,
to thank properly only one of Your favors,
I will not be able to do that,
except through a favor of You, which also requires me to thank You for it,
once again with new thanking
and with praise that is newly acquired and newly prepared.
True is this! And if I try hard,
as well as the counters from Your creatures,
to count the scope of Your favoring,
both the past and the present,
we shall never be able to calculate it in number,
or count it in time.
Too far is this! How can it be!
While it is You Who have informed in Your rational Book
and true news:
“And if you count Allah’s favors, you will not be able to number them.”
True is Your Book, O Allah, and Your informing.
Your Prophets and Messengers have conveyed
what You revealed to them, from Your Revelation,
and what You have made plain for them and through them Your religion.
Nevertheless, O my God,
I bear witness by my ultimate possibility and my diligence
and the scope of my vigor and my capacity,
and I say with full faith and conviction:
All praise be to Allah Who has not taken to Himself a son
to be inherited,
and Who does not have a partner in His kingdom,
to oppose Him in what He fashions,
and Who does not have a helper to save Him from disgrace,
to help Him in what He makes.
So, glory be to Him, glory be to Him.
If there had been in them any gods except Allah, they would both have certainly been in a state of disorder and destruction.
All glory be to Allah, the One, the Only One, the Besought of all,
Who begets not nor is He begotten,
and there is none like Him.
All praise be to Allah—praise that is equal to the praise of His Favorite Angels,
and His missioned Prophets.
May Allah send blessings to His Select,
Mu¦ammad, the Seal of Prophets,
and upon his Household, the pure, immaculate, and well-chosen, and may He send benedictions upon them.