31. Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from his father from ibn Mahbub from al-‘Ala’ ibn Razin from ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Sayabah who has said the following: “Once Abu ‘Abdillah عليه السلام gave me this supplication: ‘All praise belongs to Allah, the Owner, and worthy of praise, the end and the location of all praise. Those who believe in His Oneness have achieved purity, those who worship Him have found guidance, those who obey Him have triumphed and those who have sought His protection have found security. O Lord, O possessor of generosity and glory, beautiful praise and thanks, I plead before You like one who has humbled himself before You with his neck, rubbed his nose on the ground before You, as well as his face, humiliated his soul before You, whose tears have flooded for fear from You, and have continued flowing, who has confessed to his sins before You, his blunders have disgraced him before You, his crimes have made him shunned in Your presence, his power has weakened before You, his resources have diminished, his means of trickery are cut off, all falsehood has disappeared from him, his sins have forced him to lowly positions before You, and to humble himself before You, and to beg You for help. I plead before You like the plea of one who is more desirous in pleading before You than the one pleading as above, who prays before You like him and begs for help more intensely than him. “O Lord, favor the destitution of my expression, humility of my position, my seat and humility before You with my neck. O Lord, I plead before You for guidance against straying, understanding against blindness and intelligence against transgression. O Lord, I plead before You to help me praise You the most in comfort, bear beautiful patience in hardships, the best thanks to You whenever it is the occasion to thank and submission in the doubtful conditions. I plead before You for power to obey You, weakness in disobedience, for the ability to flee to You from You, and to seek nearness to You, so that, O Lord, I seek Your happiness, give preference to doing what makes You happy with me even though it may anger the people, while I seek Your satisfaction. “O Lord, who can I hope if You do not have kindness for me, or who cares for me if You keep me far away, or whose forgiveness benefits me, if You punish me, or whose gifts should I hope for if You deprive me of Your gifts, or who can have honor for me in his hands if You degrade me, whose degrading of me can harm me if You honor me. “O Lord, how bad are my deeds, how obnoxious are my acts, how brutal is my heart, how lengthy are my (worldly) yearnings, how short is my life that has made it so daring to disobey my creator! “O Lord, how good is Your trial for me, how manifest are Your bounties upon me! Your bounties upon me have become so much that I cannot even count them. My thanks to You for the preferences that You have given to me, in the joy for the bounties, is so little that 1 have subjected myself to punishment. I have forgotten speaking of You, have indulged in ignorance after knowledge, crossed over from justice to transgression, from virtuous deeds to sin and to fleeing for fear and sorrow. How small and little are my virtuous deeds compared to my numerous sins, how many and great are my sins compared to the small size of my structure, and weak limbs! “O Lord, how lengthy are my (worldly) hopes in my short life, how short is my life in my lengthy hopes, how hideous is my inside and my outside! O Lord, I have no ground if argued, no excuse to find excuses, no gratitude if I would be tried or if I am favored unless You assist me to be grateful for the favor You have done to me. “O Lord, how light will be my balance tomorrow if You will not make it weigh heavy! How reckless is my tongue if You do not keep it in place! How black is my face if You do not whiten it! O Lord, how would I deal with my sins of the past that have crushed my limbs! O Lord, how can I seek worldly desires and weep for failing to achieve them but do not weep while my regrets for disobedience have intensified and my transgression has gone to the extremities! O Lord, the worldly motives prompted me and I quickly responded, and relied upon them willingly. The motives for the gains of the hereafter prompted me but I lingered and delayed to respond and to move faster to them like the fast moving to the worldly motives, its worthless vanities, smashed up beyond use materials and its fast disappearing mirage. “O Lord, You have frightened and encouraged me and have argued against me to prove me a slave and have sufficed me in my sustenance, but I felt secure from Your warning and lagged behind in acting upon Your encouragement, did not trust Your guarantee, and took Your argument lightly. “O Lord, change my feeling of security from Your warning in this world into fear, my procrastination into zeal and zest and my taking Your argumentation against me lightly into serious concern and anxiety and then make me to be happy with the share of sustenance that You have assigned for me, O Magnanimous, O Magnanimous, I plead before You through Your great name so You be happy (with me) when You are angry, I beg for relief in pain and suffering, light in darkness, and understanding in the confusion of tribulation. “O Lord, make my shield against sins formidable, my position in paradise high, my deeds all accepted, my virtuous deeds to come in multiples and pure. I seek protection with You against all misfortune, the apparent and hidden, against overeating and overdrinking, against the evil of what I know and that which I do not know. I seek protection with You against my buying ignorance at the cost of knowledge, harshness at the cost of forbearing, injustice at the cost of justice, cutting off good relations with relatives at the cost of maintaining good relations with relatives, intolerance at the cost of exercising patience, straying at the cost of guidance and disbelief at the cost of belief.”’ Ibn Mahbub has narrated from Jamil ibn Salih that he has narrated that Ali ibn Salih had a similar supplication and at the end he has added, “Amin, O Lord, of the worlds.”