His Supplication in the Night Prayer

, he who neglects which has perished. 18- I cannot seek access to Thee through the excellence of a supererogatory work, given the many duties of Thy obligationsof which I have been heedlessand the stations of Thy bounds which I have transgressed, thereby violating sacred things and committing great sins, though Thou hast given me safety from their disgraces as a covering. 19- This is the station of him who isashamed of himself before Thee, angry with himself, and satisfied with Thee. He meets Thee with a humble soul, a neck bent down, a back heavy with offenses, hesitating between longing for Thee and fear of Thee. 20- Thou art the most worthy of those in whom he might hope, the most deserving for him to dread and fear. So give me, my Lord, what I hope for, make me secure against what frightens me, and act kindly toward me with the kindly act of mercy! Surely Thou art the most generousof those from whom are asked! 21- O God, since Thou hast covered me with Thy pardonand shielded me with Thy bountyin the abode of annihilation and the presence of equals, grant me sanctuary from the disgraces of the Abode of Subsistenceat the standing places of the Witnesses(the angels brought nigh, the messengers honoured, the martyrs, the righteous)before the neighbour from whom I have hidden my evil deedsand the womb relative before whom I feel ashamed in my secret thoughts! 22- I trust them not, my Lord, to cover me over, but I trust Thee, my Lord, to forgive me! Thou art the most worthy of those in whom confidence is had, the most giving of those who are besought, and the most clement of those from whom mercy is asked. So have mercy upon me! 23- O God, Thou caused me to descend as mean waterfrom loins of narrow bones and tight passagesinto a constricted womb which Thou hadst covered with veils; 3Thou turned me about from state to stateuntil Thou tookest me to the completion of the formand fixed within me the bodily parts, as Thou hast described in Thy Book: a drop, then a clot, then a tissue, then bones, then Thou garmented the bones with flesh, then Thou produced me as another creatureas Thou willed. 4 24- Then, when I needed Thy provision, and could not do without the aid of Thy bounty, Thou appointed for me a nourishmentfrom the bounty of the food and drinkwhich Thou bestowed upon Thy handmaidin whose belly Thou gavest me to restand in the lodging of whose wombThou deposited me. 25- Hadst Thou entrusted me in those states, my Lord, to my own forceor driven me to have recourse to my own strength, force would have been removed from meand strength taken far away. 26. So Thou hast fed me through Thy bountywith the food of the Good, the Gentle; Thou hast done that for me in graciousness toward meup to this my present point. I do not lack Thy goodness, nor does Thy benefaction keep me waiting. Yet with all that, my trust has not become firm enoughthat I might free myselffor that which is more favoured by Thee. 27- Satan has taken possession of my reinsthrough my distrust and frail