The prayer for the farewell of the blessed month of Ramadan... by Imam Zayn al-Abidin Ali (peace be upon him).

The prayer for the farewell of the blessed month of Ramadan... by Imam Zayn al-Abidin Ali (peace be upon him).

 

O Allah, You are the One who does not seek reward, nor regrets giving, and You do not recompense Your servant with equal treatment. Your favour is the beginning, Your forgiveness is a gift, Your punishment is justice, and Your decree is the best choice. If You give, You do not blemish Your gift with any debt, and if You withhold, Your withholding is not unjust. You thank those who thank You, for You have inspired them to thank You, and You reward those who praise You, for You have taught them to praise You. You conceal the faults of those whom, if You had willed, You would have exposed, and You are generous towards those whom, if You had willed, You would have deprived. Both are deserving of disgrace and denial, but You have made Your actions based on generosity, and You have made Your power flow through pardon. You receive those who disobey You with forbearance, and You give respite to those who wrong themselves. You await them with Your mercy until they return, and You delay Your punishment for them, so that their destruction does not come swiftly upon them, nor do they become miserable by Your blessings, except after Your prolonged excuse, and after Your evidence has been made clear to them. This is by Your generosity, O Most Generous, and by Your kindness, O Most Forbearing.

You are the One who opened for Your servants the door to Your forgiveness and called it repentance. You set a sign upon that door from Your revelation so they do not go astray, for You said, blessed is Your name:

"Repent to Allah with sincere repentance, perhaps your Lord will remove your evil deeds from you and admit you into gardens beneath which rivers flow, on the day when Allah will not disgrace the Prophet and those who believe with him, their light running before them and on their right hands, they will say: 'Our Lord, perfect for us our light and forgive us. Indeed, You are over all things competent.'" (At-Tahrim 66:8).

What excuse can there be for one who neglects to enter that house after the door has been opened and the sign has been set? You are the One who has increased the burden upon Yourself for Your servants, wanting their profit in their trade with You, and their success in their coming to You and receiving an increase from You. You said, blessed is Your name and exalted: "Whoever brings a good deed will have ten times the like of it, and whoever brings an evil deed will not be recompensed except for the like of it" (Al-An’am 6:160).

And You said: "The example of those who spend their wealth in the way of Allah is like a seed that grows seven ears, in each ear a hundred grains, and Allah multiplies for whom He wills" (Al-Baqarah 2:261).

And You said: "Who is it that will loan to Allah a good loan, and He will multiply it for him many times over" (Al-Baqarah 2:245).

And You have revealed similar verses in the Qur’an about the multiplication of good deeds. You are the One who has guided them with Your words from Your unseen, and Your encouragement, which contains their share, to things that if You had concealed them from them, their eyes would never have perceived them, their ears would not have comprehended them, and their imaginations would not have grasped them. You said: "So remember Me, I will remember you, and be grateful to Me, and do not deny Me" (Al-Baqarah 2:152).

And You said: "If you are grateful, I will surely increase your favor; but if you deny, indeed, My punishment is severe" (Ibrahim 14:7).

And You said: "Call upon Me, I will respond to you. Indeed, those who are too arrogant to worship Me will enter Hell, humiliating" (Ghafir 40:60).

You have named Your prayer worship, and leaving it out of arrogance, and You have warned that those who neglect it will enter Hell humiliated. They remember You with Your blessings, thank You for Your favor, call upon You by Your command, and give in charity to You seeking Your increase. In this, their salvation from Your anger and their success in Your pleasure lies. If a created being were to guide another to what You have guided Your servants towards, it would be described as benevolent, obedient, and praised by all tongues. For You, praise is due as long as praise has a path and a meaning to which it directs. O You who has made Your benevolence known to Your servants with kindness and favor, and overwhelmed them with Your blessings and goodness, what You have spread among us of Your grace and showered upon us of Your gifts, and singled us out with Your righteousness! You have guided us to the religion You have chosen, the creed You have accepted, the path You have made easy, and opened to us the means of drawing near to You and reaching Your honor.

O Allah, You have made the month of Ramadan among the finest of those duties and specific attributes of those obligations. You have chosen it above all other months, selected it from all times and periods, and favored it over every other time of the year by revealing in it the Qur’an and light, increasing in it faith, and making fasting obligatory within it, encouraging standing in prayer in it, and honoring it with the Night of Decree, which is better than a thousand months. You then preferred it for us over all other nations, and selected us with its favor over the people of all creeds. We fasted in it by Your command, and stood in prayer in it with Your help, exposing ourselves through its fasting and standing for the mercy You made accessible to us, and we took to it seeking Your reward. You are the one with all that is desired by You, the generous One with all that is asked for from Your favor, the one near to those who strive to be near You. This month has stayed with us in a position of praise, accompanied us with the company of the blessed, and brought us the best of rewards among all the worlds. Then, it has left us with the completion of its time, the end of its duration, and the fulfillment of its number. We bid it farewell as one who is dear to us, whose departure has grieved and saddened us, whose leaving has left us feeling lonely, and to whom we owe the preserved bond, the honored respect, and the final truth. Therefore, we say:

• Peace be upon you, O greatest month of Allah, and O festival of His allies.
• Peace be upon you, O most generous companion of times, and O best of months in the days and hours.
• Peace be upon you, from the month in which hopes have drawn near, and deeds have been spread.
• Peace be upon you, from the companion whose great status is present, and whose loss is most tragic when gone, and whose separation brings painful longing.
• Peace be upon you, from the beloved whose presence brings joy, and whose departure brings solitude.
• Peace be upon you, from the neighbor whose heart softened in you, and whose sins decreased in you.
• Peace be upon you, from the supporter who aided in battling the devil, and the companion who made the ways of kindness easier.
• Peace be upon you, as abundant are the freed ones of Allah in you, and as fortunate are those who uphold your sanctity through you!
• Peace be upon you, for how much you cleanse the sins, and how much you conceal the faults!
• Peace be upon you, for how long you are kind to the criminals, and how much you are revered in the hearts of the believers!
• Peace be upon you, from a month that no other days can compete with.
• Peace be upon you, from a month that is peace in every matter.
• Peace be upon you, free from the unpleasantness of companionship and the disgrace of association.
• Peace be upon you, as you came to us with blessings, and cleansed us from the filth of sins.
• Peace be upon you, without a farewell of bitterness, nor a fasting left in weariness.
• Peace be upon you, from one desired before his time, and grieved over before his departure.
• Peace be upon you, for how many evils were turned away from us through you, and how many goods were bestowed upon us through you.
• Peace be upon you, and upon the Night of Decree, which is better than a thousand months.
• Peace be upon you, for how eagerly we longed for you yesterday, and how much we will yearn for you tomorrow.
• Peace be upon you, and upon the blessings we were deprived of, and upon the past blessings we have been robbed of.

O Allah, we are the people of this month which You have honoured us with and granted us success in, by Your grace, when the miserable ones were unaware of its time and were deprived of its blessings due to their misery. You are the Guardian of what You have blessed us with in knowing it, and You have guided us through its tradition. We have undertaken its fasting and prayers through Your guidance, with shortcomings, and we have offered little of the abundant.

O Allah, for You is all praise, acknowledging our faults and confessing our negligence. From our hearts, we feel the remorse, and from our tongues, we offer sincere apology. Reward us for what we have neglected in it with a reward that will help us regain the desired blessings, and compensate us with various forms of precious provision we have been careful to preserve. And make our excuses acceptable for what we have fallen short of in Your rights. Grant us the ability to reach the coming Ramadan, and when we reach it, assist us in engaging in worship that is fitting for You, and guide us to carry out the obedience You deserve. Grant us from the good deeds that will compensate for our shortcomings in the two months of the year.

O Allah, for what we have faltered in this month, whether in error or sin, or if we committed any transgression and acquired any wrong intentionally, or violated the sanctity of others, send blessings upon Muhammad and his family, conceal our faults with Your veils, forgive us with Your pardon, and do not expose us to the eyes of the mockers. Do not let the tongues of the arrogant speak against us, and make use of us in ways that will serve as atonement and expiation for what we have done wrong, with Your mercy that is inexhaustible, and Your grace that never diminishes.

O Allah, send blessings upon Muhammad and his family, and compensate for our misfortune with this month of ours. Bless our Eid day and our break of fast, and make it the best day that has ever passed upon us, bringing forgiveness and erasing sins. Forgive us for our hidden and apparent sins.

O Allah, cleanse us from our sins with the departure of this month, and remove our wrongdoings with its end. Make us among the happiest of its people, the most fortunate in it, and those with the greatest share from it.

O Allah, for those who upheld the rights of this month, preserved its sanctity, fulfilled its boundaries, and feared their sins as they should, or drew closer to You through an act of worship that earned Your pleasure and drew Your mercy, grant us similar from Your grace, and bestow upon us even more of Your favour. For Your grace never runs out, Your treasures never diminish but overflow, and the sources of Your goodness never end. Indeed, Your giving is a generous gift.

O Allah, send blessings upon Muhammad and his family, and grant us the same rewards as those who fasted it or worshipped You in it until the Day of Judgement.

O Allah, we repent to You on the day of our Eid, which You have made for the believers a day of celebration and joy, and for the people of Your faith a gathering and a meeting. We turn to You in repentance for every sin we have committed, every bad deed we have done, and every evil thought we have harboured, with the repentance of one who will never return to sin again, and will not repeat their mistakes. Accept our repentance, be pleased with us, and make us steadfast upon it.

O Allah, grant us the fear of the punishment of Your threat, and the longing for the reward You have promised, until we find the sweetness of what we call upon You for and the bitterness of what we seek refuge from. Make us among those who turn to You in repentance, those for whom You have made Your love obligatory, and accepted their return to Your obedience. You are the fairest of judges.

O Allah, forgive our fathers, mothers, and all our people, both those who have passed and those still alive, until the Day of Judgement.

O Allah, send blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad and his family, as You sent blessings upon Your closest angels.

And send blessings upon him and his family, as You sent blessings upon Your messengers.

And send blessings upon him and his family, as You sent blessings upon Your righteous servants.

And grant a blessing greater than this, O Lord of the worlds, a blessing that reaches us, with its benefits, and our supplications answered. You are the most generous to whom one turns, the most sufficient to whom one relies upon, and the most giving to those who ask from Your grace. And You are capable of everything.