I spent last night in good spiritual company but it was almost two hours drive south to get there. Not being a night person, I got permission to stay over night in their retreat room. For people who let the hustle and bustle of city life get the best of them, I highly recommend such quarters: blissful darkness, with a gentle hooting owl in an otherwise silent night. But I was up and out this morning before the sunrise, because I have a full day ahead of me and needed to be in my own reclusive space to get it started. I have far less need of time away and alone than I have of good company, I realize again and again. Hmm, maybe this will help alleviate my abhorrence of crowds when I am at Makkah!
Somewhere on the road to home I intentionally took a detour. I was south of Santa Cruz heading north towards San Francisco and I just had a craving for that ride along the coast, the famous Highway One. Earlier this year when I spent a month in Australia, including a stint at University of Melbourne, I took a day tour along the Great Ocean Road. I learned that its architect of it had been inspired by our own Highway One. Both are stunning testaments to the majesty of God’s creation. Ocean, sand, rocks, mountains, cliffs, trees, farms, animals, strawberries, well there were lots of organic strawberry farms this morning that caught my eye as I whizzed by. (California is on the left, Australia on the right, in the photos below.)
It made me thankful and made me think of my favorite things, in life and in prayer. So I want to share three favorite prayers, one from the Qur’an, one from the hadith and one about the majesty of Allah, also from the Qur’an, but not quite a supplication, it is often repeated after formal prayers in the spot where personal prayers are usually recited.
The first one comes from the second chapter of the Qur’an verse :
Allah/God does not place upon a soul/person more than it can bear.
To it is what it earns and against it is what has been accrued.
Our Lord, do not punish us, if we forget (are negligent), or if we err.
Our Lord, do not place a burden upon us like you placed upon others before us
Our Lord, do not place upon us what we cannot endure
And pardon us; And forgive us; And have mercy on us; You are our Lord
Help us against those (people) who cover the truth (with disbelief).
In its original Arabic, it reads so poetically. At the places where there is a cry to the divine, the language has the quality of a call: rendering twice the affect of supplication than the English translation. I like how first it sizes up the nafs (soul, person, or ego); by asserting no soul ever has more than it can bear. Also note that while this is very personal or individual prayer, it uses the plural form through out. As if to say: what I personally ask for, all humanity needs: guidance to truth, forgiveness and mercy. Of course.
But I especially like after first designating that no soul is given more than it can bear, it then follows with a supplication for just that. Oh, my Lord, do not place upon us more than we can endure. In this direct invocation to God, I feel a kind of synchronicity between our everyday ordinary and the Sacred. By calling upon God, we achieve both the alleviation of our fears and the fulfillment of our needs.
The other prayer, I really like comes from the hadith and it is the prayer for good. It is supposed to be performed in the night, after some sleep and before fajr prayer in the morning. One should rise just to make these two units of prayer, worship and then recite the following:
“Oh (my) God, indeed I ask of you the good from the great generosity of Your capacity to decree. Oh God, if this matter be good for me and for my faith and for the issue of my affairs, then, ordain it for me and make it easy for me. (But) if this matter is bad for me, for my faith and for the issue of my affairs, then, turn it away from me and turn me away there from. Turn me towards the good, where ever it may be, and cause me to be pleased with it.”
This prayer is supposed to be recited when embarking on a major change in life: a job, marriage, a book project, moving, etc. It refers to the divine capacity to decree and invokes that to make the right choice. We have a thing in mind, but we stop and ask for specific guidance with regard to how to proceed.
The first part is pretty self-evident.
It is the part in bold that makes this one of my favorites. It is okay, to be denied something we want and therefore get up in the night to seek guidance to the benevolent with regard to that something, but then we are human. We have needs and wants, and I like the way this prayer accepts that. So in addition to being turned away from what is not good for us, we might need help in surrendering. So we not only ask for the good, but we ask as well to be inclined towards it, “cause me to be pleased with it”.
Finally, like many Muslim, I have a special love for what is known as ayat al-kursi, the verse of (God’s) the throne; chapter 2 verse 255.
God, there is no God but He, the Living the Self-subsisting. She does not sleep nor (even) take a rest. To It belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth. Who is there who can ask for intercession, except as He will? She knows what is before them and what is behind them. And they do not encompass aught of Its knowledge except as He wills. Her throne sits (strides across) upon the heavens and the earth, and It does not tire in protecting them (both). He is the Highest, the Greatest.
It needs nothing further to explain. Enjoy your favorite things and Thank God.
