Bismillah.
Knocking at Allah’s door
Habib Ali bin Muhammad al-Habshi’s supplication for the beginning of the year
In his book, "A Breath of Fragrance", al-Habib Umar bin Ahmad bin Abi Bakr bin Sumeit refers to Habib Ali in the following terms: ‘He is an Imam about whose sublime sainthood there is unanimity, as there was universal witness to the fact he was the rising sun of the horizons, the vicegerent of the master of all Envoys and the incumbent of an exalted station in the ranks of those drawn nigh to Allah, the blessing of existence and the ka’ba of munificence’. Come and share with us the oratory of his soul.
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah the All-Merciful the All-Compassionate.
All praise is Allah’s, Lord of all creations.
O Lord, with all beauteous names (Allahuma),
bestow blessings and peace upon our master Muhammad,
our supreme access to You,
in the answer to what we supplicate for,
the achievement of what we aspire to,
and the forgiving of such wrongdoings as we have committed,
and upon members of his household and his companions
and those who support him.
Indeed, elapsed in our span of life is a whole year.
You have garlanded us in it with Your bounties
for which we are unable to offer gratitude,
and You have protected us in it
from evils and unpleasant things
from which we could not have protected ourselves,
and we have put into it works
of which You are All-Knowing.
Such good deeds which You have enabled us to do in it,
may You please accept that from us,
and may You record them in Your presence as virtuous works,
and may You forgive us the blemishes
of ostentation, and self-glory, and self-embellishment,
and other things as have interfered with them,
and may You make them a means through which
we are led to Your good pleasure and drawn near to You.
And such evil deeds and errors as we have committed.
and actions unpleasing in Your sight,
and intentions which are unrighteous
[such of these that we may have committed]
with our limbs and our hearts
we ask You, Allahuma,
by virtue of Your essence
and Your names and Your attributes,
and by virtue of the sublime Qur'an
and Your revealed books,
and by virtue of our master Muhammad,
Allah bless him and bestow peace upon him
as well as members of his household,
and by virtue of whosoever has rank before You
amongst all Your created beings,
that You will forgive all those wrongdoings
and cover all those defects,
and that You will favour us
from Your ample, magnificent, generosity
with all that we aspire to,
and that You will exchange our evils actions for good ones,
and that You will enable us to attain Your good pleasure
at the highest level of our aspirations
and the uppermost limit of our wishes.
And we, as You know us,
have our forelocks in Your hands
and our entire affair, in all our states, come back to You,
and whatever good opinion we cherish regarding You,
You are well aware of it,
and our absolute dependence upon You,
and extreme need of You,
are not concealed from You,
and here are our hands
stretched out towards You
and our hearts are focused upon You,
do not therefore, turn us away empty handed,
O, the Hope of all aspirers!
And the Refuge of all refuge seekers!
Show mercy unto he who calls You
when he believes that You are his Lord
and comes exclusively to You, when indeed,
You are his sufficiency.
After the outgoing year
a new year has come upon us
while we do not know
what has been pre-ordained in Your knowledge regarding us.
And our hope is
that You will open for us, in this new year,
a door of sincere, genuine, repentance
from which we shall not renege,
and that You will grace us in it
with the ability for virtuous works,
acceptable to You, that will in turn grace us
with Your good pleasure towards us,
and that You will employ our limbs in obedience
that is well-pleasing in Your sight,
and our hearts with love for You,
and love for whomsoever You love,
and love for whatsoever You love,
and that You will expand our hearts
and grant them the capacity
for Your special knowledge,
with which You have ennobled such of Your servants
that are possessed of knowledge about You
and virtuous saints,
and that You will sustain us with taqwawith which You have ennobled servants of Yours
who are endowed with taqwa[that You will sustain us] with its essence,
its fruit, its main roots and its branches
and may You lodge us in the highest stations of rectitude,
and raise us to certainty at the highest levels of certainty,
and that You may grant us entry to the path of following,
in words, deeds, intentions, and works,
Your beloved,
the most honoured of created beings in your presence,
namely our master Muhammad, may Allah bless him
and bestow peace upon him,
as well as his household,
and that You may make ample our share of love
for this beloved and of following him
in all our states
and that You make us, O our Lord,
among the happiest of people by virtue of him,
and those closest to him,
and among those who cherish the greatest lasting love for him,
and may You honour us with the vision of his honoured face,
Allah bless him and bestow peace upon him and his household
whilst he is well pleased with us,
in sleep and our wakeful moments,
in this world, the world in between and the hereafter,
and may You honour us, O our Lord,
with complete and copious blessing in our works,
our intentions, and our sustenance
and in our movements and stillness,
and may You make the coming years of our lives
rotate around firmness in our religion
and dedication to Your service,
and may You protect us in all this from the evil of Satan,
and his works,
and from the evil of the evil-commanding soul, and its work,
and from the evil of worldly temptation,
and may You protect us from plunging into its gewgaws,
and its decorations,
and from such tests as derive from it
in the area of wealth and dependents
and things other than these,
and from yielding to ruinous passions,
and may You protect us from being overwhelmed
in the domain of ephemeral desires,
and from evil companions and their companionship,
and may You make our renewed spans of life
all employed in what is well pleasing to You,
and such bounties as You have generously bestowed upon us,
may You enable us to offer gratitude for that,
and may You make us, O our Lord,
among those who hold firm to the firm handhold
of sincerity towards You, in all our pursuits,
and may You embrace in all these supplications
our children and our parents,
and our friends and our brethren in religion,
and endow us with an immense strength
which will [further] strengthen us in obedience to You,
and in the discharge of Your obligation upon us,
in the manner that You like,
and with which You are well pleased,
and may You grant us a plentiful share with which
to strive vigorously in Your service,
and in the constancy of such works as will earn
Your good pleasure,
and may You open for us, a manifest opening,
in the reflection of the magnificent Qur'an,
and in the access to its secrets,
and in the excellent manners at the time of reciting its verses,
and when listening to them,
and may You grant us, O our Lord,
the memorisation of its words
and the fulfilling of its obligations,
and the response to its call,
and the hastening to abide by its commands
and the avoidance of its prohibitions,
and may You make us amongst a people
who are loyally wedded to its rights,
and may You appoint it for us, in Your presence,
a witness of sincerity through fulfilling what it calls us to,
O Most Merciful of the Merciful,
[since every merciful one receives the gift of mercy from You],
and may Allah bestow blessings on our master Muhammad
and his household, and upon his companions in their entirety,
and the praise is Allah’s, Lord of all universes.
________________________________________________
Those deserving our warm gratitude for their help in this work are quite a few. They include Sayyidina al-Habib Abd al-Qadir bin A’bd ar-Rahman bin U’mar al-Junayd for his guidance, Bibi Zainab Ali Foum, Shaikh Nassor bin Maalim Abdalla bin Maalim Mohammed Abu Bakr, Mohammed Ahmed bin Himid Mbaye, Rashid A. Saleh, Maalim Ibrahim Ahmad Musa, Ali & Arif S. Dahoma, Fatima Issa Kara, Ahmad Ibrahim Khalid, A.R., Nuru Adam, Shaikh Abdalla Miraja Othman, Alawi bin Shams az-Zaman al-Haddad – they all look forward to duas for their various connections to this modest contribution.
Quoted from:
Shaykh Abdul Karim Yahya's blog
Wishing all of you an excellent year ahead.
Your brethren in religion,
Ezza
1st Muharram 1433 Hijri
