BB00639: Prayer for Siyyid Ja’far Shubbar

In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate

O my God! Thou art God—He Who hath revealed Thyself unto those who abide in the realm of the Godhead through the very being of the adornments of the Cloud; unto those who dwell in the thicket of the All-Compelling through the manifestations of praise; unto those who sojourn in the thicket of the Kingdom through the offices of glory; unto those who inhabit the thicket of the Dominion through the signs of decree; unto those who abide in the land of humankind through the tokens of confirmation; unto those who appear in the beauty of the human realm through the reflected rays of splendor; and unto those who remain beneath the shadow of the surging sea of Names and the billowing deep of Attributes through the evidences of origination—so that none, beholding the countenance of Thy Presence, might utter any word of bewilderment, and that all may behold Thee manifest and existent by the revelation of Thine “I am,” the dawning of Thine Essence, the court of Thy Selfhood, and the effulgence of Thy very Being.

For Thy manifestation in the essences of created things and the realities of contingent beings is more evident than the mention of manifestation by itself and of itself. The gates of approach unto the station of Thy might stand open, unbarred; and the vessels that speed toward the court of Thy nearness are made ready for him whose very self is void of allusion and free from its mention. Glory be to Thee, O my God! Thou art the Ancient Lord, the Mighty King, the Gracious Master, the Tender, the Merciful, Who hast made the Balance for them that walk upon the straight and steadfast Path, and who desire the true Balance, to be the verses of Thy Book and the clear proofs of Thy utterance; and Thou hast made the proofs of that Proof to be Thy love for it, and the evidences of that Evidence to be Thy remembrance within it—according to Thy word in the remembrance of the first remembrance in Thy Book: “Will ye, then, dispute with him concerning that which he beholdeth thereafter?”

And “He speaketh not of his own desire; it is naught but a Revelation revealed; taught him One Mighty in power, endued with wisdom; and he stood poised while he was in the highest horizon; then he drew nigh and came closer, until he was at a distance of two bow-lengths or nearer; whereupon He revealed unto His servant what He revealed. The heart lied not in what it beheld.” “Will ye then dispute with him as to what he beholdeth? And verily he beheld Him another time, by the Lote-Tree of the Utmost Boundary, nigh unto which is the Garden of Abode.”

Glory be to Thee, O my God! Thou art He Who hast perfected Thy proof by Thy Book, and completed Thy religion by Thy utterance; nor hast Thou appointed for anyone a path within the ordinance of Thy Will save that Thou hast set forth for him clear signs and overshadowing tokens, that nothing might veil the appearance of the dawning of Thy Proof, and that all things may behold it, each in its own station—manifest with all things, above all things, and beyond all things.

O God! Remove from before us the veils of Thy glory and the canopies of Thy holiness, that nothing may hinder me from the dawning of Thine Eternity, the court of Thine “I am,” and the sovereignty of Thy dominion. And verily I know, O my God, that when Thou hast bestowed Thy greatest bounties upon any soul, Thou hast not withheld them from him through aught besides them, save when Thou hast known that which none knoweth but Thee—what would not befit him beyond that which Thou hast ordained for him. Such hath been Thy wont among the Prophets and the truthful ones, even as Thou didst permit Him upon whom the Qur’an was sent to say: “Say: Were I possessed of that which ye seek to hasten, the matter would have been decided between me and you; and God best knoweth the wrongdoers.”

No doubt Thy knowledge hath encompassed all things, Thy mercy hath embraced all things, and Thy power hath subdued all things. And when I called upon Thee by Thy Will, and Thou didst not answer me, assuredly Thou didst know my supplication, didst determine its success, and Thy sustaining power encompassed it. And when Thou didst not disclose it at the hour of declaration nor send it down at the time of exposition, I became certain that Thou wouldst do for me naught but what is best for me. And when I was assured that Thou hadst honored me with Thy verses, I knew that I had been made capable of numbered gifts and unnumbered bestowals. And when Thou didst not open their doors, I bear witness before Thee and those with Thee that this was not from any heedlessness on Thy part toward me, nor from incapacity, nor from a lack of my capacity to behold them; rather, it was of Thy manifest custom and Thy hidden trial—that he might perish who perisheth after beholding them, and he might live who liveth through witnessing the signs of their remembrance.

Thus were Thy words consummate and Thy verses made firm in the essences of the paradisal realities by their being, and in the materialities of “I-ness” by their creativeness; in the essentialities of the inmost natures by their offices, and in the soul-realities of the soaring spirits by their manifestations. No one hath any argument or way against Thee.

O God! Thou indeed knowest that whoever gazeth upon the Supreme and awaited Scene is judged by the word:

“The Hour hath drawn nigh and the moon hath been cleft asunder.”

The lordly Ja’far Shabr hath set down in a book for me two hidden letters. O God! Inspire him, in what he hath intended, as Thou wilt; and I have willed by Thy power, for Thou knowest all things, and nothing in the heavens or on the earth can weary Thee.

Forgive, O God, me and all who have sought the pure religion, the path of Thy love, the road of obedience unto Thee, and the dawning of Thy Presence—since Thou seest the trial of Thy servants. Thou art, verily, God, the Bountiful, the Possessor of grace and beneficence, of proof and of utterance. Glory be to God, the Lord of the Throne, above that which they ascribe; peace be upon the Messengers; and praise be to God, the Lord of all worlds.