BB00261: Li-Qa’im

Prayer of Muhammad ibn al-Hasan, peace be upon them both

Glorified art Thou! There is no God but Thee. Verily Thou art the Lord of all worlds. Glorified art Thou, O my God! Thou art the Creator of the heavens and the earth and whatsoever lieth between them by Thy command, not through any means, and Thou art the Fashioner of all things by Thy command, not through any instrument. Thou hast ever existed before all things and Thou wilt ever continue to exist after all things, and at all times Thou art the Maker of all things.

Glorified art Thou beyond my power to describe Thee through aught except Thyself, for verily Thou art manifest above all things, mighty over all things, dominant over all things, and subsistent over every soul. Thou knowest what each hath earned and dost witness what each shall earn. Thou art supreme over what Thou hast created and wilt create. Not a thing escapeth Thy knowledge, nor doth anything elude Thy grasp, nor is anything beyond Thy power. Thou art the Manifest One Who will never be manifested, the Subduer Who will never be subdued, the Ever-Living Who dieth not, the Self-Subsisting Who cannot be hindered, and the All-Encompassing from Whose grasp nothing can escape. There is nothing in the heavens or on the earth or between them that doth not glorify Thee with Thy praise and prostrate itself before Thee, submissive to Thy sovereignty and to Thy will through Thy proof.

Thy signs have filled the kingdoms of Thy earth and heaven, and through them it hath become manifest that there is no God but Thee, and Thy proof hath been perfected unto all who dwell in the kingdoms of creation and command. Therefore, O my God, send down every good thing encompassed by Thy knowledge upon Thy Friend who standeth by Thy Cause, who awaiteth Thy promise, who watcheth for Thy decree, who is victorious through Thy hosts, and who possesseth all things through Thy sovereignty, in such wise as none save Thee can comprehend. O my God, guard him from before him and from behind him, from his right and his left, from above his head and beneath his feet, and from every quarter that hath relation to him, even as Thou hast preserved the Word of Unity and all that Thou hast created through that Word, from the prophethood of Thy Beloved and the guardianship of Thy chosen ones, and the love of Thy trusted ones. For verily Thou, O my God, art powerful over all things and sovereign in Thy dominion over all things.

From time immemorial Thou hast never been known by the names of Thy kingdom, nor described by what Thou hast created from the manifestations of the kingdom of Thy sovereignty. Thou art He Who cannot be known except through Thyself, and Thou art He Who cannot be described save through Thine Own Self.

Send down, O my God, all Thy beauty and glory and majesty and grandeur and light and mercy and perfection and words and names and might and will and desire and destiny and decree and origination and permission and term and book and knowledge and power and utterance and questions and honor and sovereignty and dominion and loftiness and grace and signs and manifestations and bounties and effulgences and gifts and evidences and bestowals and stations and endowments and whatsoever Thou lovest, O my God, to be mentioned in connection with Thy friend and the son of Thy friends who remembereth Thy Prophet through the appearance of Thy Cause and Thy signs.

Satisfy, O Lord, his body from the Dayspring of the Sun of Thy oneness—glorified art Thou, there is no God but Thee, before all things and after all things and above all things and beneath all things and to the right of all things and to the left of all things and in every direction of all things and encompassing all things and from the lineage of all things and that whereunto lineage returneth—and his soul from Thy Prophet, and his spirit from Thy friends, and his self and heart from the gates of Thy guidance in the First and the Last, and the Outward and the Inward. Ordain,

O Lord, for him from every good that which Thou hast specially ordained for Thyself, for none else hath power over this save Thee. And comfort, O Lord, his eyes that his knowledge encompass not aught that he abhorreth. And send down, O Lord, upon them that love him that which befitteth the glory of Thy holy might and the splendor of Thy eternal majesty. For verily Thou, O my God, knowest his place and his resting-place, and that he is now before Thee, manifest through Thy manifestation, transcendent through Thy transcendence, standing over all things through Thy Self-Subsistence, powerful over all things through the dominion of Thy power, and exalted above all things through the glory of the sovereignty of Thy grandeur.

For Thou, O my God, dost ever send down upon him in the most exalted chambers of Thy paradise and the most glorious mysteries of the sanctity of Thy loftiness that which will raise him to the court of the glory of Thy might and the source of the joy of Thine eternity, until he succeeds in establishing Thy Cause and exalting Thy Word, and through him all things are purified by what Thou hast placed with him of Thy greatest signs in Thy most exalted manifestations and Thy most beautiful names and Thy most sublime examples and Thy ultimate effulgences, for from him originateth whatsoever hath originated in the kingdom on high even unto the lowliest atom, and unto him returneth whosoever returneth in the hereafter and the former times.

Glorified art Thou, O Lord! Verily Thou art the Cleaver of the grain and the date-stone and the Ordainer of all things through the manifestation of Thy will in the kingdom of the heavens and earth and whatsoever is between them, until the Cause returneth unto Thee in the most exalted horizon. Glorified art Thou therefore, O Lord my God! Ordain Thou for him from Thee good-pleasure above good-pleasure, and for the first pillar of his house from among them the manifestation of Thy glorification, then Thy praise, then Thy unity, then Thy magnification, for there is no one manifest besides Thee, nor any hidden other than Thee, nor any first save Thee, nor any last except Thee, nor any Lord but Thee.

Glory be to God! Praise be to God! There is no God but God! God is Most Great! There is no power nor strength save in God, the Exalted, the Mighty! Glory be to the Lord of might from that which they describe! Peace be upon the Messengers! Praise be to God, the Lord of the worlds!