The Rhythm of the Universe

🌼🔆🌼The Shared Dawn of the Universe🌼🔆🌼

🔹 Weekly sessions on the commentary and interpretation of the Ṣaḥīfa al-Sajjādiyya (Supplication 6)
📅 Date: 1404/01/28 – 21 Shawwal 1446
✨ Session: Meshkat-e Noor
🎤 Speaker: Master Ali Saei

📝 Some of the topics discussed:

Night and day: a mystery among the mysteries of creation 🔐🌌

Among the mysteries of creation is the mystery of night and day…

Night and day have an outward aspect and an inward one…
And their outward aspect bears witness to what lies within.

In this created world, night and day have a heavenly counterpart…
We might say they have a Muhammadan counterpart…

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In our age, night and day are Mahdawī 🌙☀️🕊

In this age, night and day have a Mahdawī counterpart…

Night and day:

• a vast arena for competing in servitude to God.
• A place to demonstrate our devotion.
• A place to prove ourselves worthy of servitude.

The changes of night and day**,
and *their interweaving*,
point to **a special harmony throughout existence.

Changes that are measured, ordered, and meaningful…

An eternal rhythm—the sound of the universe.
Indeed… a melody is continually being played in this world…

One of its notes is the measured rhythm of night and day.

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Night and day: a cosmic melody within us 🎼💫

Within us, too, there is a night and a day…
There are changes… rhythms… special harmonies being played.

The whole universe itself has its own night and day…

All these nights and days
are manifestations of the true Night and Day.

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Night and day: creation in miniature 🌍🔁

Night and day, on the earthly, worldly scale,
are in fact a small-scale likeness of the whole universe.

That is:

this night and day is a “representation”…

Within this very night and day,
all of existence lies.

From the beginning to the end of creation…
this night and day is a distillation of all creation…

A display, a record, a scribe…

A scribe of God’s Book…
A writer of divine knowledge…
A recorder of the wonders of existence…

Night and day inscribe God’s wonders…
They recount… they bear witness…
and watch over us…

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Night and day: God’s mighty witness 👁📜

God has appointed night and day as witnesses…

He, the Creator who needs no reporter…
He, God, sovereign over all His servants…

has appointed night and day as witnesses over His servants…

This shows the grandeur of night and day.

Ask Him:

Which thing is the greatest witness?

Say: Allah.

He is the greatest of witnesses…

And God made night and day witnesses over His servants.

Thus, hidden within night and day
is a greatness…

that must be known, that must be found.

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Night and day: proof that God sees us ✨

Night and day are two mighty witnesses of God…

And what a remarkable question this is:

Does he not know…? (ألم یعلم)

The answer is simple…
yet few have attained this certainty.

Whoever does attain it
has reached a truly exalted station.

And in the seventh passage of the Sixth Supplication of al-Ṣaḥīfa al-Sajjādiyya,
Ḥaḍrat Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn, peace be upon him, offers this intimate prayer…

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Conquering night and day: the arena in which servitude is put to the test 🏁🌗☀️

It points to night and day as the true arena of competition…
We must strive to be first…
We must conquer both night and day.

Those who conquer night and day are God’s true servants.

God attends to each of them:

• He sets their affairs in order,
• examines their deeds,
• and observes them in the hours of their obedience,
• to see how they stand when fulfilling their duties and observing His rulings.

So that

• He may punish the evildoer for what he has done,
• and reward the righteous with the finest recompense.

Those possessed of reason will understand…
Within night and day, they will find and comprehend…

that

God is watching,
above all who watch.

He examines the deeds of His servants…
not because He needs to put them to this test…

but rather
because He gives His servants worth… He looks upon them…

If we truly take in that gaze, we must be shaken to our core…

The all-conquering Creator, exalted above His servants, looks upon His servant.

• He examines his deeds…
• takes stock of his time…
• measures the degree of his obedience…

When duties are due, He watches:
How does he act…?

In matters governed by His rulings,
He Himself watches how they are carried out…

so that on the Day of Judgment no excuse remains…

How far has this human being, who answers God’s call, truly come?
Does he understand his God?
Or has his heart grown so hard that his whole being has frozen?

Indeed…

Even if this human being is immersed in knowledge,
without sound reason, it is no true knowledge.

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Reason: the only way to escape ignorance and stagnation 🧠🕯

It is reason that frees humanity from stagnation.

Without reason:

• one thirsts even beneath the water,
• one is blind even amid the light,
• and ignorant even in the heart of wisdom…

Because this human being has turned away from reason,
he has become parched for knowledge…

The deeper he dives into knowledge,
the more his ignorance grows…

Indeed…

Sight without reason is utter blindness.
Light only deepens his darkness; it does not guide him.

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The Dawn That Was Split Open; Praise for God’s Morning 🌄🕊

O God, O Lord, O Divine One…

Praise and gratitude are yours alone…

Praise be to you
for the dawn you split open for us…

I give thanks, my God,

• for splitting open the mornings,
• letting us share in their light,
• giving us sight to seek our sustenance,
• and keeping us safe from afflictions…

Indeed, our Lord splits open the mornings…

How?

Which mornings?

By God, every morning there is in this world is split open by God.

He is the splitter of the dawns…

From the heart of these dawns, the seed of the world’s mornings emerges.

He splits open the morning… makes it blossom…
and spreads its wonders throughout existence.

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The Breathing Morning; Exhale and Inhale of Existence 🌬✨

This is a morning that breathes…

و الصبح اذا تنفس…

By the morning
as it breathes…

The morning inhales and exhales… it is alive…

What does it take in…
and what does it breathe out?

What does it receive from God?
And what does it give back?

What is its input?
God’s knowledge…

And its output?
Wisdom…

This is how the morning works.

And what of me, a human being?
I take in oxygen and breathe out polluted air…

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God’s Morning; Oxygen of Knowledge, Exhale of Wisdom ☀️🌬

But surely the morning that is truly morning…
if it takes in oxygen, will breathe out something purer than oxygen.

It draws knowledge in and breathes wisdom out.

Whatever it takes in, what it gives back will be more beautiful.

This morning, too, has an archetype… a celestial archetype…

We must go and arrive
to behold this morning’s celestial archetype… its Muhammadan archetype…

Let me say this, too:

we, too, have an archetype…
a celestial archetype…
a Muhammadan and Ahl al-Bayt archetype…

We seek refuge in God, we seek refuge in God…

We have other archetypes, too…
Besides the highest archetypes, we have the lowest ones as well…

Woe betide anyone who reaches their lowest archetype…
What an “أشقى‌الاشقیا” they will become…

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Understanding God’s Morning; the Morning of All Creation 🌄🌌

O God… praise is yours alone…
for splitting open the dawn for us,
letting us share in the light of day,
giving us sight to seek our sustenance,
and keeping us safe from afflictions.

O my God and my Lord…

We have entered the morning,
and all things have entered the morning wholly for you…

We were not alone…

We came to know the morning—if we had truly known it…

The morning: all things came to know it for your sake…
The heavens and the earth, and all that you have scattered throughout them…
All that is still and all that moves; all that dwells and all that wanders…
All that is raised up into the air…
And all that lies hidden in the earth…

What a wondrous supplication… the supplication of Imam Sajjad, peace be upon him…

Why had I never seen this?

All that lies in the heart of the earth greets the morning…
All that lies in the depths of the sea…
All that is in the heavens…
In every last corner of these worlds, morning dawns…

What do they do at that dawn?
At the dawn God splits open…

“The cleft dawn”—a mighty name…
One of His names…

which, for the first time, in that very instant,
unfolds across the universe…

We had no ears to hear…
We had no morning…
We did not know “God’s morning.”

The morning we know
is the dawn on the earthly horizon.

But God’s morning rises from the horizon of the entire cosmos…
It breaks open…

What a wondrous supplication… what wondrous mysteries…

Morning belongs to the entire cosmos…

---

From the horizon of the earth to the horizon of the Throne: a morning beyond space and time 🌠⏳

Let us not imprison ourselves in this world…

Let us not forget
that we may be unable to lift our heads…

Let us not imagine ourselves to be our own beginning and end…
or think ourselves confined and imprisoned on this earth…

Morning has a heavenly dawn…
A dawn embracing all the worlds…

The morning of our time
has a dawn beyond space…
a dawn beyond time…

If it were not so…

the earthly morning
would not give way to the horizon of the entire cosmos…

These are immense mysteries…
waiting to be discovered…

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The dawn of the cosmos: human awakening or hidden death? 🌄🌌

If we fail to discover them…
what ranks might we find ourselves among?

The dawn of all things,
together with humankind,
is a shared dawn…

A dawn celebrated by humanity and the entire cosmos.

What happens at that great dawn?
But I am asleep… I do not understand.

I should have understood…

The way I feel when I rise from sleep,
the weariness that overtakes me,
is a sign of my death…

A particular horizon has opened…
one of which I am unaware…

And this happens again every day.

If we consider the whole of existence as one,
it too has a daybreak… a rising…

not in time,
but beyond it…

Time and space themselves
have a morning…

When we are immersed in the intimate prayers of Imam Sajjad, peace be upon him…
we are carried away… a feeling comes over us…

The truth itself… a flash of that truth,
hidden from sight,
takes hold of us…

But why do we not come to our senses?
Why do we not step outside ourselves
to behold that truth?

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We awoke in God’s grasp… His sovereignty enveloped us 👑🕊

The farther we go,
the more secrets unfold…

We are still far behind…

We have yet to understand what comes before the whispered prayer…
We have not uncovered its secrets…
We simply keep moving forward…

God willing, the breath of the Sajjadī supplication will seize us…
and bring us to life and wakefulness…

O God…
We awoke in Your grasp…

Your dominion and sovereignty enfold us,
and Your will surrounds us…

We act at Your command,
and are transformed by Your governance…

We are in Your grasp…
We awoke as those held in Your grasp…

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Contraction and expansion: the night and day of our being 🌗🔁

What mystery is this…?

Contraction and expansion,
like night and day…

A force at work in the very fabric of the universe…

What does God do through contraction?
And what wonders does He work through expansion?

God’s dominion, God’s sovereignty, enfolds us…

We dwell within God’s rule and sovereignty…

What a bridal chamber our being is…!
What a bridal chamber God’s dominion is…
God’s sovereignty, enfolding us…

What wonders we could work in this bridal chamber…!

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The warp and weft of our being are woven from God’s will ✨🧶

What mystery is this…?
Why can’t I understand?

Why do I not draw upon God’s dominion?
Or is my inner state a passing phase that never reaches the outward?

God’s sovereignty,
God’s dominion,
God’s rule… what does it do?

Each is a mystery
among hidden mysteries…

Contraction…
Dominion…
Sovereignty…
God’s guarantee…
God’s will…

We are encompassed by God’s will.

Our warp and weft
are God’s will…

A wonder…!
We exist
in this world of being…

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Divine transformation: perpetual change in God’s grasp 🔁✨

We are acted upon, transformed, turned upside down, changed…

At Your command, we too undergo “inflection.”

How many inflections does our soul have?
Into how many forms are we transformed?

So I am constantly changing…
like the past and present verb forms…

I am God’s word.

God inflects us.
We have countless forms.
Not forms of marriage…
but forms of body and spirit…
of conscience, limbs and faculties…

A secret within a secret…
None but Sajjad can unveil this secret.

We were in God’s grasp, God’s dominion, God’s sovereignty,
held within the assurance of God’s will…

By God’s command, we are transformed,
and by His governance, we are turned about.

To be inflected and turned…

When I am inflected, what do I become?
By God’s command, I am in the process of being transformed…

مَن عَرَفَ نَفسَهُ، فَقَد عَرَفَ رَبَّهُ…

I had thought little of myself…
So small… so insignificant…

My Imam Sajjad shows me who I am…

To alter God’s decree…
To tamper with God’s design…

How astonishing!

I am one of God’s creatures…

Perhaps other creatures can see themselves…
But I, imprisoned by my own self,
am captive to my own knowledge…
I have yet to break free of that prison…

I remain bound by that same “first free one”…
I have become frozen…

And God?
What variety He brings into this world of being…!

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God’s decree: the most beautiful and most unshakable command 💎📜

We have no choice but what You have ordained for us…
And of all that is good, we have no share but what You have bestowed.

We are firmly held by God’s decree…

How firm it is, how beautiful…!

Is there any decree above God’s?

Then…

It is a tremendous honor
to have been placed within God’s decree.

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Yawm: neither night nor day… a celestial system 🕰🌌

We have yet to move beyond the mystery of night, day and dawn…

Imam Sajjad, peace be upon him,
has now placed another mystery before our eyes…

What is this “yawm”?

We have night… we have day…
So what is this “yawm” in relation to them?

If we take “yawm” to mean “day,”
we lose its meaning…

This “yawm” is not a day…
It is neither “night” nor “day”…
This “yawm” is a “yawm”…

It is not dawn, either…
Dawn itself has its own “dawn”…

Is yawm the very system of night and day?

It is alive…
It is vigilant…
It is fiercely protective…

This yawm is ever-renewed…
It is a witness, ceaselessly bearing witness to us…
It is God’s testimony to our existence…

If we do good,
it sends us on our way with praise…

If we do wrong,
it parts from us with reproach…

This is not night…
Night has its own place…
Nor is it day…
It is yawm…

So perceptive,
so protective,
so penetrating,
such a witness…

If we do good, it bids us farewell with a special kindness…
If we do wrong, it curses us,
and holds us to account…

This yawm is a wondrous system…

It, too, is renewed…

When it departs,
it never returns…

If it does return?
That is not the yawm that has passed…
It is a new yawm…

And this yawm?

It has a heavenly form…
It bears the form of the Family of Muhammad…

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Yawm: A New Creation in Every Moment 🕰🌅

“A new event every day” means a new creation…
What is new becomes truly new…
without a trace of age or wear.

I am old,
and I mistake freshness for age…

I experience this world as though lifeless…
with every night and day, every morning and day…

We are trapped in our past…
imprisoned by our own past mistakes…

We have lost… and do not even know it.

This world, in every moment, every yawm…

Yawm… Is it a moment?
I do not know… I only know that “a yawm is a yawm…”

It has an earthly horizon,
and a horizon encompassing the whole cosmos…

And God’s reality endures… It knows no bounds.

This yawm is the very system
in which night and day reveal themselves.

The highest sign of order in all existence…

If only… we understood…

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A prayer for good companionship with the yawm; may we safeguard the Day of God 🕊📿

O Lord, O God, O Divine One…
Bless Muhammad and his family…

and grant us good companionship
with the yawm…

O God…

Grant us the grace to be good companions to “Your yawm”…
and keep us from the corrupting company of sin,
whether small or great…

Watch over us,
so that we may commit neither grave nor lesser sins…

O Lord,
protect us, so that we may honor Your yawm…

• and not defile it…
• May we never be killers of the Day of God…
• may we be supporters of the Day of God…
• and strive to make this world flourish…

O Lord,
teach us how to be faithful and devoted companions to “Your yawm”…

Indeed… the yawm is a vast treasure…
If only You Yourself would become the discoverer of that treasure…

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Yawm: A system with night and day as its poles, and morning at its center 🌗🌞

O Lord, in this “yawm”—I do not say “day,” for that is mistaken—I say “yawm”…

• Increase our good deeds…
• and cleanse us of our misdeeds…
• and fill the space between its two poles with praise, reward, and grace…

Indeed… this yawm has two poles:
the pole of night, and the pole of day…

and between them lies a radiant, beautiful state called “morning.”

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Confession before the Recording Angels; O God, do not bring us to shame 👼🖋

O Lord, O God, O Divine One…

Send blessings upon the recording angels…
those noble ones, the “Noble Recorders”…

• Make our reckoning easy…
• Fill our records with good deeds…
• and do not let our evil deeds bring us shame before them…

O God…

Erase the records of the Noble Recorders Yourself…

for we have no deeds of our own…

Please, do us this kindness…
Write good deeds for us in those records…

Let us not be disgraced before the noble recording angels…
Let us not become a burden and a hardship to them…

O God…
I confess… My burden is especially heavy…

I am a hell for my angels…

Instead of being a paradise for the inhabitants of the heavens…
I have become a hell for the angels…

How much harm I cause God’s angels…
And I am unaware…

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The angels’ smiles: our good deeds bring joy to the heavenly realm 🪽😊

O Lord, O God, O Divine One…

At every hour of this day,
grant us a share in worship,
a portion of gratitude,
and a true testimony from Your angels…

That is, O God…

Bring a smile to the faces of Your angels…

Make it so that from us
some beautiful good deed may arise…
so that a smile may come to rest on Your angels’ lips…

O God…

Let us not cause Your angels sorrow…

Make us such
that through the goodness of our deeds,
through the beauty of our remembrance,
we add to the beauty, joy and happiness of Your angels…

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Held in God’s protection; guarded on every side 🛡💫

O Lord, O God, O Divine One…
Send blessings upon Muhammad and his family…

And

• from before us,
• from behind us,
• from our right,
• from our left…
  protect us…

with a protection that keeps us from disobeying You
and puts us to work in the path of devotion to You…

That is:

O God,
never let us leave the shelter and protection of Your loving care…
Do not leave us to ourselves for even an instant…
Guide us toward You…
Surround us with Your protection…
Do not abandon us…

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Sajjad’s testament: a covenant for the spiritual journey through the day 🌌📜

These are the duties
that our Imam Sajjad
has set out for our “day” and our “night and daytime”…

O Lord, O God, O Divine One…
Send blessings upon Muhammad and his family…

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The covenant of day and night: success in fulfilling our divine duties ⚖️🌙🌞

Throughout this day and night, and all our days…

Grant us success in

• doing good,
• avoiding evil,
• giving thanks for blessings,
• following the traditions,
• avoiding innovation,
• enjoining what is right,
• forbidding what is wrong,
• safeguarding Islam,
• destroying falsehood,
• supporting the truth and upholding its dignity,
• guiding the lost,
• helping the weak,
• and reaching out to those in need…

That is:

O God,
make us mindful of all our duties and successful in fulfilling them…
Grant us Your blessing as we carry them out…

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A Day of Peace and Blessed Companionship; A Standard-Bearer of Devotion 🕊🚩

O God, our Beloved, our Lord…
Bless Muhammad and his family…

And make this day
the most secure of all the days we remember,
the finest company we have ever kept,
and the most blessed time we have ever spent…

That is:

O God,
make us standard-bearers of worship and devotion to You…

And:

make us among the most joyful and content of Your creatures…
as day and night have passed over them…

• the most grateful for the blessings You have bestowed…
• the most steadfast in upholding the law You have ordained…
• and the most careful to refrain from what You have forbidden…

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A Testimony to Oneness; Witnessed on Earth and in Heaven 🌌📜

O God, our Beloved…

I call You to witness…
and Your own testimony is enough…

and I call Your heaven and earth to witness,
and whichever of Your angels
and other creatures
You have settled in Your “Throne” and “Heaven”…

on this day, at this hour, on this night, and in this place where I stand…

I bear witness:
You are God; there is no deity but You…

• the Upholder, just in judgment…
• merciful to Your servants…
• Master of sovereignty…
• compassionate and merciful to all creation…

That is:

O God, establish Your oneness firmly in our hearts…

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A Testimony to Muhammad’s Prophethood; The Messenger of Mercy’s Sincere Counsel ﷺ

And, O God…

that Muhammad
is Your servant,
Your messenger,
Your chosen one,
from among Your servants…

You entrusted him with Your message…
and he delivered it…

You commanded him to counsel his community sincerely…
and he did so…

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Endless Blessings; A Brimming Cup of Blessings 🌸🍷

O God, our Beloved, our Lord…

then bless Muhammad and his family…

more than You have blessed any of Your creatures…

And on our behalf, grant him

• the finest of what You have given Your servants…
• and the best and most generous reward You have bestowed upon Your prophets…

That is:

O God, fill Your cup to the brim with the draught of blessings…

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You are mercy embodied; You are the Most Merciful of the merciful ❤️☁️

O God…

You are the bountiful Bestower, majestic in greatness…
the great, mighty, and magnificent Giver…

the Forgiver…
the Forgiver of great sins…
the Pardoner of grave errors…

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A day of safety and blessed companionship; a standard-bearer of devotion 🕊🚩

O Lord, O God, O Divine One…
Bless Muhammad and his family…

And make this day
the safest day we can remember,
the finest company we have known,
and the most blessed time we have spent…

That is:

O God,
make us standard-bearers of worship and devotion to You…

And:

make us among the most joyful and content of Your creatures…
upon whom night and day have passed…

• the most grateful for the blessings You have bestowed…
• the steadfastest in the law You have ordained…
• and the most resolute in refraining from what You have forbidden…

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A testimony to divine oneness; a witness on earth and in heaven 🌌📜

O Lord, O God…

I call You to witness…
and Your own testimony is enough…

and I call Your heaven and earth,
and all Your angels,
and all Your other creatures
whom You have settled in Your “Throne” and Your “heavens”…

on this day, at this hour, on this night, and in this place where I stand…

I bear witness:
You are God; there is no deity but You…

• the Upholder, just in judgment…
• merciful to Your servants…
• Master of all dominion…
• compassionate and merciful to all creation…

That is:

O God, establish Your oneness in our hearts…

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A testimony to Muhammad’s prophethood; the Messenger of Mercy ﷺ, sincere in his counsel

And, O God…

Muhammad
is Your servant,
Your messenger,
Your chosen one,
from among Your servants…

You entrusted him with Your message…
and he delivered it…

You commanded him to counsel his community sincerely…
and he did so…

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Endless blessings; a cup overflowing with the draught of blessings 🌸🍷

O Lord, O God, O Divine One…

then bless Muhammad and his family…

more than You have blessed any of Your other creatures…

And on our behalf, grant him

• the best of what You have given Your servants…
• and on our behalf, grant him the finest and most gracious reward You have bestowed upon Your prophets…

That is:

O God, fill Your cup to the brim with the draught of Your blessings…

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You are mercy incarnate; You are the Most Merciful of the merciful ❤️☁️

O God…

You are the Munificent, majestic in greatness…
the great, mighty, and immense Bestower…

the Forgiver…
the Forgiver of grave sins…
the Pardoner of great errors…

And You are:

أرحمُ مِن کُلِّ رَحیم…
the Most Merciful of those who show mercy…

So bless Muhammad and his virtuous, chosen, and noble family…

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🟠 The Jām-e Jān Eitaa channel
🔗 https://eitaa.com/jamejan

And You are:

أرحمُ مِن کُلِّ رَحیم…
the Most Merciful of those who show mercy…

So bless Muhammad and his virtuous, chosen, and noble family…

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🟠 Eitaa channel: Jam-e Jan
🔗 https://eitaa.com/jamejan