BB00117: Du’a’ ’ala’l-Abavayn min’ar’Rabb

In the Name of God, the All-Earthly, the All-Earthly

Glory be unto Thee, O my God! I and all things bear witness that Thou art God, that there is no God but Thee, alone, without peer or partner. Thine is the kingdom and the dominion, Thine the might and the power, Thine the strength and divinity, Thine the force and sovereignty, Thine the glory and majesty, Thine the countenance and perfection, Thine the beauty and grace, Thine the paragon and similitude, Thine the station and glorification, Thine the mercy and bounty, Thine the sovereignty and justice, Thine the grandeur and independence, Thine the greatness and exaltation, Thine the glory and invincibility, Thine the power and ascendancy, Thine the joy and gladness, Thine the station and detachment, and Thine is whatsoever Thou hast loved or wilt love in the kingdom of Thy heaven and earth.

Thou art the First, O my God, and naught existeth before Thee; Thou art the Last, O my Beloved, and naught existeth after Thee; Thou art the Manifest, O my Desired One, and naught existeth above Thee; and Thou art the Hidden, O my Adored One, and naught existeth beneath Thee. Thou hast ever been one God, single, eternal, self-subsisting, living, self-sustaining. Thou hast taken neither consort nor offspring, nor hast Thou had any partner in Thy creation or any protector in what Thou hast fashioned. By Thy power hast Thou created all things and ordained them according to Thy decree, and by Thy will hast Thou formed the creation of all things and shaped them according to Thy wisdom.

Thine is the praise eternally, and Thine the glory everlastingly. Thou dost ever give life and cause death, then cause death and give life, and verily Thou art the Ever-Living Who dieth not, the Sovereign Who passeth not away, the King Who changeth not, the Just Who deviateth not, the One from Whose grasp nothing escapeth, whether in the heavens or on the earth or between them. Verily, Thou art powerful over all things.

Praise be unto Thee, O my God, for having created me and sustained me, for having caused me to die and brought me to life, and for having raised me up, believing in Thee and Thy signs, assured of what Thou hast ordained through Thy words. Thou hast ever been from time immemorial, and wilt ever continue to be from time immemorial. Thou didst create me by Thy command from a beginning that hath no beginning to an end that hath no end, and didst rear me in the worlds of Command and creation, and preserve me in the kingdom of heaven and earth, until Thou didst cause the drop of my physical being to descend from the heaven of Thy good-pleasure to the earth of Thy nature, and didst nurture me through Thy generosity, grace, bounty, tenderness and favor until I reached that stage of life wherein thirty years had passed, if I count not the days of my concealment in the veil of Thy glory, and otherwise it would be more than that.

How many splendors hast Thou bestowed upon me, yet I have not praised Thee as Thou deservest! How many majesties hast Thou conferred upon me, yet I have not thanked Thee as is Thy due! How many beauties hast Thou granted me, yet I have not extolled Thee as befitteth Thy praise! How many grandeurs hast Thou bestowed upon me, yet I have not mentioned Thy glorification as it behooveth Thee! How many lights hast Thou shed upon me, yet I have not turned to Thee as Thou art worthy! Glory be unto Thee! Glory be unto Thee! Thy blessings are greater than my heart or the hearts of all the worlds can reckon, and Thy bounties are vaster than my knowledge or the knowledge of any…

Glorified and exalted art Thou! I have not known Thee except through what beseemeth Thine Own Self in Thy Divinity, Thy Lordship, Thy Oneness, Thy Unity, Thy Singleness, Thy Eternity, Thy Sovereignty, Thy Self-Subsistence, and that which Thou art in Thy Names that none can reckon save Thee, and in Thy attributes that none can comprehend save Thee. I have not witnessed from myself except that which I am ashamed to mention, and I know no way except to sanctify Thee beyond all that hath sanctified Thee or may sanctify Thee, to glorify Thee beyond all that hath glorified Thee or may glorify Thee, to testify to Thy unity beyond all that hath testified to Thy unity or may testify to Thy unity, to magnify Thee beyond all that hath magnified Thee or may magnify Thee, and to exalt Thee beyond all that hath exalted Thee or may exalt Thee.

For verily, I am but a thing among Thy creation which Thou didst create out of nothing by Thy command. I was not mentioned before thirty years ago, nor shall I continue to live and exist beyond what Thou hast ordained for me. Therefore, O my Lord, have mercy upon me between the two clays, and forgive what Thou hast witnessed from me between the two remembrances, and turn unto me in what I have done between the two inanimate objects. For my spirit none can comprehend save Thee, and verily it hath ever been as Thou art and shall ever be as Thou shalt be. But what appeareth in that world is as Thou hast caused me to witness—Thou didst begin me from exalted clay and shall return me to noble clay.

Therefore, O my Lord, raise up from me between the two clays that which befitteth the loftiness of Thy sanctity and the sublimity of Thy glory. For all of me is through Thee and from Thee and unto Thee and to Thee alone, there is no God but Thee. Remember me, O my Lord, as Thou hast never ceased and shall never cease to remember me, and if I remember Thee it is because Thou rememberest me from before the suns of Thy countenance on the Day of Resurrection through tablets from them, even though I was veiled.

By Thy might, I seek refuge in Thee from that, but since […] Thy creation […] and they are veiled, therefore I […] through Thee and beseech Thee to remember me […] remember Thee, and to forgive me though I seek not Thy forgiveness, and to turn unto me though I turn not unto Thee, and to raise me up through Thy remembrance though I distance myself from Thee through my limitations, and to make me content with Thee though I am not content with myself in my veiling, for none can comprehend the knowledge of Thy measures in Thy manifestations save Thee. Thou hast ever been, O my God, standing over all things, powerful over all things, knowing all things, mighty over all things, and supreme above all things. I know not, O my God, whether to thank Thee on this night—the night of the Lam—for my father or for my mother or for myself or for those who have nurtured me through Thee.

Glorified and exalted art Thou! None besides Thee possesseth remembrance or sublimity, nor beneath Thee is there any possessed of nobility or glory. Should any of Thy creatures attain unto good, that is from Thee alone, there is no God but Thee, and should […] other than that, it is from Thy creation when I loved it not, it was not attributed to Thee, else all are within Thy grasp and […] Thy evidence. Therefore, O my God, do Thou now send down upon […] from Thy glory its most glorious, from Thy majesty its most majestic, from Thy beauty its most beautiful, from Thy grandeur its most grand, and from all Thy lights the most luminous, and of Thy mercy the most expansive, and of Thy words the most perfect, and of Thy names the greatest, and of Thy might the most powerful, and of Thy will the most compelling, and of Thy utterance the most pleasing, and of Thy causes the most beloved by Thee and most noble before Thee, and of Thy honor the most honorable, and of Thy sovereignty the most enduring, and of Thy dominion the most glorious, and of Thy exaltation the most elevated, and of Thy favors the most ancient, and of Thy signs the most wondrous, and of Thy manifestations the most manifest, and of Thy revelations the most sublime, and of Thy attributes the most impregnable, and of Thy generosity the most generous, and of Thy grace the most gracious, and of Thy gifts […] and of Thy sustenance the most abundant, and of Thy bestowals the greatest, and of Thy […] the mightiest, and of all that Thou art in Thy names and Thy likenesses that which hath no equal, no peer, no similitude, no companion, and no likeness.

Thou hast ever been and wilt ever be bountiful to the dwellers of Thy kingdom and magnanimous to those in the dominion of Thy earth and heaven of Thy will. Thou hast ever been […] over all contingent things, manifest above all existing things, transcendent above all created things, exalted above all atoms, inaccessible above all who are in the kingdom of earth and heavens, sovereign over all who are in the kingdom of names and attributes, supremely ruling over all parables and allusions, and omnipotent over all that hath been or will be created by signs and scriptures.

There is none beside Thee, O my God, who createth aught that I may glorify, nor any besides Thee who sustaineth aught that I may praise, nor any save Thee who causeth death that I may testify to His oneness, nor any besides Thee who giveth life that I may magnify. Nay, all are manifestations of Thy deed, dawning-places of Thy command, channels of the gates of Thy grace, and daysprings of the effulgence of Thy glory. Therefore, O my God, do Thou send down at this moment upon him who guideth unto Thee, and verily he is of Thee, and he is for Thee, and returneth unto Thee, that which Thou art in Thy sublimity, Thy transcendence, Thy glory, Thy loftiness, Thy inaccessibility, Thy might, Thy majesty, Thy sovereignty, and Thy power.

For all, O my God, worship Thee, glorify Thee, sanctify Thee, testify to Thy oneness, magnify Thee, extol Thee, and prostrate themselves before Thee, taking pride in this. Yet all are veiled from the station of Thy revelation and remote from the seat of Thy rearing. Therefore, O my God, do Thou send down from Thy presence a sovereign sign and a conquering dominion that shall leave none upon the earth but shall cause them to enter Thy religion, give them to drink of the wine of Thy love and Thy sanctification, and show them Thy grace and Thy glorification, whether they be pleased or displeased, for none knoweth their good save from Thee, but Thou seest the good of all Thy creation and lovest to bestow it upon them through Thy grace.

How excellent art Thou, O my God, and how near unto Thy creation! How generous art Thou, O my Beloved, and how merciful to Thy servants! It behooveth none to be mentioned save Thyself, yet through the sublimity of Thy generosity and the transcendence of Thy grace, Thou dost mention Thy Messenger and the guides to Thyself, and what Thou seest for Thy creation from the path of Thy Cause, that all may mention Thee. Otherwise, none would have any existence before Thy mention. Glorified art Thou! There is no God but Thee. Thou hast ever been renowned for might and majesty, and wilt ever be celebrated for grandeur and beauty. Glorified and exalted art Thou! In every aspect Thou hast been described with greatness and independence, and in every mention Thou art praised in power […]

Thou art the One existing before all things, the Fashioner of all things, the Being above all things, and the Essence after… O God! Thou art exalted above all things, and naught escapeth Thy knowledge, whether in the heavens or on the earth or between them. Nothing in the kingdom of command or of creation or whatsoever lieth beneath them can frustrate Thee. Grant us, O Lord, every good thing encompassed by Thy knowledge, and preserve us, O Lord, from all that is not good, which Thy knowledge encompasseth. Verily, Thou art powerful and mighty over that. And do Thou send down, O Lord, upon those who have entered beneath the shadow of the Bayan, and before that were […] in the Furqan, through Thy grace and beneficence, Thy bounty and favor. Verily, Thou art the King, the Powerful, the Mighty, the Exalted Sovereign.