1.
And when My worshipers ask you about Me, (know that) I Am near. I answer the call of the caller when he calls Me, therefore let them respond to Me, and believe in Me, so that they may be rightly guided.
- The Quran 2:186
God loves nothing better than that His servants ask from Him.
- Muhammad al-Baqir
2.
O Hu through Whom the knots of detested things are united!
O Hu through Whom the cutting edge of hardships is blunted!
O Hu from Whom is supplicated the doorway to the freshness of relief!
Intractable affairs yield to Your holy power, means are made ready by Your gentleness, and decree goes into effect through Your mighty power, and all things proceed according to Your divine will.
By Your will they follow Your command without Your word, and by You will they obey Your bans without Your prohibition.
You are the supplicated in worries and the place of flight in misfortunes; none of them is resisted unless You resist, none is removed unless You remove.
Upon me has come down, my Lord, something whose weight burdens me and upon me has fallen something whose carrying oppresses me.
Through Your power,
You has brought it down upon me and through Your authority
You have turned it towards me.
None can send away what You have brought, none can deflect what You have turned, none can open what You have closed, none can close what You have opened, none can make easy what You have made difficult, none can help him whom You have abandoned.
Holy benediction be upon the Holy Messenger, his holy bloodline and spiritual community.
Open for me, my Lord, the door of relief through Your graciousness,
break from me the authority of worry by Your strength, confer the beauty of Your gaze upon my complaint. Let me taste the sweetness of benefaction in what I ask, give me from Yourself mercy and wholesome relief, and appoint for me from Yourself a hastened pathway!
Distract me not from observing Your obligations and being in accordance with Your prescriptions - through worries.
My capacity has been straitened, my Lord, by what has come down on me, and I am filled with worry by carrying what has happened to me, while You have power to remove what has afflicted me and to repel that unto which I have fallen.
So may it be for me,
though I merit it not from You,
O Possessor of the Mighty Throne!
- Selection from al-Sahifat al-Sajjadiyaa, prayer of Zayn al-Abidin, may God hallow his face
AL-SAHIFAT AL-SAJJADIYYA is one of the oldest prayer manual in Islamic sources and a seminal work of Islamic spirituality of the early period. It was composed by the Prophet's great grandson, 'Ali ibn al-Husayn, known as Zayn al-'Abidin (the adornment of the worshipers), and has been cherished in Muslim sources from earliest times. Zayn al-'Abidin was the fourth of the leader of community, after his father Husayn, his uncle Hasan, and his grandfather 'Ali ibn Abu Talib.The central characteristics of this prayer is not only intensity but also the unveiling of gnosis and the recognition of the Source to Whom the supplication is made. Because of the elevated status of the person from whose heart these prayers are uttered and the baraka it carries, the prayers included in Sahife al-Sajjadiyya are believed to have magnetic quality. This supplication rendered above in English from original Arabic is famous for its talismanic quality to lift the weight of worrisome tasks / troubled situations / at time of distress.
3.
In the Name of the Most Tender, Boundless Love
Have We not expanded your inner heart?
and taken off your burden
which weighed down your back?
and exalted your 'zikr'.
So, indeed, with every hardship, there is ease.
Indeed with hardship is ease.
Therefore, when you are free, still engage in 'sadhana'
and towards your Lord - turn your focus.
- The Chapter of Solace, The Quran
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