In the Name of God, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
Praying and Supplicating to God is the believer’s asset, the refuge for the distressed and the bond between the weak and ignorant human and the overflowing Source of knowledge and power. Without a spiritual relationship with God and without supplicating one’s needs to the inherently Indispensable, mankind is lost, desperate and squandered on the arena of life: “Say: My Lord would not care for you had it not been for your supplications to Him;” [Quran: 25:77].
The best supplication is that which derives from passionate recognition of God and mystical insight of human’s needs. This can only be found in the school of the Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) and his immaculate household, who are the beneficiaries and heirs of the prophet’s wisdom and sagacity. All praise is due to God for we enjoy everlasting reserves of supplications and prayers as taught by the immaculate progeny of the Prophet (a.s.), bonding with which will bring bliss, wisdom, perfection, and kindness, and will purify mankind from contaminations.
The hymn for the month of Sha’ban—which based on narrations, the immaculate Imams (a.s.) recited frequently—is one of the supplications that combine a mystical tone and eloquent language with highly elevated notions, replete with sublime wisdom, the example of which cannot be found among ordinary works and typical conversations, and basically cannot be expressed by that type of language.
This hymn is a perfect example of supplicating to God and a description of the most distinguished of the competent servants of God, as they talk to their Creator, their Beloved and the Sacred Divine Essence, their Lord. It is both a lesson on wisdom and knowledge and a model and a prototype for the believers in God to appeal and supplicate to God.
The fifteen-chapter supplications narrated from Imam Zainul-Abedin, Ali ibn al-Hussain (a.s.), besides having the significant features of all prayers attributed to the Imams (a.s.), has the advantage of communicating different supplications for various dispositions of the believers.
May God grant everyone the opportunity to seek abundant divine Grace and achieve self-edification through these holy words.
Amen!
December 22, 1990
