These Are, O My God, The Days Whereon Thou Didst

Sources: Prayers And Meditations

These are, O my God, the days whereon Thou didst enjoin Thy servants to

observe the fast. With it Thou didst adorn the preamble of the Book of Thy

Laws revealed unto Thy creatures, and didst deck forth the Repositories of

Thy commandments in the sight of all who are in Thy heaven and all who are

on Thy earth. Thou hast endowed every hour of these days with a special

virtue, inscrutable to all except Thee, Whose knowledge embraceth ll

created things. Thou hast, also, assigned unto every soul a portion of

this virtue in accordance with the Tablet of Thy decree and the Scriptures

of Thine irrevocable judgment. Every leaf of these Books and Scriptures

Thou hast, moreover, allotted to each one of the peoples and kindreds of

the earth.



For Thine ardent lovers Thou hast, according to Thy decree, reserved, at

each daybreak, the cup of Thy remembrance, O Thou Who art the Ruler of

rulers! These are they who have been so inebriated with the wine of Thy

manifold wisdom that they forsake their couches in their longing to

celebrate Thy praise and extol Thy virtues, and flee from sleep in their

eagerness to approach Thy presence and partake of Thy bounty. Their eyes

have, at all times, been bent upon the Day-Spring of Thy loving-kindness,

and their faces set towards the Fountain-Head of Thine inspiration. Rain

down, then, upon us and upon them from the clouds of Thy mercy what

beseemeth the heaven of Thy bounteousness and grace.



Lauded be Thy name, O my God! This is the hour when Thou hast unlocked the

doors of Thy bounty before the faces of Thy creatures, and opened wide the

portals of Thy tender mercy unto all the dwellers of Thine earth. I

beseech Thee, by all them whose blood was shed in Thy path, who, in their

yearning over Thee, rid themselves from all attachment to any of Thy

creatures, and who were so carried away by the sweet savors of Thine

inspiration that every single member of their bodies intoned Thy praise

and vibrated to Thy remembrance, not to withhold from us the things Thou

hast irrevocably ordained in this Revelation--a Revelation the potency of

which hath caused every tree to cry out what the Burning Bush had

aforetime proclaimed unto Moses, Who conversed with Thee, a Revelation

that hath enabled every least pebble to resound again with Thy praise, as

the stones glorified Thee in the days of Muhammad, Thy Friend.



These are the ones, O my God, whom Thou hast graciously enabled to have

fellowship with Thee and to commune with Him Who is the Revealer of

Thyself. The winds of Thy will have scattered them abroad until Thou didst

gather them together beneath Thy shadow, and didst cause them to enter

into the precincts of Thy court. Now that Thou hast made them to abide

under the shade of the canopy of Thy mercy, do Thou assist them to attain

what must befit so august a station. Suffer them not, O my Lord, to be

numbered with them who, though enjoying near access to Thee, have been

kept back from recognizing Thy face, and who, though meeting with Thee,

are deprived of Thy presence.



These are Thy servants, O my Lord, who have entered with Thee in this, the

Most Great Prison, who have kept the fast within its walls according to

what Thou hadst commanded them in the Tablets of Thy decree and the Books

of Thy behest. Send down, therefore, upon them what will thoroughly purge

them of all Thou abhorrest, that they may be wholly devoted to Thee, and

may detach themselves entirely from all except Thyself.



Rain down, then, upon us, O my God, that which beseemeth Thy grace and

befitteth Thy bounty. Enable us, then, O my God, to live in remembrance of

Thee and to die in love of Thee, and supply us with the gift of Thy

presence in Thy worlds hereafter--worlds which are inscrutable to all

except Thee. Thou art our Lord and the Lord of all worlds, and the God of

all that are in heaven and all that are on earth.



Thou beholdest, O my God, what hath befallen Thy dear ones in Thy days.

Thy glory beareth me witness! The voice of the lamentation of Thy chosen

ones hath been lifted up throughout Thy realm. Some were ensnared by the

infidels in Thy land, and were hindered by them from having near access to

Thee and from attaining the court of Thy glory. Others were able to

approach Thee, but were kept back from beholding Thy face. Still others

were permitted, in their eagerness to look upon Thee, to enter the

precincts of Thy court, but they allowed the veils of the imaginations of

Thy creatures and the wrongs inflicted by the oppressors among Thy people

to come in between them and Thee.



This is the hour, O my Lord, which Thou hast caused to excel every other

hour, and hast related it to the choicest among Thy creatures. I beseech

Thee, O my God, by Thy Self and by them, to ordain in the course of this

year what shall exalt Thy loved ones. Do Thou, moreover, decree within

this year what will enable the Day-Star of Thy power to shine brightly

above the horizon of Thy glory, and to illuminate, by Thy sovereign might,

the whole world.



Render Thy Cause victorious, O my Lord, and abase Thou Thine enemies.

Write down, then, for us the good of this life and of the life to come.

Thou art the Truth, Who knoweth the secret things. No God is there but

Thee, the Ever-Forgiving, the All-Bountiful.