Introduction

This supplication was composed by ʼAbdu’l-Bahá, and it is both a prayer and a poem, having been written in rhyming couplets in the same meter as Rumi’s Mathnavíy-i-Ma’naví. The following provisional translation retains the rhyme scheme of the original, and employs iambic hexameter for the meter. 

Though short on account of its consisting of but eight couplets, it nonetheless has a moving poignancy in its content, and the original Persian is mellifluous and elegant. To hear this prayer being chanted, please click here.

For an interlinear file with the original Persian text, see end of the page.

O God Replete with Grace

Provisional Translation

O God replete with grace, O Thou the Lord All-Bountiful,

O Thou the knower of my mysteries, my heart, my soul!

Thou art the friend unto my heart in hours ere the dawn doth shine,

And this the burning of my sore bereavement dost divine.

The heart that in its orisons to Thee its breath doth lend,

Except for loving thought‌‌ of Thee, doth seek no other friend.

To blood then be that heart that is not sore aflame for Thee!

‘Tis better to be blind than not have tears to claim for Thee.

During the doleful, darksome night, O Thou almighty One,

All thought of Thee within my heart is like the dawning sun.

Breathe in this heart a breath  out of Thy generosity,

That of thy grace nihility become eternity.

Look not on that which my own worth and merit might accord;

Rather, look towards what Thine own grace bestow’th, O bounteous Lord.

These birds of broken, shattered wing that lie dejectedly

Do Thou vouchsafe new wings out of Thy magnanimity.

Interlinear File