74. The Whispered Prayer of the Thankful

In the Name of God, the All-merciful, the All-compassionate

1- My God,
the uninterrupted flow of Thy graciousness
hast distracted me from thanking Thee!
The flood of Thy bounty has rendered me incapable
of counting Thy praises!
The succession of Thy kind acts has diverted me
from mentioning Thee in laudation!
The continuous rush of Thy benefits has thwarted me
from spreading the news of Thy gentle favours!
This is the station of him who
confesses to the lavishness of favours,
meets them with shortcomings,
and witnesses to his own disregard and negligence.
Thou art the Clement, the Compassionate,
the Good, the Generous,
who does not disappoint those who aim for Him,
nor cast out from His courtyard those who expect from Him!
In Thy yard are put down the saddlebags of the hopeful
and in Thy plain stand the hopes of the help-seekers!
So meet not our hopes by disappointing and disheartening
and clothe us not in the shirt of despair and despondency!

2- My God,
my thanksgiving is small
before Thy great boons,
and my praise and news-spreading shrink
beside Thy generosity toward me!
Thy favours have wrapped me
in the robes of the lights of faith,
and the gentlenesses of Thy goodness have let down over me
delicate curtains of might!
Thy kindnesses
have collared me with collars not to be moved
and adorned me with neck-rings not to be broken!
Thy boons are abundant -
my tongue is too weak to count them!
Thy favours are many -
my understanding falls short of grasping them,
not to speak of exhausting them!
So how can I achieve thanksgiving?
For my thanking Thee requires thanksgiving.
Whenever I say, 'To Thee belongs praise!',
it becomes thereby incumbent upon me to say,
'To Thee belongs praise'!

3- My God,
as Thou hast fed us through Thy gentleness
and nurtured us through Thy benefaction,
so also complete for us lavish favours,
repel from us detested acts of vengeance,
and of the shares of the two abodes,
give us their most elevated and their greatest,
both the immediate and the deferred!
To Thee belongs praise
for Thy good trial and the lavishness of Thy favours,
a praise
conforming to Thy good pleasure
and attracting Thy great goodness and magnanimity.
O All-mighty,
O All-generous!
By Thy mercy,
O Most Merciful of the merciful!