The Call of Kumayl

Translator's word

This is what is called the “Call of Kumayl.” The word “Call” needs a little explanation here. In fact the form of this text is the same as a prayer, but since the verb “to pray” has different aspects in different cultures I decided here to use the verb “to call” for this piece. While in christian literature the verb “to pray” means mainly asking for help from God, the very same verb has another meaning in islamic literature. The verb “to pray” in Islam has the meaning of doing the worshipping which is done by any muslim everyday, or mainly the 5 main prayers of the day, but to ask God for help or a text that is meant to be in a form of a soliloquy between oneself and God, is much closer to the word “Call” because such text is called in Arabic “Do`â'” which stems from the verb “to call” in Arabic.

The Call you are going to pass by next is a familiar text for (almost) any Shiite Muslim who keeps up with his religious duties. The main body of the call is between the asterisks.

This is a rough translation with as simple as possible English. Such texts would be better to be translated in a form of literature English, but the idea here is to pass some cultural exchange to the other side of the world. The beauty of such text would be better examined by people who can read Arabic, since it rhymes more and the wide range of words used in Arabic add up more to the sense of faith inside the reader, if he/she knows what is read.

Some markers:
(PUH): Peace Upon Him(...):
further translation and/or explanation[...]:
my own note

Taher Al-Shemaly (TJ)
Kuwait

The call (or pray) of Kumayl is in fact the call of Al-Khidhr (PUH), but it was called like that because the prince of the believers (PUH) taught this call to Kumayl bin Ziyâd Al-Nakh`ee and for this it was named after him. This call is considered one of the most famous calls and considered one of the best, and it is preferred to read this call in the night of the middle of the month of Sha`bân and in every Friday’s night Al-Sayid bin Tâwoos told in the book of “Al-Iqabâl” within a long speech "if you memorized this call then read it every Friday’s night, or once a month, or once a year, or once in a life time, thus you shall be protected and victorious and mercy shall be always there for you, O Kumayl. I guarantee for you as long you are with us (The Household of Mohammed) so we shall answer your desires generously". Then he said: "write (O Kumayl)" — then this he wrote — :

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

O Lord I ask You by Your mercy that befell on everything
and by Your power by which You mastered everything
and everything became under it
and everything became enslaved to it
and by Your might by which You defeated everything
and by Your glory that nothing stands before it
and by Your greatness that filled everything
and by Your majesty that came over everything
and by Your face that will remain after the vanishing of everything
and by Your Names that filled the corners of everything
and by Your knowledge that surrounded everything
and by the light of Your face that enlighted everything

Yâ Noor (O Light) Yâ Quddoos (O Most Holy) O The First of all and The Last of all

O Lord forgive me the sins that break up the safety
O Lord forgive me the sins that reveal the resentments
O Lord forgive me the sins that change the gifts (of You)
O Lord forgive me the sins that imprison the call
O Lord forgive me the sins that reveal the adversities
O Lord forgive me every sin I sinned, and every mistake I have mistaken
O Lord I approach You by mentioning Your Name and get closer to You by You
and I shall ask You to get me closer to You and to spread Your thanks over me
and inspire me to mention Your Name

O Lord I ask You as an obeying, enslaved and humble man, to forgive me and have mercy upon me and make me satisfied with Your division (destiny) and in all situations to be humble.

O Lord I ask You as he whom adversities befell on him severely, and at troubles revealed his needs by Your doors, and as he who his desires were before You.

O Lord great is Your majesty
and high is Your place
and hidden is Your cunning
and obvious is Your reality
and victorious is Your might
and went on Your ability
and there is no escape from Your own government

O Lord I do not find for my sins a forgiver
and no one for my ugliness to be covering
and nothing of my bad deeds to be exchanged with good except of You
no other God but You, Be glorified and thanked. I wronged myself and I dared by my ingnorance and took refuge by Your old mention of me and Your grace over me

O Lord how many ugly things You have hidden
and how many a great adversity You have relieved
and how many a misstep You have prevented
and how many a mishap You have pushed away
and how many a praise of me that I’m not worthy for You have spreaded

O Lord great is my adversity
and gratified is my bad situation
and my (good) deeds have been shortened
and my chains brought me down
and my far hopes kept me away from my own benefit
and life tricked me by its arrogance
and my soul by its crime and my procrastination

O my Lord then shall I ask You by Your majesty that my call shall not be blocked by my bad deeds
and do not dishonor me with what You have known about my secrets
and do not hurry Your punishment for me for what I did in my privacy of the bad deeds, and my missing and my ignorance, and my abundant lust and incaution

O Lord and be for me by Your majesty in all situations a merciful
and for me in all the matters a passionate

O Lord and my God whoever I have to ask to relieve my adversity and to look at my matter except of You?

O Lord and my Master, You have judged me for following the lust of my soul
and was not careful how my enemy (devil) ornamented (things for me), and he tricked me with what I have lust for and with what makes him happy for this judgement.

Thus I passed over some of Your limitations and I went against some of Your commandments, and Your grace for all of that is over me and I have no excuse before Your judgement and what befell me of Your commands and adversities and here I come O my Lord after my negligence and my extravagance for myself, apologizing, regretting, broken, lonely, asking for mercy, repenting, recognizing, obeying, admitting, can’t find any escape of what I did and no refuge to take for my matters except of You accepting my apology, and getting me into Your wide mercy

O Lord accept my apology and have mercy upon my severe adversity and release me from my tight lashing

O Lord have mercy upon the weakness of my body and the softness of my skin and the brittleness of my bones

O You who started my creation and my mention and my education and took care of me and feeded me, make me for the beginning of Your generosity and the previous of Your care towards me

O my Lord and my Master and My God, shall You torture me with Your hell after unifying You? and after my heart having the knowledge about You and my tongue mentioned Your Name and after what my conscience believed about Your love, and after the truthful confession from me for Your deity?

How impossible! You are more generous than making who You have grown up go astray
or send him far he who You have made close
or stray who You have nestled
or give him to the adversities he who You have protected and had mercy upon
and I wish my poem O my Lord and my God and my Master
shall You order the fire to be on faces that fell down for Your greatness prostrating?
and on tongues that mentioned Your unity truthfully?
and praising You with thanks
and on hearts admitted Your deity faithfully
and on consciences gained the knowledge until they became humble before You
and on feelings that went on the lands to worship You obeying (You) and started to repent before You

This is not the thought about You and not what we were told about Your generosity
O Generous One, O Lord
and You know my weakness before few of the adversities in this life and its punishments and what happens of troubles to those living in it, but that is an adversity that will not last long and easy to handle with a short period of time, then how shall I bear the adversities of the afterlife and its great mishaps, and it is an adversity that will last long and placed for eternity and it is never lowered down for those in it because it does not become unless for Your anger and Your revenge, and this is something that heavens and earth cannot bear

O my Lord then how I shall be and I am Your weak slave, the humble, the poor, the miserable

O my Lord and my God and my Master, what to You shall I complain about, and what to You shall I cry out loud about?
for the painful torture and its hardness?
or for the long lasting of adversity and its longevity?
and if You made me for the punishments with Your enemies and gathered me with the people of Your adversities and separated me from Your beloved and viceroys, then suppose my Master and my Lord and my God I had patient with Your torture then how shall I be patient for being away from You?
and suppose I stood the heat of Your hell, then how shall I be patient for not looking at Your generosity?
or how shall I be in hell and I have hope in Your forgiveness?
then by Your own majesty O my Master and my Lord, I swear truthfully that if You left me speaking then I shall scream to You among its people (hell) the scream of those with hopes, and I shall shout as those shouting for help, and I shall cry for You as the cry of those who lost dear ones, and I shall call You and say where have You been O patron of believers?

O goal of the hopes of the wisemen
O Helper of those asking for help
O who is beloved to the hearts of the believers
O God of the worlds
shall You, be glorified Your Name, O my God and by Your grace, hear the sound of a muslim slave that was imprisoned in it for going against You? and tasted its torture by his sins? and was kept between its jaws for his crime and mistake? and he is shouting to You as one with hope for Your mercy, and call You with the tongue of the people who unified You, and beg You by Your own deity

O my Lord then how shall he remain in the torture and he is wishing for the past of Your mercy?
or how shall the hell hurt him and he hopes for Your generosity to release him from it?
or how shall he would be burned by its fires and You hear him and see his place?
or how shall he be incuded in its exhalations and You know how weak he is?
or how shall he be kept among its claws and You know how truthful he is?
or how shall he be rebuked by its keepers (angels of punishment) and he is calling You “O my Lord!” ?
or how shall he be willing for Your generosity and You leave him in it?

How impossible! This is not the thought about You, and that is not what is known of Your generosity, and it is not like how You treat the unifiers by Your generosity and help
and certainly I am sure if it is not for what You promised of torture for those who disbelieve in You, and Your judgement for those who go against You to be eternal (in it), then surely You would make it be coolness and peace and no one shall be living or dwelling there
but You, glorified Your Names, swore that You will fill it with disbelievers, from the djinn and the human as well, and to make eternal in it those who go against You
and You, gratified be Your praising, said in the beginning, and gave much of Your favors by Your generosity
Is he who is a believer like unto him who is an evil-liver? They are not alike

O my God and my Lord, then I shall ask You by the might that You have fixed,
and by the matter that You have destined and ruled, and defeated by it whoever You have made it for, to forgive me in this night and this hour every crime I have commited and every sin I have sinned and every ugliness I have made in secret, and every ignorance I have commited either announced or been a secret, made it hidden or made it apparent, and every sin that You have ordered the dignified writers (writing angels recording the deeds of a man) to note down, those who You have made to save everything I do and made them witnesses with my organs
and You have been the Watcher over me from their behind, and the Witness for whatever was hidden from them and by Your mercy You have made it hidden and (shall I ask) to make my luck abundant in every good You have revealed, or a favor You have given, or a virtue that You have spreaded, or an income that You have made easy, or a mistake that You have covered

O God, O God, O God, O my God and my Master and my Lord and the Owner of my slavery, O You who has my matter in His hands, O You who know my adversity and my humbleness, O You who best knows my poverty and my need

O God, O God, O God, I ask You by Your right and by Your glory, and by the greatest of Your characters and Names, to make my times of the night and day full of Your mention, and contiunous under Your service, and my deeds are accepted by You, so that all my deeds and works be in one path, and my situation in serving You would be eternal

O my Lord who helps me, O You who I complained to about my matters
O God, O God, O God, make my body strong enough to serve You and tighten my soul on the strength, and give me the seriousness to fear You, and the eternity to be under Your service, so that I shall be running to You in the fields of the competents and hurry to You among those in the beginning
and long for Your closeness among those craving (to You), and be close to You like those faithful to You, and be afraid of You like those who know You the best, and be gathered in Your closeness with the believers
O Lord and those whoever wanted to hurt me then hurt them, and whoever wanted to trick me then trick them, and make me one of those of the best favors from You, and the closest in place to You, and the most special in proximity to You, because this is not to be begotten unless by Your favor,
and have grace on me by Your generosity, and have passion on me by Your own glory and save me by Your own mercy
and make my tongue busy with Your mention
and my heart with Your love tightened
and have grace on me by the goodness of Your answer and relieve me from my own missteps and forgive my mistake
and if You assigned to Your slaves to worship You and ordered them to call for You and You have guaranteed the answer for them, so to You O God I turn my face, and to You O God I expanded my hand
so by Your own might answer my call, and make me reach my own goal and do not stop my hopes in Your own grace
and avoid me the evils of the djinn and the people from my enemies.

O You who has satisfaction rapidly, forgive for he who has nothing but to call You, because You are willing to do anything You want
O You who His Name is a cure, and His mention is a remedy, and obeying Him is wealth have mercy upon he who has nothing but hope, and his weapon is to cry
O You who has many favors
O You who pushes away the evils
O You who is the light of the lonely in the darkness
O You who knows best and never taught
have peace upon Mohammed and the Household of Mohammed
and do to me what is best by You
and may Allah have peace upon His prophet and the faithful viceroys of his descendants, and may (He) greets them greatly.