The master of the chain of our teachers in the transmission of hadith, the late Muhaddith Nuri, relates in Dar al-Salam from Imam al-Rida (AS), from his noble forefathers, that Imam al-Husayn (AS) said: One day we were sitting with the Commander of the Faithful (AS) when a bedouin came in and said: O Commander of the Faithful, I am a man with a family to support, and I am poor and have no wealth sufficient for me. He (AS) said: O brother! Why do you not seek forgiveness, so that your condition may be bettered? He said: I seek forgiveness a great deal, but no change has appeared! He (AS) said: How is that?! God has said: 'Seek forgiveness of your Lord; truly He is ever Forgiving' [Qur'an 71:10]. Then he said: Since you are unaware that some of your deeds are sins, your seeking of forgiveness is deficient and you obtain no result. Now I shall teach you a form of seeking forgiveness which you are to recite at the time of sleep, and God will grant you amplitude of provision. Then he wrote the istighfar down and gave it to the bedouin. It appears that this istighfar is the same long istighfar of seventy clauses recorded in the book al-Balad al-Amin of al-Kaf'ami, which the Commander of the Faithful (AS) himself used to recite after the dawn prayer. The text of the above istighfar is weighty and difficult; but this servant who hopes for God's forgiveness, Mustafa Nik-Eqbal, for certain reasons, presents here a summary of that comprehensive istighfar, condensed yet in the manner of a commentary and preserving its substance, and calls it 'the Special Istighfar', which, besides its aspect as a devotional recitation, has and will have - by the help of the Master of the God-fearing, God willing - a cognitive and inward aspect for those worthy of it.
Ali (AS) used to seek forgiveness and say:
The Commander of the Faithful (AS) constantly sought forgiveness from God and would say:
O God, O Forgiver of sins! I seek Your forgiveness for my sin and I ask You to overlook my stumbling; so answer me graciously, for You are worthy of being answered, worthy to be feared, and worthy to forgive.
O God! O Forgiver of sins! For my sin I seek forgiveness from You, and for my stumbling I ask Your pardon. O God, accept! For You accept well, and You are the possessor of goodness and of pardon.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin for which my body was made strong by the health You granted, or which my power attained through the bounty of Your blessing, or toward which I stretched out my hand through the amplitude of Your provision, or in which I concealed myself from people by Your veiling, or in which I felt secure from Your might through Your forbearance, and relied upon the generosity of Your pardon.
O God! At Your threshold I seek forgiveness for the sins that the health You granted made my body able to commit; the sins for which the bounty of Your blessing brought my power to the point of committing them; the sins toward which the amplitude of Your provision stretched out my hand; the sins that Your veiling of me from Your creatures made possible; the sins whose ground was my confidence in Your forbearance, together with the security this afforded me from Your might; and the sins that could be committed only in reliance upon the generosity of Your pardon.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that invites Your wrath or brings near Your displeasure; so forgive it to me, O best of forgivers.
O God! I seek forgiveness for all the sins whose end is Your wrath, or Your displeasure. Forgive me them all, O best of forgivers!
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin by which I led astray any of Your creatures through my whispering, or deceived him by my scheming, so that I taught him what he did not know and obscured for him what he did know - and so I meet You tomorrow bearing my own burdens and the burdens of others.
O God! I seek forgiveness for whatever act of mine may have stirred up a temptation or led someone astray; or for any trick I may have played or any deception I may have practised in some matter; for having taught someone what I should not have taught; or for having prevented someone from acting upon what he rightly knew; and for meeting You tomorrow, my God, with a burden upon my back, or bearing the burdens of others.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that calls to error, that leads astray from right guidance, that diminishes provision, that wipes out blessing, and that causes one's name to be forgotten.
O God! Repentance from the sins that lead to misguidance; that hinder a person's growth; that close the door of provision; that efface blessing; and that blot out a person's name from the memory of the age.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin in which I wearied my limbs by night and by day.
O God! Forgive the sins in whose bondage I was so caught up night and day that I did not even spare my own body!
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin in which my enemies lay in wait for me to strip away my honour, yet You turned their scheming away from me and did not aid them in disgracing me, as though I were a friend of Yours, and so You helped me.
O God! There were sins that my enemies were lying in wait to learn of, so as to disgrace me, and You helped me as a friend does and kept me safe from their scheming and did not let them expose me; yet I went on sinning. O God, I am deeply ashamed of such sins and beg Your pardon.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin for which I spent my night sleepless, contriving how to commit it.
O God! I am ashamed of the nights that passed in the contriving of sin.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin through which I wronged one of Your friends, or by which I aided one of Your enemies.
O God! I seek forgiveness if anywhere I have done wrong to one of Your friends, or anywhere have aided one of Your enemies.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every word I have spoken not out of love for You, and for every deed I have undertaken in other than obedience to You.
I ask God's forgiveness for every word spoken save out of love, and out of affection for You; and for every act and deed done in other than obedience to You!
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin You forbade me and I disobeyed You in it, or against which You warned me and I made it seem fair to myself.
My God! I beg pardon for everything You forbade and I committed; or that You warned me against and I deemed permissible.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin I forgot and You recorded; that I made light of and You set down; that I committed openly and You covered over — and had I repented of it, You would have forgiven it.
My God! I cry out over the sins I have forgotten and You have counted; that I have not reckoned and You have registered; that I have committed brazenly and You have concealed; would that I had repented, for then You would have forgiven!
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin for which I expected punishment to be hastened, yet You granted me respite and drew a veil over me — and I spared no effort in tearing that veil away.
My God! I seek forgiveness for sins so foul that I awaited their punishment, yet I was granted Your respite and came under the veil of Your all-covering mercy; and still I violated that sanctity and persisted in sin.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that turns Your mercy away from me, or brings down Your retribution upon me, or deprives me of Your honouring, or removes Your blessing from me.
My God! I take refuge in You from the sins that turn Your mercy away from a person, bring down Your retribution, withhold Your honour, and cause Your blessing to vanish!
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that brings about ruin, or brings down affliction, or makes enemies gloat, or lifts away the covering, or withholds the rain of heaven.
My God! I take refuge in You from the sins that destroy life, breed affliction, loosen the tongues of enemies in gloating, strip away honour, and even keep rain from falling upon a place.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin for which I reproached one of Your creatures, or for which I reviled one of Your creation, and then committed it myself.
My God! Forgive me the sins I saw in others and faulted them for, and for which I condemned them, while I myself committed the very same.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin of which I repented to You and then went back to it, or persisted in it.
My God! Again I ask forgiveness for the sins of which I repented, yet to which I insistently returned.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every covenant or contract I broke without necessity, and for failing to fulfil it.
My God! Forgive the covenants and pledges, the promises and agreements, that I broke without cause, and the occasions on which I proved faithless.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that overcame me by reason of a blessing You bestowed upon me.
My God! How ashamed I am of the sins whose only cause was the abundance of Your blessing upon me — and I lacked the capacity to bear it.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin in which I put my appetite before obedience to You.
My God! Pass over every instance in which I placed my desire ahead of obedience to You.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin I remember or have forgotten, committed deliberately or in error — and my soul is held in pledge for it.
My God, forgiveness! For all that I recall and all that I do not; whether deliberate or inadvertent; sins for which my destiny has been pledged and which have tampered with my fate.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin of which I neglected to repent to You, and for which I was made to forget to seek Your forgiveness.
My God, have mercy for that of which I was heedless to repent, and which I forgot to seek forgiveness for.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin I committed out of my good opinion of You that You would not punish me for it, and hoping in You for Your forgiveness; and my soul enticed me, relying upon Your generosity, that You would not disgrace me after having covered me.
My God! I seek Your mercy for the sins I committed with the good opinion that You would not punish me, and in hope of Your pardon; and I constantly supposed to myself that after concealing a person's faults You do not expose him.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that causes supplication to be rejected, response to be withheld, hope to be disappointed, and expectation to be cut off.
My God! Shelter me from the sins that turn supplication away, that bring deprivation of any answer, that darken the future and sever hope.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that leaves regret in its wake, bequeaths remorse, withholds provision, and turns back intercession.
My God! I take refuge in You from the sins that bring regret in their train, breed remorse, block provision, and prevent intercession from being accepted on a person's behalf.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that brings on sicknesses, hastens death, sends down retributions, and prepares the ground for affliction.
My God! Forgive the sins that cause illness, hasten the appointed term, spread a pall of sorrow, and lay the bed of affliction in one's life.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that my tongue praised, or my heart harboured, or my soul inclined toward, or I carried out by my deeds, or wrote with my hand.
My God! I seek Your pardon for the sins I praised with my tongue alone; or over which I merely rejoiced in my heart and toward which I inclined; likewise the sins I put into action; and even the sins I committed merely by writing something.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin I committed in seclusion, by night or by day, while You let down the veils over me, where none saw me but You, O Almighty. My soul wavered in it, and I hesitated between abandoning it out of fear of You and violating it out of good opinion of You; then my soul enticed me to go ahead with it, and I fell into it while fully aware that in it I was disobeying You.
My God! Forgive what I committed in my own solitude while Your covering mercy enveloped me, there where none saw me but You, O Mender of faults! In that solitude I wavered between abandoning the sin out of fear of You and committing it in hope of Your forgiveness. In the end I committed it, and I confess that I am a sinner!
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin I deemed small, or thought slight, or held lawful, or took lightly — and my ignorance made me fall into it.
My God! Cover over the sins I deemed small, thought pardonable, held permissible, and of which I said, 'It is nothing!' — until in the end my ignorance overcame me and defiled me.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin by which I wronged one of Your creatures, or through which I did evil to one of Your creation, or which my soul made seem fair to me, or to which I made another eager, or toward which I directed someone other than myself.
My God! I ask Your pardon if I have wronged anyone, or been discourteous, or reckoned someone to be somebody of consequence, or shown longing toward other than You, or sent someone toward someone other than You.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin in which I betrayed my trust, or by whose doing I harmed myself, or by which I did wrong against my own body, or in which I preferred my appetites, or gave precedence to my pleasures, or acted in it for another's sake, or led astray into it one who followed me, or went to excess against one who restrained me, or overpowered one who contended with me, or overcame him by my cunning.
My God! I repent if I have betrayed a trust; or done harm to myself or my body; or if I have chosen my appetite, or held my pleasures paramount; or if I have slandered; or led a follower astray; or if I have gone to excess against one who stood in my way; or used excessive force or cunning against an adversary.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin for which I sought help through a stratagem that brings one nearer to Your wrath, or by attaining which I gained the upper hand over the people of obedience to You, or by which I drew someone into disobeying You, or in which I made a show before Your servants, or through which I deceived them by my deeds.
O my God! I ask Your forgiveness for the sins to commit which I resorted to some stratagem; or was driven to ride upon the back of some helpless person; or to make someone a partner in my crime; and likewise I ask forgiveness for the acts of ostentation I have performed and the occasions on which I passed myself off as better than I was.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every act of conceit, ostentation, seeking of repute or arrogance; of exultation, frivolity or insolence; of rancour or wantonness; of partisanship or fanaticism; of approval or displeasure; of prodigal giving or miserliness; of injustice, treachery or theft; of lying, slander, idle amusement or play — and for the like of these among sins.
O Lord! Pass over all self-admiration, all ostentation and craving for repute, all fantasies, all self-satisfactions and giddiness and intoxications, all rancours and enmities, all partialities and prejudices, all likings and dislikings, all misplaced generosity and all miserliness, all injustices and betrayals, thefts, lies, backbitings, all heedlessness and frivolity, and everything of that kind. My God! Pass over every last one of them!
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that has passed in Your knowledge as one I shall commit tomorrow, by the power that You place in my possession — while You have more right to it than I.
O God! I seek forgiveness for everything recorded in Your knowledge that I shall commit in the future, misusing the power You have placed at my disposal on loan. My God, You are always more truly the owner of the power and the choice You grant to us, Your servants; and whenever You will, You take it back.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every place in which I feared other than You; and I seek Your forgiveness if I have shown enmity to Your friends, or befriended Your enemies, or forsaken those You love, or exposed myself to anything of Your wrath.
O my Lord! Forgive me if anywhere I feared other than You; if I showed enmity to Your friends or drew close to Your enemies; if I counted those who love You as nothing; or if in any way I exposed myself to Your wrath.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin of which I repented to You and then returned to it, breaking the covenant between me and You, relying upon Your generosity and Your pardon.
My God! I repent of the sins of which I repented again and again and to which I returned; and of the covenants I broke in my private converse with You, relying upon Your generosity and Your pardon.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that brought me near Your punishment, or removed me far from Your reward, or veiled Your mercy from me, or clouded Your blessing upon me.
My God! Forgive the sins that bring me near to punishment, or take me far from Your reward, or veil me from Your mercy, or cloud Your blessing upon me.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin by which I undid a bond I had tied fast, or by which I deprived myself of a good You had promised me.
My God! Pass over the promises and agreements I broke, and forgive me for the deeds by whose doing I deprived myself of Your good.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin I committed by reason of the well-being with which You enveloped me, or which I was able to commit by reason of the abundance of Your blessing, or for which I had strength through Your ample provision. And I seek Your forgiveness for every good work by which I intended Your Face, and then something mingled with it in me, and something not purely for You shared in my deed, and associating others with You entered into my intention.
My God! Forgive me for the sins I committed by misusing well-being, and while enjoying Your blessing and Your abundant provision; forgive me for the good works in which I had no sincerity, or in which, after I had begun, my sincerity was stained and my intention became tainted with associating others with You!
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin into which a supposed dispensation carried me, so that I made it lawful for myself while with You it is forbidden.
My God! I seek forgiveness for what I supposed to be a dispensation and reckoned permissible and committed, whereas with You it was forbidden.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin hidden from Your creatures yet not concealed from You: I sought forgiveness for it and You forgave me, then I returned to it and You covered it over for me.
O my God, pardon! For the sins that stayed hidden from Your creation and were not hidden from You; I sought forgiveness and at once You forgave, yet I committed them again, and again You concealed them from Your creatures.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin toward which I stepped with my foot, or stretched out my hand, or gazed upon with my eye, or listened to with my ear, or uttered with my tongue, or on which I spent what You had provided me. Then I asked You for provision despite my disobedience and You provided me; then I used Your provision as a help in disobeying You, and You covered me; then I asked You for more and You did not disappoint me; and I flaunted my sin openly before You and You did not disgrace me. So I go on persisting in disobeying You, and You go on returning to me with Your forbearance and Your forgiveness, O most Generous of the generous.
My God! I seek pardon for that toward which I walked with my feet, or did with my hands, or committed with my glance, my hearing, or my tongue; and I seek pardon for having spent Your provision on what did not please You, and then asked for sustenance again, and You gave it again, and again I spent it in disobedience — and You did nothing against me! Even when I asked for more, You gave! I did evil openly, and You did not expose me! I persisted, and You showed forbearance and forgave! Truly there is none more generous and more giving than You!
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin whose small measure makes Your painful punishment due upon me, and whose great measure brings down on me Your severe chastisement; in the doing of which lies the hastening of Your retribution, and in persisting in which lies the vanishing of Your blessing.
My God! I take refuge in You from the sins whose least amount brings painful punishment and whose greater amount brings severe chastisement; sins in whose doing lies the hastening of retribution, and in whose persistence lies the loss of blessing!
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin of which none but You is aware, and which none but You knows; from which nothing can save me but Your forbearance, and which nothing can encompass but Your pardon.
My God! Have mercy upon the sins of which no one but You is aware and of which none has any knowledge. My God! Is there anything to count upon except Your forbearance and the breadth of Your pardon?
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that removes blessings, or brings down retributions, or hastens annihilation, or multiplies regret.
O my Lord! Forgive the sins that kill blessing and increase retribution; that uproot a person and yield remorse!
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that effaces good deeds, and multiplies evil deeds, and hastens retributions, and angers You, O Lord of the heavens.
O my God! I seek forgiveness for that which gradually effaces good deeds and multiplies evil ones; which brings on suffering and moves You, O Lord of the heavens, to wrath.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that You have more right to know, since You are more entitled to conceal it; for You are worthy to be held in awe and worthy to forgive.
My God! Since You know our sins better than anyone, and insist more than anyone on concealing them, You are therefore more eager than anyone to forgive them; so forgive them all, for You are the One who forgives and the One who does good to others!
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin in which I showed enmity toward one of Your friends, in support of Your enemies, or by inclining toward the people of disobedience to You against the people of obedience to You.
My God! Woe to me if anywhere I have set myself even a hair's breadth against one of Your friends, or lent aid to those who have no bond with You; or if anywhere I have kept away from the people of obedience to You and inclined toward the people of disobedience to You. My God, forgive it all!
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that clothed me in pride, and brought me to abasement, and made me despair of mercy and of returning to obedience.
My God! I ask pardon if anywhere I put on the garment of pride, or anywhere abased myself without cause; or if in some affair I despaired of Your mercy, or abandoned an act of obedience after a time.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that led me into destruction, and settled me in the abode of ruin, and made me walk the path of error.
My God! Encompass with Your forgiveness the sins that lead astray and bring wretchedness and whose end is destruction.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that distracted me from that to which You guided me, or that which You commanded me, or that which You forbade me, or that to which You directed me among the things wherein lies my portion for attaining Your good pleasure, preferring Your love, and drawing near to You.
My God! Pass over it if Your guidance, or Your command and prohibition, reached me and I let it go; or if You made known to me Your good pleasure, Your love, and the path of nearness, and I lost it.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that turns my supplication back from You, or cuts off my hope in You, or prolongs my toil under Your displeasure, or shortens my expectation with You.
My God! Forgive the sins that close the door of supplication, break hope in the heart, mark a person out as an old offender under Your displeasure, and dry up within a person the capacity for ascent.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that kills the heart, and occupies it with distress, and pleases Satan, and displeases the All-Merciful.
My God! I take refuge in You from the sins that kill the heart and set life ablaze with hardship; that gladden Satan and cause You displeasure, O compassionate God!
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that is followed by despair of Your mercy, hopelessness of Your forgiveness, and deprivation of the amplitude of what is with You.
My God! Forgive the sins whose end is despair of Your mercy, giving up on Your forgiveness, and being left without a share of Your presence and of the favours that are with You.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin for which my soul loathed itself out of reverence for You, so that I showed repentance before You and You accepted it, and I asked You for pardon and You pardoned; then caprice inclined me to return to it, coveting the amplitude of Your mercy and the generosity of Your pardon, hoping for the beauty of Your promise.
My God! Again I seek forgiveness for the sins after committing which, when I remembered Your majesty, I repented of them and You forgave; I asked pardon and You pardoned. Then caprice drove me back to them again — and I have coveted and still covet that You will forgive and pardon, just as You have promised.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that bequeaths blackness of faces on the Day when some faces turn white and some faces turn black [Qur'an 3:106], when they turn to one another, blaming one another, and it is said to them: 'Do not dispute in My presence, when I had already sent the warning ahead to you' [Qur'an 50:28].
My God! Shelter me from the sins that blacken the face on the Day of Resurrection, the day when the good, whose faces are bright, will reproach the wicked: why did you not heed the counsel?
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that calls to unbelief, and prolongs anxious thought, and bequeaths poverty, and brings on hardship.
My God! Pass over the sins which, if they weigh upon my back and are not forgiven, will in the end drag me into unbelief — and before that, they preoccupy the mind, cause poverty, and bring hardship.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that brings the appointed terms nearer, and cuts off hopes, and curtails lifespans — whether I have spoken of it or kept silent about it out of shame before You at its mention, so that I hid it away in my breast; for indeed You know the secret and what is yet more hidden.
My God! Forgive me the sins that bring the hour of death forward, and ruin the future, and shorten lifespans; and some of them are so foul that it would be shameless even before You to name them; so I keep them hidden in my heart, and You Yourself know them!
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin in whose commission lies the cutting off of provision, the rejection of supplication, the succession of afflictions, the coming of anxieties, and the doubling of sorrows.
My God! In the committing of certain sins the cutting off of provision, the rejection of supplication, the succession of affliction, the onslaught of troubled thoughts, and the mastery of grief are all decreed; so purify me of all these sins and their effects!
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that makes me hateful to Your servants, and drives Your friends away from me, or estranges from me the people of obedience to You, through the ill fortune of acts of disobedience, the appearance of aversion toward them, and the emergence of enmity against them.
My God! I take refuge in You from the deeds that make a person detested by people and abhorrent to God's friends; from the deeds whose ill fortune makes the believers flee from a person, and cause aversion to appear and enmity to arise in a person's destiny.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that changes one's state, and tears away the covering, and makes the face ugly.
My God! Pass over the sins which, if You do not pass over them, little by little ruin a person's state and condition, so that disgrace and ugliness of face gradually appear.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin with which Your covenant cannot be attained, with which one cannot be safe from Your wrath, with which Your mercy does not descend, and with which Your blessing does not endure.
My God! I ask pardon for the sins in whose presence the covenant of servanthood cannot be kept, and one cannot sit safe from Your wrath; sins in whose presence mercy is withheld and blessing does not last for a person.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that I hid from Your servants in the light of day and committed openly in the darkness of night, out of my own audacity toward You — even though I know that with You the secret is open, and that with You the hidden is manifest; and I know that no preventer will shield me from You, and that with You neither wealth nor sons will profit, unless I come to You with a sound heart.
My God! I seek forgiveness for the sins to commit which I awaited the coming of night and its concealment from the eyes of Your servants; I would sink so deep into appetite that I became heedless of Your existence and of Your presence everywhere and at all times. Woe to me on the day when I must answer in Your presence; woe to the day when nothing avails but a sound heart. What shall I do on that day? So, my God, forgive me now!
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that bequeaths forgetfulness of remembrance and the succession of heedlessness; and in which lie the respite that is a divine stratagem, and the lengthening of rope in deception, and coveting what is with others, and despair of Your threshold.
My God! Certain sins cause a person to lose the grace of remembrance, so that successive heedlessness delivers him to God's stratagem and to God's granting him respite, until in the end he sets his heart on other than God and despairs of God's threshold. My God, I take refuge in You from such sins! Free me from their bonds and from their effects!
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that turns Your provision away from me, and makes me reproach You, and turn away from You, and incline toward Your servants, humbling myself before them and pleading with them — when You have said in Your firm Book: 'Yet they did not humble themselves before their Lord, nor do they plead' [Qur'an 23:76].
My God! Forgive me the sins that lift me from the table of sustenance and seat another in my place; the sins that bring in their train Your reproach and Your turning away from me. My God, forgive me if instead of You I inclined toward Your servants, and humbled myself before them, and pleaded and begged of them, while in Your Book You had said: come to Me, and humble yourselves before Me, and plead with Me.
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every seeking of help from other than You in every distress; and I seek Your forgiveness for every cry for aid or seeking of refuge with anyone other than You in every turn of fortune and every onslaught.
My God! Repentance for every seeking of assistance, every request, and every seeking of help from other than You in any matter! Repentance for every cry for succour and every seeking of refuge with anyone other than You in any affair!
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin I committed out of fear of other than You, or out of humbling myself before one of Your creatures, or out of coveting what he has, or to gain his approval, or out of ostentation or desire for repute.
My God! I am remorseful for the sins I committed out of fear of others, or because I lacked the courage to say no to others, or was embarrassed, or hoped that if I obeyed them they would give me something; or because I pointlessly sought their approval, or wanted them to praise me and speak well of me behind my back. My God, forgive it all!
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin my tongue praised, or toward which my soul inclined, or which I made attractive by my deeds, or to which I urged others by my words — while with You it is foul, and You punish me for it.
My God! Even if I have praised something, or inclined toward something in my heart, or in practice commended something by my conduct, or if my words encouraged others toward it, and that thing counted with You as a sin and something detestable — my God, pardon me!
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that my soul pictured to me as slight, and made me imagine small, and made it easy for me to treat lightly, until it plunged me into it.
My God! Sometimes, because I considered a sin small and trifling, I gave it so much room in my mind that in the end I fell into its abyss. My God, for such thoughts and imaginings, and for such deeds too, I seek Your forgiveness!
O God, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin concerning which Your knowledge has run in me and against me until the end of my life; for all my sins, their first and their last, the deliberate and the mistaken, the few and the many, the subtle and the gross, the old and the recent, the secret and the open, and for everything in which I am a sinner. I repent to You, and I ask You to bless Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, and to forgive me all that You have counted of the wrongs done to Your servants that stand against me; for Your servants have rights against me for which I am held in pledge — forgive them for me however You will and in whatever way You will, O most Merciful of the merciful.
My God! I seek forgiveness for the sins written in Your knowledge of the unseen concerning me, which it is inevitable that I shall commit until the end of my life;
I seek forgiveness for all my sins, from first to last, whether deliberate or unintentional, few or many, minor or major, occasional or constant, hidden or open; for all of them I seek forgiveness and turn back to You, O God! And I ask You to bestow a special glance of mercy upon Muhammad and his family — of whose family we believers too are a part — and to forgive all the wrongs I owe toward others, for such things most certainly exist and I am held in pledge for them. My God, however You can and in whatever way You deem best, forgive them all! O most Generous of the generous!