Prayer for Protection

Department of the Secretariat
12 August 1996 

Mr. ...

Dear Bahá'í Friend,

Dr. Peter Khan referred to the Universal House of Justice your letter of 5 June 1996 requesting a translation and background information for a specific prayer in Arabic, a copy of which you enclosed, and we have been asked to respond.

The Research Department at the Bahá'í World Centre has informed us that this prayer is published in a well-known compilation of the works of Bahá'u'lláh entitled Majmú' iy-i-Alváh-Mubárakiy-i-hazrat-i-Bahá'u'lláh (Cairo, 1920), page 275, and is also published in the prayer-book Ad' iyiy-i-Mahbúb, page 206. To date, the name of the recipient of the prayer or the date of its revelation has not been established.

An authorized English translation of this prayer is enclosed.

With loving Bahá'í greetings,
For Department of the Secretariat
Enclosure

"In His Name, the Exalted, the All-Highest, the Most Sublime!

      Glorified art Thou, O Lord my God! O Thou Who art my God, and my Master, and my Lord, and my Support, and my Hope, and my Refuge, and my Light. I ask of Thee, by Thine Hidden and Treasured Name, that none knoweth save Thine own Self, to protect the bearer of this Tablet from every calamity and pestilence, and from every wicked man and woman; from the evil of the evil-doers, and from the scheming of the unbelievers. Preserve him, moreover, O my God, from every pain and vexation, O Thou Who holdest in Thy hand the empire of all things. Thou, truly, art powerful over all things. Thou doest as Thou willest, and ordainest as Thou pleasest.

      O Thou King of Kings! O Thou kind Lord! O Thou Source of ancient bounty, of grace, of generosity and bestowal! O Thou Healer of sicknesses! O Thou Sufficer of needs! O Thou Light of Light! O Thou Light above all Lights! O Thou Revealer of every Manifestation! O Thou the Compassionate! O Thou the Merciful! Do Thou have mercy upon the bearer of this Tablet, through Thy most great mercy and Thine abundant grace, O Thou the Gracious, Thou the Bounteous. Guard him, moreover, through Thy protection, from whatsoever his heart and mind may find repugnant. Of those endued with power, Thou, verily, art the most powerful. The Glory of God rest upon thee, O thou rising sun! Do thou testify unto that which God hath testified of His own Self, that there is none other God besides Him, the Almighty, the Best-Beloved."

Bahá'u'lláh