You are the best companion for those who love You and the...

You are the best companion for those who love You and the best source of remedy for all who place reliance upon You. You observe them in their inner states and outer doings and are aware of the depths of their hearts. You know the extent of their insight and knowledge, and their secrets are manifest to You.

Their hearts tremble in separation from You, and if solitude causes them fear and unease, the awareness of You comforts them, and if hardship and difficulty assail them, You alone are their refuge."[^4] Imam Sajjad, upon whom be peace, that paragon of purity and justice who had an unbreakable bond with his Lord, demonstrates to us in his supplicatory prayers the highest expression of love.

This was a sacred love that had inflamed all of his being, and although his spirit was sorely pressed by the mortal sorrow of separation, the powerful wing of love enabled him to soar up into the limitless heavens. With indescribable sincerity and humility, he thus prayed at the threshold of God, the Eternal: "O Lord! I have migrated to Your forgiveness and set out to Your mercy.

I ardently desire Your pardon and rely on Y our generosity, for there is naught in my conduct to make me worthy of forgiveness, and Your kindness is my only hope. "O God, send me forth on the best path and grant that 1 die as a believer in Your religion and be resurrected as a believer in Your religion. "O Lord Whom I worship! O You whose aid the sinners supplicate through Y our mercy! O you in the remembrance of Whose generosity the wretched seek refuge!

O You in fear of whom the wrongdoers bitterly weep! "O source of tranquility for the heart of those banished in fear from their homes! O consoler of those who sorrow with broken hearts! O succorer of the lonely, helper of the rejected and needy! I am that servant who responded obediently when You commanded men to call on you. "O Lord! Here I am prostrate in the dust at Your threshold.

O God, if You show mercy to whomever calls upon You in supplication, then let me be earnest in my supplications, or if You forgive whomever weeps in Your presence, then let me hasten to weep.