The legacy of the House of the Prophet includes scores of beautiful supplications, but there is perhaps no supplication more beautiful than the Munājāt shaʿbāniyya. In the introduction to his translation of al-Ṣaḥīfa al-sajjādiyya, William Chittick says, “No one with any sensitivity toward human weakness and God’s love can fail to be moved at least by some of the supplications contained in the Ṣaḥīfa.” This statement is even truer of the Munājāt shaʿbāniyya.
Men and women of great spiritual achievement have held this supplication in the highest regard. One of these sages said the following about the Munājāt shaʿbāniyya:
You’ve read the Munājāt shaʿbāniyya. Read it. The Munājāt shaʿbāniyya belongs to a special class of special appeals to God. If you apply the teachings in these appeals, if you reflect on their contents, they’ll elevate your soul. The one who spoke these words—and, according to tradition, all of the Imams prayed to God in these words—had already been liberated from sin and yet he prayed to God in this way because he wasn’t egotistical. Whatever they were in reality, the Imams did not think “I am,” for example, “Imam Sadiq.” No, Imam Sadiq prayed to God like someone drowning in sin because he could see that he himself is nothing, whatever exists is flawed, and whatever exists comes from Him. Whatever perfection there is, it’s from God. Imam Sadiq himself has nothing. None of the Imams had anything and neither did the prophets. Everyone is nothing. There is only God. And everyone is drawn to Him—everything is drawn to him by its very nature. But, since we’re cloaked in veils, we don’t understand that we’re drawn to Him. Those who do understand are liberated and they set out in search of this very reality. This is the total detachment they sought, which means abandoning everything in existence. Regarding the phrase “he has always been outrageous and oblivious,” which occurs in the verse “We offered the trust to the heavens, the earth, and the mountains, but they refused to undertake it and were afraid of it. Man undertook it—he has always been outrageous and oblivious,” some say “outrageous and oblivious” is actually God’s highest praise for man. He’s “outrageous” because he breaks every idol, breaks everything. He’s “oblivious” because he pays no attention to anything, he doesn’t notice anything—he’s oblivious to everything other than God. We can’t be like that. We can’t undertake God’s trust. But we can walk the road.
Reading the Munājāt shaʿbāniyya with an open heart is one of the surest ways of walking the road that leads to God and God alone. Finally, in the Quran, God tells the Prophet to say, “[God says,] ‘My servants who have wronged yourselves by your own excesses, do not despair of God’s mercy—God forgives all sins. He is truly the most forgiving, the most merciful.’” I have found the Munājāt shaʿbāniyya to be a potent remedy for despair.
The Munājāt shaʿbāniyya
I begin in the name of God the most compassionate, the most caring.
Oh, God, bless Muhammad and his family.
Hear my calls when I call out to you, listen to my cries when I cry out to you, come to my aid when I beseech you secretly.
For I have run to you and now I stand before you in a pitiful state, imploring you in hope of the bounties that lie with you alone.
You know what is in my heart, my needs, and my innermost thoughts.
You know every move I make, everything I want to say, all that I wish to ask of you, and the end for which I hold out hope.
You, my master, have already decreed what is to befall me until the end of my life—what I conceal from others and what I do openly.
Whether I am given more or less, my welfare and my adversities, all of it is in your hands and your hands alone.
If you, God, were to deprive me, then who would provide for me?
And if you were to forsake me, then who would come to my aid?
I seek refuge with you, God, from your fury and the bluster of your wrath.
I may be unworthy of your mercy, God, but you are worthy of showering me with your overflowing generosity.
It is as if my soul stands before you, God, and the trust I have placed in you is sheltering it. You say what you are worthy of saying and your forgiveness completely envelops me.
If you forgive, God, then who better to forgive than you.
And if death approaches and my deeds have not brought me close to you, then let the confession of my sins bring me close to you.
I have wronged my self, God, by neglecting it. If you do not forgive it, it is doomed.
Throughout my life, God, you have been kind to me. Cease not to be kind in the hour of my death.
How could I ever despair of your loving care after death, God, when you have tended to me beautifully throughout my life?
Tend to me in a way that is worthy of you, God, and confer your favor upon a sinner drowning in his own foolishness.
You have overlooked my sins in this world, God, and I desperately need you to overlook them in the world to come.
You were good to me, God, as you did not divulge my sins to any of your virtuous servants, so do not expose me on the day of the resurrection in front of everyone.
Your magnanimity has filled me with hope. Your pardon is far better than my deeds. So make me rejoice in meeting you on the day when you shall settle all accounts.
My plea to you, God, is the plea of one who cannot but plead for the acceptance of his excuse. So accept my excuse, oh, most noble of anyone to whom the disobedient plea.
Do not refuse my request, God. Do not disappoint me, do not dash my hopes.
If you had wanted to disgrace me, God, you would never have guided me. And if you had wanted to humiliate me, you would never have spared me.
Oh, God, I do not think you would refuse a request that I spent my entire life seeking from you.
You alone are worthy of praise, God, forever and ever, perpetually and eternally, increasing and never perishing, in the way you wish and find pleasing.
Oh, God, if you were to hold me to account for my offenses, I would hold you to account for your pardon. And if you were to hold me to account for my sins, I would hold you to account for your forgiveness. And if you were to send me to hell, I would tell its inhabitants that I love you.
Oh, God, if the effort I put into obeying you was trivial, the hope I placed in you was immense.
How could I be turned away frustrated and deprived when your generosity led me to believe you would let me go with the news of my redemption.
I spent my life mischievously neglecting you, God, and I wasted my youth drunk off of my alienation from you.
Oh, God, I slumbered the days away when I was blind to you and inclined to a path that displeases you.
But I am your servant, God, and your servant’s son. I stand before you today beseeching you by your magnanimity.
I am just a slave, God, renouncing how shamelessly and openly I defied you, and begging your pardon as forgiveness is one aspect of your magnanimity.
I did not have the strength to stop disobeying you, God, until you awakened me to your love. Then and only then did I become what you wanted me to be: I thanked you for enfolding me in your gentle arms and cleansing my heart from the stain of disregard.
Oh, God, look at me like someone who responded to your call when you summoned him, someone who complied when you helped him enter into your service.
Oh, God, you are never far away from those who are blind to you and you are never stingy with those who expect bounties from you.
Oh, God, grant me a heart that is enamored with you, a tongue that speaks lofty truths, and the vision to draw nigh to you.
One who befriends you, God, will never be forgotten, one who takes shelter with you will never be forsaken, and one to whom you attend will never grow weary.
One who finds his way to you, God, is enlightened and one who clings to you finds refuge—I have taken shelter with you, God.
I expect you to have mercy on me, God, so do not disappoint me and do not prevent me from experiencing your compassion.
Oh, God, lift me up to the station of your intimate friends, the station of those who long to be loved by you more and more.
Let my remembrance of you, God, inspire a passion to continue remembering you and make me long for the day when I am rejuvenated by your names and your sacred presence.
I beseech you, God, to place me among those who obey you, in a good place where you are pleased with me, for I cannot ward off harm from my self nor can I benefit my self.
I am just a weak and sinful servant, God, a contrite slave, so do not turn away from me and do not let my negligence prevent me from obtaining your forgiveness.
Give me the gift of total indifference to everything but you, God. Illuminate the vision of our hearts by the splendor of setting their sight upon you until that vision pierces the curtains of light, reaching the core of grandeur, and our souls become fastened to the power of your sanctity.
Oh, God, include me among those who respond to you when you call them, those who swoon before your glory when you look upon them—you speak to them softly and they work for you openly.
I never allowed the gloom of despair to prevail over my belief in your goodness, God, and I never lost hope in the beauty of your kindness.
If my mistakes have degraded me in your eyes, God, then pardon me on account of the absolute trust I placed in you.
If my sins have made me unworthy of your benevolent grace, God, my unshakeable faith in you has reassured me of your bounteous compassion.
If my failure to prepare to meet you, God, lulled me to sleep, then my cognizance of your lavish blessings has roused me from my slumber.
Oh, God, if the severity of your punishment summons me to hell, the abundance of your rewards summons me to heaven.
It is you alone that I ask, God, you alone that I beseech, you alone that I petition.
I ask you to bless Muhammad and his family, and to include me among those who constantly remember you, those who never violate their covenant with you, those you never fail to thank you, and those who never make light of your commands.
Oh, God, surround me with the brilliant light of your majesty so that I may know you and turn away from everything other than you, so that I may fear you and devote myself to you.
Oh, you who are exalted and revered.
May God bless his messenger Muhammad and the pure family of Muhammad, and lavish peace upon them.
The content of the Munājāt shaʿbāniyya speaks for itself, but there’s no harm in addressing its provenance. The following is a summary of what Hassan Ansari has written about the provenance of the text:
Ibn Ṭāwūs included the Munājāt shaʿbāniyya in his Iqbāl al-aʿmāl. He related the text from “Ibn Khālawayh,” who said, “It is the munājāt of Amīr al-Muʾminīn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and the Imams among his descendants. They would pray in these words in the month of Shaʿbān.” Therefore, according to what Ibn Khālawayh said, this text was originally transmitted from Imam Ali and the other Imams also recited it. Part of the text may very well go back to Imam Ali. A subsequent Imam could have amended this core and this amended text could have found its way into the hands of the Shia.
The aforementioned “Ibn Khālawayh” is Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf ibn Mahjūr al-Fārisī and not, as Ibn Ṭāwūs assumed, the famous Shīʿī litterateur named Ibn Khālawayh, who was associated with Sayf al-Dawla in Aleppo. In his profile on Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf ibn Mahjūr al-Fārisī, al-Najāshī says, “A sheikh from among our associates, trustworthy… he wrote a book on rituals for Rajab, a book on rituals for Shaʿbān, and a book on rituals for Ramadān. Several of our associates related material to me from him.” The Munājāt shaʿbāniyya was probably included in this book on rituals for Shaʿbān.
Based on the wording of Iqbāl, Ibn Ṭāwūs did not have access to the book itself—he must have cited it indirectly—which explains why he confused the author of the book with the Shīʿī litterateur by the same name.
Al-Najāshī died in the middle of the 5th century AH and he transmitted material from Ibn Khālawayh via an intermediary. Therefore, we can trace the text back to the first half of the 5th century (if not earlier) with some degree of confidence.
Beautiful dua
The invocation of Shaban is a truly powerful and beautiful supplication.