Nawawi supplications

Author's name: By Imam al-Nawawi, Abu Zakariya Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Dimashqi

the introduction

All praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and ask His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our own souls and the wickedness of our deeds. He whom Allah guides, none can misguide, and he whom He misguides, none can guide. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, without partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger. May Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him, his family, and his companions. And now; I do not think I would be revealing a secret or causing anger out of righteousness if I said that Imam al-Nawawi, may God have mercy on him, was not the greatest scholar of his time in knowledge, nor the most knowledgeable and accomplished, nor the most extensively researched and studied in the sciences of Islamic law... And I do not think you would need to search and investigate extensively until you find a not insignificant number of scholars who surpassed him in the various branches of Islamic law, whether they preceded him, were his contemporaries, or came after him.

But God, whose wisdom is great and whose power is exalted, has singled out this Imam, more than any other, for more love and reverence, which He has bestowed upon him in the hearts of Muslims of all backgrounds. He has granted his writings acceptance and approval in this land, which many of the unique writings whose authors have compiled and comprehended have not enjoyed, nor even half of, such knowledge. Perhaps the secret to this is that the books of this Imam have presented a number of the various branches of knowledge and their abundant benefits in a smooth, easy-to-understand format, with sweet expressions, which are not difficult for the seeker, far from eloquence, affectation, pretentiousness, and bombast. With the difficult issues that are difficult for the minds, which made them common and widely spread among people... Perhaps behind this was sincerity in work and devoting the intention to God alone, the likes of which are rare... Perhaps behind this was the sincerity of this Imam in his advice to creation and his keenness and dedication to benefiting them and guiding them to their interests... The book “Tuhfat al-Abarar wa Shi’ar al-Akhyar fi Ikhtisar al-Du’a’ wa al-Adhkar” is one of the works of this Imam that the people of knowledge received with acceptance and satisfaction, and they recommended it to their students, so the students of knowledge turned to it for study and memorization, and it spread among the common people, and its circulation increased, until It surpassed what preceded and followed it in the field of works, and it dwarfed them, and the name of the field prevailed over it, so it is not known in most circles except by “Al-Adhkar,” nor through it.

You know the remembrances, and you are truly knowledgeable that the copy in your hands now is not the first edition or the first publication of the book. Rather, it was preceded by editions and publications, including editions that were undertaken by a group of people of knowledge and students whom I love and whose efforts I appreciate.

But there is no doubt that the wise reader will realize, after he has gone a short way in his study of the material of remembrances and has connected with it and experienced it as one who hopes for benefit and advantage, that those previous editions did not make the task of presenting this edition easy for me at all. Rather, perhaps it increased my task's difficulty, hardship, and embarrassment, due to my urgent desire to advance this book to the highest levels of perfection, and my certainty that new editions are nothing more than a heavy burden on the Islamic library unless they fulfill the needs of the contemporary reader and are more precise, perfect, and edited... It was tireless work... and beautiful patience... and this was the edition.

1 - The integrity of the text - which is the ultimate goal of the book, beyond which there is no goal, and the guide of the one who acquires it, and the qibla of the reader - and the beauty of its production and presentation were the beginning of the focus of attention and the ultimate goal. The reader acquired the remembrances for the sake of “remembrances” before everything else.

For this task, I relied on three of the best available editions of the book. Each of them had been reviewed against more than one manuscript, and in one of them, the differences between the versions were noted in the footnote. I then saw that Ibn 'Allan had encompassed the vast material of "Al-Adhkar," most of it in the folds of his commentary, "Al-Futuhat Al-Rabbaniyyah 'ala Al-Adhkar Al-Nawawiyyah." I benefited greatly, as this is an ancient copy that has not been subject to distortion or alteration. Rather, the commentator transmitted it with complete fidelity, and he also pointed out, during his commentary, any differences he encountered in these manuscripts.

Although the principles mentioned above are sufficient, the heart was not comforted and the soul was not reassured regarding most of the hadiths except by referring them to the sources of authentication from the Sahihs and Sunans, to increase accuracy and clarity. This brought many benefits to the book, and through it I came across a considerable number of omissions, distortions and old and new emphases, which were discovered in successive editions of the book, and which were discovered by copyists, researchers and printers, including Ibn Allan himself.

This; and I have always proven in the text what I found to be the truth and correct; due to its agreement with the sources of verification sometimes, or the application of the majority of the principles to it at other times... or those are the factors of preference, and I often refer in the footnote to what is in the other principles, God willing! Unless it is from the simple differences that are not taken into account, such as the addition of “or the word “His God” in it or “Exalted”... or... or something like that. In any case, the differences of various types were relatively few, due to the widespread circulation of the book and the spread of its copies.

2 - Then I paid great attention to the punctuation marks (periods, full stops, etc.), and I did not rely on anyone who preceded me in this in anything, and that is because I see the importance of this element and the necessity of organizing it to help the reader understand what is there.

3 - Then I paid extra attention to punctuation marks in the text (fat-has, silent letters, etc.). I did not limit this to the words of the Prophet, nor to the ends of words; rather, I extended it to the entire text, as this is very necessary, especially in these days when the tongues of the generation have become strange - indeed, by God, even the teachers and professors of the generation - and incorrect pronunciation has become a characteristic of the vast majority of it. This is something I have never done before, despite its necessity. The text appears in various printed editions devoid of punctuation, and in some, it is sufficient to punctuate the verses and hadiths, even though the reader's need to punctuate the author's words is no less, if not more, than his need to punctuate the verses and hadiths. I did not rely on any printed edition for this either, but rather on my own pen and my frequent reference to the sources of verification. This had a beneficial effect in eliminating a number of errors that had been repeated in previous editions.