Fortress of the Muslim
Fortress of the Muslim
حصن المسلم
O Allah, I am Your servant, the son of Your servant and the son of Your female servant. My forelock is in Your hand; Your command over me is carried out, and Your decree concerning me is just. I ask You by every name that belongs to You, with which You named Yourself, or which You sent down in Your Book, taught to one of Your creation, or kept exclusively with You in the knowledge of the unseen, to make the Qur’an the spring of my heart, the light of my chest, the clearing of my grief, and the removal of my anxiety.
Translation notes
نَاصِيَتِي بِيَـدِكَ
The witness adds the explanatory parenthesis ‘i.e. you have control over me’; this gloss is not stated in the Arabic.
Should the explanatory gloss be kept outside the translated text?
O Allah, I seek refuge in You from worry and sorrow, incapacity and laziness, miserliness and cowardice, the burden of debt, and being overpowered by people.
There is no deity except Allah, the Great, the Forbearing. There is no deity except Allah, Lord of the Mighty Throne. There is no deity except Allah, Lord of the heavens, Lord of the earth, and Lord of the Noble Throne.
Translation notes
لَا إلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ
The witness adds ‘worthy of worship’ to this repeated declaration, while the Arabic states ‘There is no deity except Allah.’
Should the witness’s explanatory worship gloss be included?
O Allah, I hope for Your mercy. Do not leave me to myself even for the blink of an eye. Set right all my affairs for me. There is no deity except You.
Translation notes
لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا أنْـت
The witness adds ‘worthy of worship’ to the declaration; the Arabic itself says ‘no deity except You.’
Should the explanatory worship gloss be included?
There is no deity except You. Glory be to You; truly, I have been among the wrongdoers.
Translation notes
لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا أنْـت
The witness adds ‘worthy of worship’ to the Arabic declaration, which says ‘there is no deity except You.’
Should the explanatory worship gloss be included?
O Allah, we place You before them, and seek refuge in You from their evils.
Translation notes
اللّهُـمَّ إِنا نَجْـعَلُكَ في نُحـورِهِـم
The idiom literally says ‘we place You in their nuḥūr’ (chests/throats); the witness interprets it as asking Allah to restrain them by their necks.
Which contextual rendering best conveys the idiom in this supplication?
O Allah, You are my strength and my helper. With Your help I go forth, advance, and fight.
Translation notes
بِكَ أَجـولُ وَبِكَ أَصـولُ وَبِكَ أُقـاتِل
The witness renders bika as ‘for Your sake’; the Arabic literally says ‘by/with You’ and can denote relying on divine aid.
Should bika be expressed as ‘with Your help’ or ‘for Your sake’ in this context?
O Allah, Lord of the seven heavens and Lord of the Mighty Throne, be a protector for me from [so-and-so, son of so-and-so], and from his factions among Your creatures, lest any of them overstep against me or transgress. Mighty is Your protection, exalted is Your praise, and there is no deity except You.
Translation notes
اللَّهُمَّ ربَّ السَّمَوَاتِ السَّبْعِ، وَرَبَّ الْعَرْشِ الْعَظِيمِ، كُنْ لِي جَاراً مِنْ فُلاَنِ بْنِ فُلاَنٍ، وَأَحْزَابِهِ مِنْ خَلاَئِقِكَ، أَنْ يَفْرُطَ عَلَيَّ أَحَدٌ مِنْهُمْ أَوْ يَطْغَى، عَزَّ جَارُكَ، وَجَلَّ ثَنَاؤُكَ، وَلاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ أَنْتَ
The wording jaran and yafruta is context-sensitive; the witness expands the placeholder as instructions to name a person, calls the groups helpers, and interprets the threat as abuse or wrongdoing.
How should jaran and yafruta be rendered, and should the placeholder be preserved literally or converted into an instruction?
Allah is the Greatest; Allah is mightier than all His creation; Allah is mightier than what I fear and dread. I seek refuge in Allah, there is no deity except Him, who holds the seven heavens from falling upon the earth except by His permission, from the evil of Your servant so-and-so, his troops, followers, and supporters among the jinn and humankind. O Allah, be a protector for me from their evil. Exalted is Your praise, mighty is Your protection, blessed is Your name, and there is no deity other than You. (three times)
Translation notes
(ثلاث مرات)
The English witness adds ‘in Arabic’ to the repetition instruction; the Arabic only specifies three times.
Should the language instruction be added even though it is absent from the Arabic?
O Allah, Revealer of the Book, Swift in reckoning, defeat the confederates. O Allah, defeat them and shake them.
O Allah, suffice me against them as You will.
Translation notes
بمَا شِئْت
The witness adds the gloss ‘(i.e. protect)’; the Arabic simply says ‘suffice me against them as You will.’
Should ‘protect’ be added as an interpretive gloss?
He seeks refuge in Allah. He stops dwelling on those doubts.
Translation notes
يَنْتَهِي عَمَّا شك فِيهِ
The witness changes the third-person statement into an instruction: ‘you should desist from doing what you are in doubt about.’
Should the Arabic declarative form be retained, or rendered as an instruction as in the witness?
He recites the words of Allah, the Most High: “He is the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden, and He is Knowing of all things.”
Translation notes
يقرأ قوله تعالى ((هُوَ الأوَّلُ، وَالآخِـرُ، وَالظّـاهِـرُ، وَالْبـاطِـنُ، وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَيءٍ عَلـيم))
The witness renders al-Zahir as Most High and al-Batin as Most Near; the Arabic names are more directly the Manifest and the Hidden.
Which renderings of these divine names should be used in this verse?
يقرأ قوله تعالى ((هُوَ الأوَّلُ، وَالآخِـرُ، وَالظّـاهِـرُ، وَالْبـاطِـنُ، وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَيءٍ عَلـيم))
The witness adds in Arabic after the verse translation; the source does not specify a language.
Should in Arabic be added though it is absent from the source?
O Allah, suffice me by means of what You have made lawful instead of what You have forbidden, and enrich me by Your bounty so that I need none besides You.
O Allah, I seek refuge in You from worry and grief, incapacity and laziness, miserliness and cowardice, the burden of debt, and being overpowered by people.
I seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the accursed, and spit lightly to your left three times.
Translation notes
أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ،
The witness adds ‘Say:’ and describes the following act as blowing with a little spittle; it also specifies ‘reciting in Arabic’ for the repetition. The Arabic states the refuge phrase and spitting to the left three times.
Should the witness’s imperative framing and added language instruction be included?
O Allah, nothing is easy except what You make easy, and You make what is difficult easy whenever You will.
Translation notes
وَأَنْتَ تَجْعَلُ الْحَزْنَ إِذَا شِئْتَ سَهْلاً
The witness renders al-ḥazn as ‘sorrow’; it can also mean something difficult or hard, which fits the contrast with ease.
Should al-ḥazn here be rendered as sorrow or as difficulty/hardship?