Supplication for Care, Mercy and Love: Quranic Supplications 7

During Ramadan 2023, Sheikh Faraz Rabbani gave a series of daily video talks on supplications in the Quran. This series of articles are drawn from those talks and the related eBook. This eighth article is about asking for care, mercy and love. The video series can be viewed here.

رَبَّنَا لَا تُؤَاخِذْنَآ إِن نَّسِينَآ أَوْ أَخْطَأْنَا ۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تَحْمِلْ عَلَيْنَآ إِصْرًۭا كَمَا حَمَلْتَهُۥ عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِنَا ۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تُحَمِّلْنَا مَا لَا طَاقَةَ لَنَا بِهِۦ ۖ وَٱعْفُ عَنَّا وَٱغْفِرْ لَنَا وَٱرْحَمْنَآ ۚ أَنتَ مَوْلَىٰنَا فَٱنصُرْنَا عَلَى ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلْكَـٰفِرِينَ

“O Lord, take us not to task if we forget, or make an honest mistake. O Lord, nor place upon us a binding hard burden as You did on those ever before us. Nor then requite us with what we have no strength to bear. But pardon us, forgive us, and show us bounteous mercy, You are our One Supreme Master. So give us triumph over the people of the unbelievers.” [Quran, 2:286]

This supplication closes the longest chapter of the Quran, Surat al-Baqara. It is part of the last three verses that our Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, encouraged us to recite every night, and himself recited every night when he woke up for his night worship or before he went to sleep. 

They contain within them both a commitment to faith and our relationship with God, and a commitment that – سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا – “we hear and we obey.” But we also ask Allah for his mercy. These are declarations of our need and our confidence in Allah.

Mercy Is Near

We say: رَبَّنَا لَا تُؤَاخِذْنَآ إِن نَّسِينَآ أَوْ أَخْطَأْنَا – “O Lord, do not take us to task if we forget or we err and do not cause us to bear burdens that we cannot bear.” Why? Because it is Allah himself who teaches us that “I promise you that I will overlook your forgetting. I will overlook your errors.” That “I will not impose on you a burden that you cannot bear, but seek My mercy because it is near.” 

Then we say:  وَٱعْفُ عَنَّا – “overlook our sins.” وَٱغْفِرْ لَنَا – “and forgive us.” Wipe them away. “And have great mercy upon us” – وَٱعْفُ عَنَّا وَٱغْفِرْ لَنَا وَٱرْحَمْنَآ – “grant us all good.” أَنتَ مَوْلَىٰنَا – “You are our caring guardian and master.” فَٱنصُرْنَا – “So grant us victory,” عَلَى ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلْكَـٰفِرِينَ – “over those enemies who are out there against us.” These are the enemies from without and within: our fears and misgivings and negative self talk, all of it. We ask for victory from Allah, then we proceed with certitude.

Remember, this supplication is one about which the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Whoever recites the closing verses of Surat al-Baqara at night, there is sufficiency for them. There is reward and blessing in reciting them.” 

There is transformation and change in state and condition if we mean it, if we feel it, and if we live it. Let us be of those people.

Praise be to Allah, Lord of all the worlds.