الهي الهي يا غفور استغاثة

بغفرانك اللهم من كرب حوبتي

My God, my God, O All-Forgiving, I cry for help

through Your forgiveness, O God, from the anguish of my sin.

الهي اكتسبت الاثم جهلاً وغرة

بعافية من فضل ربي ونعمة

My God, I incurred sin in ignorance and heedlessness,

amid well-being from my Lord’s bounty and blessing.

فكم نعمة أسبغتها قل عندها

لحقك شكري قابلتها خطيئتي

How many a blessing You lavished—how scant beside it

was the gratitude I owed You; my sin repaid it instead!

تبادرني من كل نعمى بخيرها

فأقوى بهذا الخير في شر خصلة

You hasten to me with the goodness of every blessing,

so through this goodness I grow stronger in the worst of traits.

فيا ويلتا مما جنيت وليته

جناء زكا مني ونفساً تزكت

Ah, woe to me for what I have reaped! Would that it were

a pure harvest from me, and a soul that had purified itself.

تذرعت بالنعمى إلى درك كفرها

وأشنع بها من خسة ودنية

I made blessing my means of attaining ingratitude for it—

and how hideous it is, such baseness and vileness!

عبيدك باستغفاره واعترافه

عقيدته في النفس نيطت بتهمة

Your lowly servant, in his plea for pardon and his confession—

his conviction concerning his own soul is bound to suspicion.

وامتن أسباب النجا أصدق الرجا

وإلا فدون الدرك جد المجدة

And the surest means of salvation is the sincerest hope;

otherwise, the striver’s zeal falls short of attainment.

ومن أرسل الآمال نحو مبرها

تعالى حباها واجبات المبرة

And whoever sends his hopes toward the One who fulfills them—

exalted is He—He grants them the unfailing gifts of kindness.

ولم تبرح الغفران نفس بكسبها

ولكنه التوفيق فاض بمنة

And no soul, through its own deeds, has escaped the need for forgiveness;

but it is divine aid, poured forth as a favor.

بما يقتضي الجود الالهي نجني

فما الشأن إلا محض جود الألوهة

As divine generosity requires, save me,

for it is nothing but the sheer generosity of the Divine.