O Allah, I seek refuge with Your pleasure from Your wrath, and with Your pardon from Your punishment, and I seek refuge with You from You. I cannot enumerate praise of you; You are as You have praised Yourself

Explanation

‘Ā’ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) said: I was sleeping beside the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him), and I could not find him at night. I touched the place where he used to pray in the room with my hand and found him prostrating with his feet erect, and he was saying: (I seek refuge with) and appeal to (Your pleasure from Your wrath) over me or over my Ummah, (and) I seek refuge (with Your pardon) and Your abundant forgiveness (from Your punishment), (And I seek refuge with You from You) and with the attributes of Your beauty from the attributes of Your majesty, as none can grant protection from You except You, and there is no shelter and no refuge from Allah except in Allah. (I cannot enumerate praise of You), and I am incapable and cannot list or count it because of my inability to enumerate Your favor and benevolence in a way that befits You no matter how hard I try. (You are as You have praised Yourself) as it is You Who have praised Yourself in a way that befits You, so who could praise You duly?!

Benefits

• It is recommended to recite these supplications during the prostration.
• Mirak said: One of the versions by An-Nasā’i reads: He used to say this supplication after finishing his prayer and going to bed.
• It is recommended to praise Allah by His Attributes and supplicate Him by His Names which are established in the Qur’an and the Sunnah.
• It denotes glorifying the Creator in Rukū‘ (bowing) and Sujūd ( prostration).
• Seeking refuge with the attributes of Allah is permissible just as it is permissible to seek refuge with His essence.
• Al-Khattābi said: This speech bears a subtle meaning, which is: He sought refuge with Allah to protect him from His wrath by His pleasure and from His punishment by His pardon, bearing in mind that "pleasure" and "wrath" are two opposites and the same applies to "pardon" and "punishment." However, upon mentioning what does not have an opposite, namely Allah Almighty, he sought refuge with none but Him from Him. This means: Seeking Allah's forgiveness for falling short of fulfilling His worship duly and praising Him. His statement: I cannot enumerate praise of You, i.e., I am incapable of doing so and cannot attain it.