A Muslim Prayer for Hiroshima

70 years ago, an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima killed 140,000 people out of a total population of 350,000. By dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and then Nagasaki, the US and Allied forces effectively ended World War Two. My school teachers and textbooks always seemed to gloss over the hundreds of thousands of Japanese people who “met the A-bomb.”

But I don’t buy the argument that the bomb was necessary to end the war.

The Quran teaches that if  one life is taken, it is as if all humankind is killed and if one life is saved, it is as if all humankind is saved. Today, as we are engaged in armed conflicts around the world, these hundreds of thousands of souls must not be forgotten.

Today, I remember them and pray for solace, strength, and peace.

Oh Allah, unite our hearts
and set right our mutual affairs,
guide us in the path of peace.

Liberate us from darkness by Your light,
save us from enormities whether open or hidden.

Bless us in our ears, eyes, hearts, spouses, and children.
Turn to us; truly you are Oft-Returning, Most Merciful.

Make us grateful for Your bounty and full of praise for it,
so that we may continue to receive it
and complete Your blessings upon us.

*

Oh Allah, I beg of you pardon and safety.

Oh Allah, I beg of You useful knowledge
and acceptable deeds.

O Allah, impart to our earth its blessings,
its embellishment, and its repose.

*

Oh Allah, Your forgiveness is vaster than my sins
and Your compassion is more promising than my actions.

 Oh Allah, make me patient and grateful to You
and make me look small in my own eyes
and great in the sight of others.

*

I invoke the perfect words of Allah
from which neither a good person
nor a bad one can escape

for protection against any evil
that may come down from the sky or rise up to it

and any evil that may be planted in the earth
or spring forth from it

against the evil of the tests of the night
and the tests of the day

and the evil of the happenings of night and day
save only the happening that brings good

Most Beneficent One!

Amen, Remover of Difficulties!

*From the prayer collection, “The Mighty Fortress” by Muhammad al-Jazri, completed during the siege of Damascus 9 December 1389