O God, Praised and Holy! O God, Merciful and Kind! Remove us from difficulties by Thy grace and favor. Verily, Thou art Merciful and Kind.
The Bab, quoted in Nasa’im al-rahman, 5. English-speaking Baha’is know this prayer from the song “Allahumma,” after the first word of the prayer, meaning “O God!” The phrase “remove us from difficulties” is an imperative, farrij, derived from the same Arabic root and form as the “remover of difficulties,” mufarrij, mentioned in the Bab’s prayer of that name.
The transliteration of the original Arabic of “Allahumma,” with a literal translation, is as follows:
allahumma [O God] ya subbuhu [O praised one] ya quddusu [O holy] ya rahmanu [O merciful] ya mannanu [O kind one]. farrij [comfort] lana [for us] bil-fadli [by grace] wa’l-ihsani [and favor]. innaka [truly, you are] rahmanun [merciful] mannanun [kind].
The musical version Baha’is are familiar with was written by a Persian and is usually performed by a Persian singer, which accounts for a number of differences from the Arabic text. Here’s a representative example:
Allahumma yá Subúhun yá Quddus yá Hannánu yá Mannán. Farrij Laná Bi’l-Fazli Va’l-Ihsán. Innaka Rahmanu Mannán. (source)
Nice subtle difference between the "remover of difficulty" prayers. Just flip the words a little bit, and a whole new meaning is born.
i love that prayer i learned it when i was 6 with an old iranian bahai lady, Goli, in my city (tours in france). I sing it every time i have the opportunity I did it yesterday at the 19d feat
Thank you Will. Do you know where one could find the original Arabic for this and for the Remover of Difficulties?
Nice work in explaining the root of Farrig and translation word for word. We'll be using this prayer in the Baha`i school. Thanks for all your efforts.
Allah-u-Abha! Thank you so much for this explanation!
The original prayer in Arabic exists. And the word is Merciful in the original text.. ( Used twice in the original prayer). In the Song they changed it. So it is not a replica of the prayer.
They shouldn't change words to prayers. But in songs that often happens.