quotations from the Mishkatu'l-Masabih will show this. In the Book on Mosques and Places of Prayer ¹ it is stated, on the authority of Fatima, daughter of Husain (who said she had it from her grandmother Fatima, Muhammad's own daughter) that whenever Muhammad entered the Mosque he said, 'My Lord, pardon me my offences and open to me the doors of thy mercy,' and that when he came out he said, 'My Lord, pardon me my offences and open to me the doors of thy grace.' At-Tirmidhi thinks that the granddaughter misunderstood what her grandmother said, but many similar passages confirm this tradition. Thus in the Book of Prostrations, 'Ayisha ² says that Muhammad used often to say: 'By thy praise, O God, pardon me.' In the Book of Adoration 'Ayisha ³ relates that one night she heard Muhammad in his prayer saying: 'O God, verily I take refuge in thy good pleasure from thy displeasure, and in thy forgivenesses from thy punishing: I take refuge from thee in thee.' In the Book of what he used to say when he rose after the night 'Ayisha states ⁴ that he said: 'O God, I seek pardon of thee for my offence, and I ask of thee thy mercy.' In the same page of the Mishkat. Shuraiqu'l-Hauzani says that 'Ayisha told him that, when he awoke, Muhammad used to repeat ten ⁵ times the words,

'I ask pardon of God.' In the Book of Asking Pardon, the very first tradition is taken from Al-Bukhari, who tells us, on the authority of Abu Huraira, ¹ that Muhammad said: 'By God, verily I indeed ask pardon of God and repent (return) towards Him more than seventy times in the day.' In the Book of the Petitions ² at the Fixed Times, 'Ali says that Muhammad, on mounting a beast to ride, said: 'Verily I have wronged my own soul, therefore pardon thou me, for indeed none pardoneth offences except thee.' In the Book which collects the Petition,' the first tradition recorded is from Abu Musa'l-Ash'ari, who relates ³ that Muhammad used to pray as follows: 'O God, pardon me my sin and my ignorance and my excess in my affair, and what thou knowest better than I do: O God, pardon me my seriousness and my joking and my missing the mark and my aim, and all that is with me: ⁴ O God, pardon me what I have done first and what I have done last, and what I have kept secret and what I have made public, and what thou knowest better than I do.' It will suffice to quote but one more of these traditions. In the Book of Reckoning and Requital and the Balance 'Ayisha ⁵ narrates that she heard Muhammad in one of his prayers say: 'O God, reckon with me an easy reckoning.' She inquired what an easy reckoning was. He replied: 'That He should look