better than I, O Allah, forgive me for my jest and my earnestness, my inadvertent and my deliberate wrongs—all of that is with me. O Allah, forgive me what I have sent ahead and what I will do later, what I have hidden and what I have made public; there is no god but You.”

In the two Ṣaḥīḥ collections it is related that Abū Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, said:

“O Messenger of Allah, teach me a supplication I may recite in my prayer.”

He replied: “Say: O Allah, I have wronged myself greatly, and none forgives sins but You; so grant me forgiveness from You and have mercy on me. Truly, You are the All-Forgiving, the Merciful.”

And in the Sunan collections it is reported from Abū Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, that he said:

“O Messenger of Allah, teach me a supplication to say when I rise in the morning and when I enter the evening.”

He said: “Say: O Allah, Creator of the heavens and the earth, Knower of the unseen and the visible, Lord and Sovereign of all things, I testify that there is no god but You. I seek refuge in You from the evil of my own soul and from the evil of Satan and his snares, and that….”