A Persian Book of Prayers – 2nd Edition | Abdulkarim Soroush

From the introduction of the book:

I have gathered these Persian prayers, to empower Persian-speaking devotees to call on their God in their own language, using eloquent wording and language used by poets such as Ghazali, Nezami, Rumi, Sa’di, Jami, Baba Afzal, Mibdhi, and Feyz Kashani. Worshippers can memorize these prayers like sacred blessings and recite them every now and then. I have witnessed fellow believers become weary of reading Arabic prayers that they do not understand and thus failed to put their heart into them. They miss out on the pleasure or comfort that Arabic-speakers might find in them, and they fall short of experiencing the transforming energy/cathartic cleansing and peacefulness that we hope for in prayer.

Prayer is something that needs to come from the heart and not only the tongue, which cannot be fully expressed except in one’s native language. Even translations, when poorly done, are only a band-aid solution. The remedy I see flows in the clear waters of the mother tongue, which is the best interpreter of the heart. I hope that this collection can be a meaningful contribution.