Mustadrak al-Hakim — Hadith 1205

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) that he was sitting with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) when Sayyiduna Ali bin Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) came and said: May my father and mother be sacrificed for you, O Messenger of Allah! This Qur'an slips away from my breast; I find I am not able to retain it. So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him: "O Abu al-Hasan! Shall I not teach you words by which Allah will benefit you, and benefit those whom you teach, and by which what you learn will be preserved in your breast?" He said: Yes, O Messenger of Allah! Please do teach me. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "When it is the night of Friday, if you are able to get up in the last third of the night, then do get up, for it is a time at which the angels are present and supplication is answered. It is the very time about which my brother Ya'qub (peace be upon him) said to his sons: 'I will soon ask my Lord to forgive you' [Surah Yusuf: 98], meaning until the night of Friday came. If you are not able to get up at that time, then get up in the middle of the night; and if you cannot do even that, then get up at the beginning of the night. Then pray four rak'ahs in this way: in the first rak'ah recite Surah al-Fatihah and Surah Ya-Sin; in the second, Surah al-Fatihah and Surah al-Sajdah; in the third, Surah al-Fatihah and Surah al-Dukhan; and in the fourth rak'ah, Surah al-Fatihah and Surah al-Mulk. When you have finished the tashahhud, praise and glorify Allah, send blessings upon me and upon all the prophets, seek forgiveness for your believing brothers who preceded you in faith, then ask forgiveness for all the believing men and women, and at the end of that say this supplication: 'Allahumma rhamni bi-tarki al-ma'asi abadan ma abqaytani, wa rhamni an atakallafa ma la ya'nini, wa rzuqni husna al-nazari fima yurdika 'anni. Allahumma badi'a al-samawati wa al-ard, dha al-jalali wa al-ikram, wa al-'izzati allati la turam, as'aluka ya Allahu ya Rahmanu bi-jalalika wa nuri wajhika an tulzima qalbi hifza kitabika kama 'allamtani, wa rzuqni an atluwahu 'ala al-nahwi alladhi yurdika 'anni. Allahumma badi'a al-samawati wa al-ard, dha al-jalali wa al-ikram, wa al-'izzati allati la turam, as'aluka ya Allahu ya Rahmanu bi-jalalika wa nuri wajhika an tunawwira bi-kitabika basari, wa an tutliqa bihi lisani, wa an tufarrija bihi 'an qalbi, wa an tashraha bihi sadri, wa an tushghila bihi badani, fa-innahu la yu'inuni 'ala al-haqqi ghayruka, wa la yu'tihi illa ant, wa la hawla wa la quwwata illa billahi al-'aliyyi al-'azim' (O Allah! Have mercy on me by my abandoning sins for as long as You keep me alive; have mercy on me so that I do not burden myself with what does not concern me; and grant me the good insight by which You become pleased with me. O Allah, Originator of the heavens and the earth, Possessor of majesty and honour, and of might that none can aspire to! O Allah, O Most Merciful, I ask You by Your majesty and the light of Your Face to bind my heart to the preservation of Your Book as You have taught me, and grant me that I recite it in the manner that makes You pleased with me. O Allah, Creator of the heavens and the earth, Possessor of majesty and honour, and of might that none can reach! O Allah, O Most Merciful, I ask You by Your majesty and the light of Your Face to illuminate my sight through Your Book, to make my tongue fluent by it, to remove through it the tightness of my heart, to open my breast, and to occupy my body in acting upon it; for none can help me upon the truth except You, and none can grant it except You; and there is no power to avoid sin and no strength to do good except with Allah, the Most High, the Most Great). O Abu al-Hasan! Do this for three, five or seven Fridays, and by Allah's leave your supplication will be answered. By the One who sent me with the truth! It has never failed any believer." Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) says: By Allah! Only five or seven Fridays had passed when Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) again came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in a gathering like that one and said: O Messenger of Allah! Previously my state was that I could not even memorise four verses or thereabouts, and they would slip away; but today I memorise about forty verses, and when I recite them it is as if the Book of Allah is before my eyes. And previously I would hear a hadith and forget it, but now I hear hadiths, and when I narrate them not a single letter of them is missing. At that point the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him: "O Abu al-Hasan! By the Lord of the Ka'bah, you are a believer."
This hadith is sahih (authentic) on the condition of the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim), but they did not record it.