1. A number of our people have narrated from Sahl ibn Ziyad from Ja’far ibn Muhammad from ibn al-Qaddah from his father, Maymun who has said the following: “Abu ‘ Abd Allah, ‘Alayhi al-Salam, has said that whenever Amir al-Mu’minin wanted to take part in a war he would recite the following supplications: “O Lord, You have made a way of Your ways public and have placed Your pleasure in it and have called Your friends toward it. You have made it the most noble of Your ways to You in matters of reward, the most honorable before You in matters of endings and of the most beloved ones before You in terms of its direction. In this way You then purchased the souls of the believing people and their properties in exchange for paradise. They are the believers who fight in the way of Allah, they eliminate the enemy and themselves are killed because of the promise of Allah which is the true promise. O Lord, make me one of those from whom You have purchased in this way their souls and then they made their promise and agreement with You to come true. Make me of those who do not flee from the battle and those who do not disregard their promise, and do not replace me with others. Make me of those who do so in response to Your love and to become closer thereby to You. O Lord, make it to be the end of my deed, and turning of my life to its end. O Lord, grant me therein for Your sake with it a battle, which will make me deserve Your pleasure and remove thereby my sins. O Lord, place me among the living (martyrs) who receive sustenance from You because of the acts of the enemy who is disobedient. Make it happen under the banner of truth and the flag of guidance when advancing to support them (the believers) without turning my back to the enemy, or move around with doubts. O Lord, I seek Your protection in the battle against cowardice in frightening conditions and against weakness during the exchanges with champions. I seek Your protection against the sins that turn good deeds invalid, the sins that feed doubts or make me advance without certainty after which my efforts end in destruction and my deeds become unacceptable.’”