The following sentences are taken from the Munajat or Intimate Conversations of Khwaja Abdullah Ansari (1006–1088).  There are brief, highly personal expressions of a conversational nature, and they were not written as a single work, but were collected from various sources by his students, and have probably undergone many editorial changes through centuries of re-copying. Ansari’s attitude is that of a faithful servant of long standing addressing his master, humble and yet familiar.

O God,
You exist.  I exist not.
Can that which exists not demand something`
from that which exists?
Who am I to do such a thing?

* * *

O God,
You are all.
We are nothing.
You are mindful.
We are heedless.
This is all that needs be said:
Be not strict with us.

* * *

O God,
Even though I am not very obedient,
Still I have no one but you.

* * *

O God,
While you were hidden,
I was all flaw.
When you came forth from the unseen,
I emerged from fault.

Tr. Wheeler M. Thackston