<p>The forty prayers in this book were originally inspired by the <em>Munajat</em> &mdash; &ldquo;whispered prayers,&rdquo; or &ldquo;intimate conversations with God&rdquo; &mdash; of the 12^th Century Persian Sufi, Abdullah Ansari. Intimate prayer like this suits the sensibility of Sufis &mdash; Ibn Arabi, Rumi, Hafez and many others became masters of it. On the one hand praying in this manner is love-talk evoking the nearness of divine reality, and on the other hand it can&rsquo;t help but go mute as it points to the unspeakable majesty of the Real. It&rsquo;s a form of prayer that endears at the same time that it is in awe.</p>

<p>These prayers were written over a period of forty dawns as part of a practice (called a <em>chilla</em> in our tradition) that I gave myself. Writing them didn&rsquo;t feel to me like writing in the usual way &mdash; it was more like waiting. Waiting and listening. Then my heart would start whispering and I&rsquo;d try to write it down. Often when a prayer came to its end I&rsquo;d find it bewildering, and not very well written. I&rsquo;d do my best to close my notebook then and not fuss with it. Coming back to them later I&rsquo;d begin to hear what they were trying to say. My hope in sharing them with you is that they may do that for you too.</p>

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