For the discussion of istighfār (seeking divine forgiveness), it is worth turning our attention to Constance Padwick's Muslim Devotions (1961), a work that draws on her intimate acquaintance with hundreds of popular manuals she collected over the course of her nearly forty-year sojourn as a Christian missionary in different parts of the Islamic world. Padwick reads these prayers with the sympathetic eye of a deeply spiritual person and analyses them with the expertise of a scholar well-versed in Arabic, Islam and religious studies. Particularly relevant is her beautifully written chapter ‘Worship of Penitence’, on the central role of istighfār in Islamic prayer rites and popular piety.

The chapter begins with a quotation of the Prophet, speaking about himself: ‘God is my witness that I seek His forgiveness and turn to Him more than seventy times a day’. Allegedly, Muhammad used the simple formula ‘My Lord forgive me, My Lord forgive me’ between the two prostrations of every daily prayer. In ʿAli Zayn al-ʿAbidin's above-cited prayer, God is likewise repeatedly begged to forgive. Although Muslims believe that all prophets and imams are free of sin, they see no contradiction between this dogma and man's – any man's – expression of his servanthood, inadequacy and need for God's forgiveness.

Padwick explains that the Islamic belief in the expiatory power of ‘holy words’ is grounded in the verse ‘O believers, fear God and speak words that hit the mark (qawl sadīd), and He will set right your deeds and forgive you your sins’ (Q. 33: 70–71). Leaning on the above-mentioned prayer manuals, Padwick lists a few more reasons that Muslims refer to when they place their faith in istighfār: the Lord's greatness, His track record of bestowing favour (both arbitrary and in return for penance) and His merciful nature. The latter is reflected in eight of His ninety-nine names: al-Raḥmān, al-Raḥīm, al-Tawwāb, al-Ghafīr, al-Ghaffār, al-Ghafūr, al-ʿAfuww, and al-Raʾūf. God's greatness is evoked no less than a hundred times in a Shiʿi prayer manual, which instructs the devotee to prostrate and cry out: ‘If I am the worst of bond-servants, Thou art the best of Lords! Pardon! Pardon!